There was no answer.
Buffalo Bill rode close to her horse, struck by a sudden fear.
She was not on the horse!
“Good Heaven,” he cried to Wild Bill, “the girl isn’t here!”
“No?” Wild Bill was equally astonished.
“No, she isn’t here; and I was sure all the time she was with us.”
“She fell from her horse in the rush and crush,” said Wild Bill, surprised and troubled.
They sat listening.
The yells of Ben Stevens had died away, and now the Indians were yelling to each other, for they were beginning to discover that they had been in a foolish panic.
There were no charging troopers near, so far as they could discover; at least, no large body of them; otherwise, as they knew, the troopers would have pursued, and would have been pistoling and sabering right in their midst. But even yet they did not know just what had happened.