Panther Pete led that night pursuit of the girl as well as he could; and he cursed her and himself with fiery anger, calling himself a fool for being so kind to her and so careless, and calling her by epithets she would have blushed to hear.
When daylight came this pursuit was still being carried on, but it had lost its first force, and was conducted by the men as an almost aimless search of the country close about the entrance to the hidden valley.
After the sun rose Panther Pete took it up again himself, giving earnest orders to his men, and instructions as to how to use the dogs. Then he set forth alone, looking for the trail in what he thought the most likely places, following along the narrow path that led directly away from the valley entrance.
This took him by and by across the trail which led from the outer plains toward the “trap” where his sharpshooters were at the moment in hiding and to which his “stool pigeons” were at the time conducting the men whom they had fallen in with—Buffalo Bill and his pard, and young Denton and Silas Deland.
The scouts with their prisoner were coming along that trail, guided by Garland. They were wide awake and wary.
Garland had undertaken as difficult a thing as he had ever attempted, in trying to lead these experienced plainsmen into that trap.
At intervals Buffalo Bill rode his horse to the top of some hill or ridge, and from these higher elevations surveyed the surrounding country with his field glass. While thus engaged, he beheld a horseman, some distance away.
When he leveled the glass on this horseman, he was given a genuine surprise, for the man was Panther Pete, and he resembled the scout in his general appearance and make-up so strongly that Buffalo Bill knew he was looking on his counterpart—on Panther Pete, the rascal who had played his desperate game so successfully that for a long time he had deceived the whole country as to his real identity.
The scout’s anger rose as he looked at that man. Then he came to the quick determination to capture the rascal, if it could be done.
He moved back, and, dismounting, tied his horse; then crept forward.