CHAPTER III.
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.
When Buffalo Bill arrived with Latimer at the home of the latter on the Crested Mesa, he found a big, rambling building, with many wings, together with a number of other buildings and stables. Close by flowed a stream of water between high and rocky banks, where, Latimer said, his few cattle obtained their water. The place looked deserted.
But a great surprise came to the scout when, on riding up to the big house, he was about to dismount, and a servant came rushing out to take the horses. He stared, open-mouthed, hanging half out of his saddle, for when his eyes fell on this servant he had been swinging to the ground, and that sight had stopped all movement on his part for an instant.
The servant was a wizened little man, with a wide mouth and small, peering eyes. He was dressed in a half-border manner, and a revolver was belted to his waist.
“Nick Nomad!” was the name that came from the scout’s lips.
Old Nick Nomad seemed as much taken aback as Buffalo Bill. He halted in confusion; then laughed in his quaint cackling manner, and advanced toward the horse.
“Yours to command, Buffler!” he cried, spreading his homely mouth in a huge grin. “You didn’t reckon on seein’ me, and I didn’t reckon on seein’ you, and so we’re both properly astonished. But I ain’t a-goin’ to hold it agin’ ye.”
The scout swung to the ground, and seized the little man by the hand, shaking the hand warmly.
“Nomad, I am glad to see you!”
“Ther same hyar, Buffler! I’m as glad to see ye as if I’d run a splinter in my foot. What ye doin’ hyar?”