Then hats were doffed, the crowd swayed apart, and toward the table where Buffalo Bill still held the miner under cover of his revolver, and the Surgeon Scout stood at bay by his side, glided Bonnie Belle.
She was dressed in a blue dress, trimmed with silver braid, wore a slouch-hat with a heavy sable plume, and carried a revolver in each hand. Behind her came Sandy, the driver of the Overland, and then Scott Kindon, the captain of the Vigilantes.
But, Bonnie Belle neither needed aid nor asked it. Her simple presence commanded respect.
They had deemed her far away in the East, and like an apparition she had glided through the door she always entered by, and her white face, now stern and threatening, showed that she was in no humor to trifle with.
“Ah! Surgeon Powell, it is you, and you also, Buffalo Bill, whom these roughs hold at bay? And for what?”
“I was scouting, Bonnie Belle, and came upon two men, Tom and Jerry they called them, breaking into Deadshot Dean’s cabin. I made them prisoners, brought them here, and the Vigilantes hanged them. To-night this man, whom I have covered, accused me of breaking into the cabin, and he was not long in getting willing hands to hang me, and, but for the coming of Surgeon Powell, it would have been over ere this.”
“And I only checked the trouble for a few minutes, Bonnie Belle, as the men turned upon me, also. I took Buffalo Bill’s trail and followed him here, for somehow I feared he might need aid. You have saved us both by your timely coming, unless these gentlemen wish to push their quarrel to a conclusion.”
But the gentlemen did not seem to be so inclined, or, if they did, the words of Bonnie Belle checked them, for she said sternly:
“No, there will be no trouble here, for the man who raises a weapon against you I will kill. As for you, Pistols, if you ever enter my hotel or this saloon again, I will see that you do not do so a second time. Shuffles, do you hear what I say about this man?”
A silence followed, and, as no answer came, Bonnie Belle called again: