CHAPTER XLI.
WONDERS OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN.
On the appointed day Buffalo Bill and the pards who accompanied him on the previous trip rode northward to visit the “Daughter of the Moon.” On the way out the pards wondered if the “Queen of the Stars” would be there to greet them, or were they going on a fool’s errand?
No one was in sight as they approached the butte which the Indians called “Sacred Mountain.” They rode entirely around the cone and scanned the plain in all directions. Not a living thing was to be seen besides the birds and a solitary antelope a mile away.
“What d’ye say ter thet, Buffler?” asked Nomad.
“I think we had better put our horses down in the crevasse, where they can’t be seen from the plain, and then hang out here and smoke and wait.”
The horses were snugly corralled in the rock-bound fissure, where a savage ten rods distant could not discover them. It was an ideal hiding place, and half a dozen well-armed men could defend it against a regiment.
“Suppose I blow ‘general’ on my bugle?” suggested Tootsie, when arrangements had been completed.
“Go ahead, if you please,” said the scout.
Five minutes after the bugle call, Miss Mona appeared at the top of the mountain. She waved her hand in greeting and then disappeared.
The pards wondered what the next move would be, when the girl suddenly came out from among the horses and said: