The woman looked about the room, then fixed her eyes on Buffalo Bill, though she gave a glance now and then in the direction of the sheriff.
“I think I can guess what Mr. Shepard is here for,” she said, making her beginning. “It concerns the escape of Juniper Joe from prison.”
“You’ve hit the nail straight on the head, madam,” Shepard admitted. “That’s a thing that’s worryin’ me a whole lot right now.”
He was trying to study the face of the woman, as he had an idea that she bore him no good will, for the reason that he had held her in Blossom Range at a time when she was very anxious to get away.
But the study of her face could not reveal much. The paint and powder were laid on too thick for that. Her abundant hair was blondined, or false—perhaps both. But artificial as she was in appearance, she seemed at the moment at least to be in earnest.
“I think I can perhaps give information of value,” she declared, “if I am assured that I shall be shielded.”
“I think we can promise that, so far as the men in this room are concerned,” the scout assured her.
“I don’t know that Mr. Shepard will be likely to think that anything I say can be believed,” she said. “He remembers that I lied to him when I was brought back from Calumet Wells; but I wanted to get away, then, and so thought I had cause for lying. But in this case it’s different. I’ve got a good reason for telling the truth.”
She turned to Buffalo Bill.