“Did you get a look at the face of any one of them?” Pawnee Bill asked.
“They were masked.”
“What kind of horses did they ride?”
“I don’t know; Indian ponies, it seems to me.”
“And they went south?”
“Yes; toward the mountains.”
Lena declared her belief that the road agents had taken young Clayton because they had received word in some manner of the emeralds, and believed he was carrying them.
“When they discover their mistake,” she said, “they may kill him!” She looked appealingly at Buffalo Bill. “I risked my life to save you from the fire, Mr. Cody,” she reminded; “and now I ask in return that you help me to rescue Bruce from the hands of those men, if it can be done. It must be done, if he is not slain by them at once, or as soon as they find he hasn’t the emeralds.”
Buffalo Bill was ready to give her the promise asked.
“One of us will go with you to the railroad, or back to Glendive,” he said; “and the others will follow the outlaws as fast as possible.”