CHAPTER XVIII.
AN ASSASSIN AT WORK.
The disappearance of Baron von Schnitzenhauser and Vera Bright filled Buffalo Bill and Nomad with so much uneasiness that they instituted a thorough search for them, but without avail. They had dropped out of sight completely. All that was known, was that the woman had returned to her work at the Casino, and had disappeared; and that the baron, set to shadow the Casino and Gopher Gabe’s, had also vanished.
Buffalo Bill sent for the sheriff, Matt Shepard; and laid the facts before him.
“You may not want to think so, Shepard,” said the scout; “but Gopher Gabe is at the bottom of this. So, as you’re on talking terms with him, I want you to tell him, as coming straight from me, that he had better drop this business. Tell him that I know he is holding the baron and the woman; and that it’s up to him to let them go, and right off.”
“Which, if he don’t,” added Nomad, in a rasping voice, “thar’ll be a dead saloon keeper purty prompt in this hyar town!”
“You’d better not say that to him, right now,” advised the scout, speaking to Shepard, “but give it to him hard, that he is making a fool of himself. Tell him it shows he must be in with the blackleg gang that has been running the robbery-and-murder mill round here lately, and that he ought to know what the end will be for the members of that gang.”
Matt Shepard went over to Gopher Gabe’s.
The saloon keeper was in his usual place, wiping off the sloppy bar with a damp cloth. He looked white-faced and worried.
The sheriff delivered Buffalo Bill’s message.