The reason was that he had seen a shadowy, skulking form moving in that course that he believed to be Gorilla Jake.
Jim Betts, quite as much as his brother Bill, was moved most strongly by considerations touching his pocket; he, too, wanted the reward offered for the arrest of Gorilla Jake. If he could get the ape-man soonest by following him now and pouncing on him it was what he wanted to do. Perhaps he could, he thought, make the capture and take Gorilla Jake right on into the town with him.
The thing was too tempting not to try, and he slipped off through the darkness in hasty pursuit of the skulking figure.
The man he was following was really Gorilla Jake, as Betts made sure when the Ute village was approached. He had not been able to come up with him, nor even see him clearly, until the man passed into the light of a small fire glowing before one of the outer tepees of the village.
Betts hastened his steps, but he was too late; for the apelike man flitted on past the fire.
Jim Betts stopped, his heart hammering against his ribs by reason of his rapid pursuit, while a sense of disappointment and anger went through him.
The Utes were either having a powwow near the centre of the village, or were doing a lot of screeching there just because they liked to howl in their present demoralized condition: but the apelike man had not gone in that direction; and, because he had not, and no one was near the tepee or the fire to observe, the daring fellow, who long before had won the title of the Gamecock because of his recklessness, crossed the line into the Ute village, still pursuing the murderer of the mine superintendent.
Once again he caught sight of Gorilla Jake, near another lodge, and scudded in that direction, bending his tall form and running with almost silent feet.
“If I kin lay my hands on the dog I’ll choke the wind out o’ him and manage to git him out of hyer, when, if I kin do that much, you bet I kin git him down to Blossom Range. I could land him in the jail thar while I am attendin’ to the other matter, and hold him in it till I got ready to take him to Sody Springs.”
The Indians were still howling.