They clamored for her to speak, but she was mystified, puzzled, chagrined.
“I saw them hidden there!” she said.
“Then somebody’s dug ’em up!” was the disgusted statement. “Somebody seen ’em hid here, and dug ’em up; and where they aire now ther Lord knows; but we’ve seen the last of them em’rulds, unless the young lady is lyin’.”
They stared at her, and at Black John, who stood in front of her.
“Mebbe we kin hit the trail of the feller that done it?” Black John suggested. He set to work to do that, but pointed out the trail of the scouts, instead of his own.
He could afford to laugh at these men, now that he had the gems. He was already wondering how he was to get away from them, and take the girl with him.
CHAPTER XL.
CODY AND NOMAD.
Buffalo Bill had seen the movements of the outlaws under Black John, and had discovered the ambush laid for him on the hillside. He had heard the outcry made when Nomad escaped, and then he had caught a glimpse of the old trapper getting away, with his shaggy-headed horse.
The great scout was too wise to show himself; he was but one man, and the road agents numbered nearly a score. He was already satisfied that they were the mustangers, or that some of them were, and that the mustang catching was but a side issue, carried on chiefly for the purpose of blinding people to their real work.
The fact that old Nomad seemed to be dragged by his horse, instead of riding on the back of the animal, suggested trouble for the old man, though the scout did not understand the nature of it.