Winfield meanwhile had placed Haskell on guard at the outer door of the hacienda, while he went in to relieve Lone Star Sam and Frank.
These came into the large sleeping room, and while Lone Star calmly went to bed, Mustang Frank joined Pinto Paul at the fire, remarking:
“I’m with you, pard, for I always was scared of a danger I couldn’t see.”
“Me, too.”
“This old rookery is a graveyard from ’way back, and, you bet, ghosts are on the prowl this night, for they’ve invited no company, and don’t keep a hotel for men in the flesh, such as we are. Just listen to that music, will you?”
Weird sounds rang through the hacienda.
When Buffalo Bill had gone into the corridor he had intended to relieve Lone Star and Mustang Frank. But when he visited the spot where Texas Jack was on guard he thought that the entrance to the ranch was the best place for him, after he had heard the Texan’s report. He knew if the cattle and horses were restless some one was causing them to be so by prowling about among them, and in some way exciting them.
If that “some one” could only stampede the whole lot, causing them to break through the gateway, then he and his scouts would be in a bad way indeed.
It was true that the gateway had been repaired, but not as well as was intended, for timber would have to be cut and hauled there to make it secure, and a rush of steers would break down the barrier that was there.