“Waugh! I’d like jes’ erbout ther same time with thet pardner o’ his. But, say, Neighbor Avery, yore eyes aire some better’n gimlet holes, I take et—what du ye call thet thar percession ’bout five p’ints ter ther north o’ yer upper haystack?”
“It’s a party on hossback—one, two—eight, little an’ big, makin’ this way.”
“What d’ye reckon, neighbor?”
“I ain’t no guesser huntin’ for a record, but I’m willin’ to predict it’s some rancher over east that’s been raided by Injuns an’ makin’ for some other ranch or the nearest settlement with what’s left.”
Half an hour later old Nomad was dancing merrily and waving his old slouch hat as Buffalo Bill, Hickok, Little Cayuse, a sickly-looking man, a woman, a boy, and two girls rode up.
It was the Corey family, whom Buffalo Bill had offered to accompany to some spot more secure against the attacks of roving bands of Indians, or, rather, bands making for the Bad Lands to join Sitting Bull’s war party. They were warmly greeted by young Avery and his father, and invited to take up their home there for the present.
Avery assured his visitors that two or three men could defend the place against ten times their number of hostile red men, and that he would call in his cowboys and herds to closer quarters.
Corey’s herd with two cowboys were working that way and would reach the section sometime the next day. Avery promptly suggested that the herds be consolidated and at least one of the cowboys left always at the ranch for the protection of the non-combatants.
This arrangement gave vast relief to the Coreys, who had been thoroughly scared by the attack upon their home, and it also relieved the minds of Buffalo Bill and his pards, who disliked to leave the woman and children exposed to the venom of the first outfit of red marauders who happened to cross that way.
The scout accepted the hospitality of the rancher for the night, and with his pards set off early next morning on the trail of Price and Bloody Ike.