Buffalo Bill’s fine face grew stern as death, but it was to force back the flood of feeling that rushed upon him, and Doc Stevens hastily drew his sleeve across his eyes.
“Jack, I will atone all I can for my evil past, I will tell you that which will let me die easy in mind, for it will save many from sorrow and suffering, yes, and some lives, too—listen to me while I can talk.”
The scouts walked away, but the dying man recalled Buffalo Bill, who had removed his broad sombrero, as Texas Jack’s fell from his bowed head.
Bold, fearless, reckless fellows that they were, the scouts all saw that their chief was respecting a death scene, even though it was an outlaw that was dying. They beheld the attitude of their lieutenant, Texas Jack, saw that his hand clasped that of the dying man, and they bared their heads in compassion, for they knew that there was some link that bound the two together.
Later came the last words of the dying man:
“Jack, old friend, good-by.”
All heard the words, saw the smile, and then beheld the ashen hue deepen on the face of the dying man, as the end came.
Texas Jack folded the hands upon the breast, and wrapped the white shroudlike robe about the form.
“He was my boyhood friend, pards, and as he asked me to keep his secret it will die with me,” said the Texan. And to his dying day Texas Jack never made known the identity of the outlaw.