“Yes, that is my name,” he answered.
The horseman rode near; then he saw before him a man he had once noticed in the Flash Light Saloon, a man whose face and nose were very red as if from much drinking.
“Ho, ho!” cackled this man. “This is hard riding! I’ve been follerin’ ye fer nigh about an hour, seems to me.”
“What for?” Denton asked suspiciously, and sharply.
“Because of what I know about ye, and what I heard about ye. You’re interested in the rescue of the young lady that has been run away with by an imp o’ Satan who has been goin’ round playin’ a ruffianly Buffalo Bill?”
“Yes.” Denton was puzzled. How did this man know so much?
“Well, I’m Sile Deland. I’ve been puttin’ up at the boardin’ house over the Flash Light. I was gittin’ a horse fer myself when I seen you git that’n and cut out. And I follered ye.”
“What for?” Denton wondered if this man was to be trusted. He knew nothing about him.
“Because I’m a human bein’, and so am naturally int’rested in the capture of the same man that you aire; and I didn’t know but that we could hunt together, like a pair o’ wolves, say; and maybe I could help you, and you could help me.”
“You know something about that man?” Denton asked.