As soon as their permanent camp was gained, in the Sepulcher Mountains, the outlaws began to put it in order for a fight or a siege.
The place was a cuplike hollow, with a pass running through it. If an enemy could gain and hold both ends of that pass the outlaws could only escape by scaling the mountains. But, on the other hand, if the outlaws barricaded those entrances into the valley and stationed a force of riflemen behind the barricades, the troopers who climbed over them would have the fight of their lives to accomplish it.
Tn spite of the pain of his wound and his feverishness, Snaky Pete personally superintended the strengthening of the barricades. He saw that ammunition was properly distributed, and that all arms were put in the best possible condition.
Night was approaching before all the defenses were in condition to suit him. He looked them over carefully, as he walked from point to point, his face swathed in bandages.
“If they climb over them,” he thought grimly, “there’ll be more dead troopers than live ones. When Snaky Pete gits his back to the wall, he fights, and they’ll find it out.”
CHAPTER XIII.
PEERLESS AS A SCOUT.
Buffalo Bill and the troopers from Fort Thompson struck the foothills of the Sepulcher Mountains at daybreak, and were thus able to get under cover of the scrub that fringed them, and out of sight of any spies and scouts that Snaky Pete might have sent out.
It had been a hard night’s ride to accomplish this, but it was worth the exertion.
Buffalo Bill was sure that the road agents had changed their position since he saw them last. Hence, the first thing to do was to locate them in their new position.
In spite of the tremendous strain he had been under for so long, he undertook to do this himself; and he left the troopers in camp in a grassy nest within the foothills, but close up to the base of the Sepulcher range.