When the surgeon-scout was guided to the deserted camp by Andrew Seldon, he at once saw that Buffalo Bill had not reached there. But there he was to wait for him, and so the horses were staked out and the two made themselves at home there.
Doctor Powell went to have a look at the grave of Black-heart Bill, and the inscription upon the white bark of the aspen-tree, and said, as he read the name:
"Hugh Mayhew was his name."
"Yes, sir."
"There was a Sergeant Manton Mayhew killed at Fort Faraway by Sergeant Wallace Weston, who was sentenced to be shot for the deed, but escaped the very moment of his execution."
"Was he never captured, sir?"
"Poor fellow, he went to an even worse fate than being shot, for he wandered into the desert and died of starvation there. I knew that he was guilty of killing Manton Mayhew, but I am sure he had some grave reason for so doing, but which he would never make known.
"He was a splendid soldier, brave and true, and he would have been commissioned had not that sad affair occurred."
"Did he give no reason for his act, sir?"
"None; he simply accepted his fate, though it was said to clear himself he would have had to compromise others, and this he would not do."