The scouts had discussed the matter among themselves when out of the place, and off from it, for the chief had warned them about talking when in the hacienda, and, where they could understand that men could have uttered the moans and other sounds, they could not comprehend just how the weeping of a woman and the voice of a child could have been heard.
“Pards, those ghosts must enter here by way of the cliff up yonder, so to-night we’ll put a strong guard there to head them off,” said Buffalo Bill.
And so it was planned for the next night.
Going out to Texas Jack, they saw the dead body, and it was quietly buried; then they took the horse in hand, and soon had him cleverly metamorphosed.
The saddle and bridle were taken into the hacienda and hidden, and all were told that they must utter not a word within the house that they did not wish to be known as there might be eavesdroppers whom they did not wish to know their plans.
This all attended to, Texas Jack went up to the hacienda to report, and that also he had what had been taken from the dead man put away for inspection on the morrow.
There was a guard of four men that night, two in the hacienda, two in the grounds.
Soon after midnight Buffalo Bill was awakened by low groans. Where they came from he could not tell. He arose in the darkness, and tried to trace the sound to its source. But in vain.
Lone Star was on guard in the corridor, but he, too, knew not whence they came.