“Catch me who can!” he muttered. “It will be a long race, and I know where I am going.”
CHAPTER XXVI.
STARTLING NEWS.
Buffalo Bill knew that successful pursuit of Lieutenant Barlow would be difficult. Barlow had a good start, and the night was dark. Nevertheless, after firing that shot intended to arouse the fort, he ran to get his own horse, and found it gone.
He was searching for it when the palisade gate flew open, and Corporal Clendenning and some troopers rode forth, to see what the shooting meant.
The scout called to them.
“I don’t like to make accusations against an officer,” he said, as they joined him, “yet I must ask that an immediate pursuit of Lieutenant Barlow be made; and I will lead, if you will furnish me with a horse. Mine is gone.”
“Lieutenant Barlow!” gasped the amazed Clendenning.
“There is a man out here whom I have captured,” the scout went on. “A man came over the wall from the inside with a girl in his arms, and this man tried to help him. I failed to stop what seemed to be an abduction; the abductor escaped, and took the girl with him. The man who is now my prisoner confessed that the other man was Lieutenant Barlow. The girl is the young lady who was brought here charged with the theft of that nugget. You will, I’m sure, find her gone.”
They gathered round him, with astonished questions.
“But Lieutenant Barlow wouldn’t——”