A loud report sounded, as the revolver was discharged harmlessly into the air.
The girl and Barlow dropped together to the ground, seeming to fall in a heap.
Smallpox Dave, being down, and hardly knowing what he did, caught Buffalo Bill by the ankle, as the scout tried to leap to the aid of the girl. The result was that the scout came down heavily across the body of Smallpox Dave, who wound his arms around Buffalo Bill, and tried to hold him.
The scout smashed his fist into the face of the renegade and tried to wrench loose.
Valuable time was thus lost, and this valuable time Barlow made the most of, by catching the girl up in his arms and running with her straight out from the wall into the darkness.
When Buffalo Bill succeeded in breaking the hold of Smallpox Dave, he leaped to his feet, with the intention of rushing in pursuit of Barlow, but again he was balked by the renegade, who caught him once more by the ankles and tripped him so that he fell sprawling.
Nevertheless, he sprang up and went in pursuit of the vanishing forms as quickly as he could.
But the time lost had been all in favor of Lieutenant Barlow. The darkness was a friendly aid. Buffalo Bill could not now see him, nor, when he stopped to harken, could the scout hear him.
Buffalo Bill dropped flat to the ground, and listened with ear pressed to the earth. The only sounds reaching him were from the direction of the palisade wall. Footsteps were approaching from that direction, which led the scout to think that the man who had so troubled and foiled him there was advancing.
“Gone into hiding,” was his conclusion concerning the man with the girl; “and if he is clever at it, in this darkness he will make trouble.”