From this spot, where he clung to a tree, he turned his field-glass down the pass, and could see the coach standing at the Dead Line, a quarter of a mile away. He saw that the coach had been turned to the right-about, the team being headed back for Last Chance, and Doctor Dick was standing near it, Harding being still on the box and grasping the reins.
Watching, with every nerve strung, the scout saw the masked road-agent appear, and later the fair captive. Then followed two other road-agents bearing the baggage of Celeste Seldon, and soon after the coach started upon its return.
Buffalo Bill could not have reached a point to head it off had he tried, and he felt that he must still be cautious. But he was determined to reach the Dead Line and take up the trail from there, for certainly the road-agents had not allowed Celeste Seldon to walk to the scene of the exchange.
After half an hour he gained a point just over the Dead Line, and from there saw that all was quiet. The outlaws had left, beyond all doubt.
It was an hour before the scout could make his way around to the Dead Line, and there he felt in the little "post-office" for a letter from Harding. But none was there.
"He dared not attempt it," he muttered.
Then taking a leaf from his note-book, he wrote:
"I am again on the trail. I saw the lady returned to you. I will take the outlaws' trail from here, and hope to track them to their lair.
"In a few days, now, I will have the surgeon-scout with me in my work, so the end is not far away.
"Keep me posted as before, as I will you.