Buffalo Bill's Ruse; Or, Won by Sheer Nerve

by Prentiss Ingraham

He had taken that room the day before, had haunted the bar of the Flash Light a good deal since that time, and hinted that he was the wonderful inventor of something that would produce rain. He had not touched much liquor, due doubtless to the fact that his finances were obviously at a low ebb. At least, this was the opinion of Rainey, who sized up the financial ability of every man who came his way.

Rainey had paid little attention to this man, who had signed his name on the boarding-house register as Silas Deland.

Silas Deland had been sitting by that upper window when Buffalo Bill rode up in front of the Flash Light and had been surrounded by the mob, and he had continued to sit there until after the appearance of Wild Bill. He seemed deeply interested in what was occurring, and leaned now and then from the window. After a while he produced a revolver.

Finally he went to the “grip” from which he had taken some cartridges for the revolver, and dug out of it a round object of the size and shape of an egg.

With this in his hand, Silas Deland returned to his post by the window, and again looked down on the mob that surrounded the two prairie pards.

Once or twice he lifted the hand which held the egg-shaped object, as if he meant to hurl it into the midst of that screaming crowd. But he hesitated, and continued to watch and listen until he saw Wild Bill draw his horse around and Buffalo Bill leap to mount behind him. Then the man’s hand went up again, and the white, egg-shaped object shot through the window.

There followed a quick exploding puff at the point where it struck the ground, and out of that exploding puff shot a very rain of fire and smoke. Instantly the street was obscured by the smoke and fire, and the members of the mob fell back, thinking that a bomb had burst in their midst.

There was a quick leap of Wild Bill’s horse, and, as it sprang away through the smoke, two men were mounted on it, and they were the prairie pards.

“Hang tight!” Wild Bill had said, as he drove the spurs deep and the horse made its first wild jump.

It was out in the street and away from the Flash Light Saloon so quickly that the mob did not know it. In fact, the men there were paralyzed for the moment by the strange explosion. They had rushed pell-mell, trampling and pushing, and even treading each other down.