Then the body was lowered into the grave, while Surgeon Powell took up a shovel and said in his deep, sympathetic voice:
“We commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
Then as all stood with bowed, uncovered heads, there arose upon the air a voice full of melody and pathos singing:
“Nearer my God to Thee.”
From beginning to end in her superb, rich tones, Bonnie Belle sang the beautiful hymn, and when the last word was uttered, tears rolled across faces furrowed and brown which had not been thus wet since childhood. Manly hearts heaved convulsively with emotions which overwhelmed them, and many a miner went to his cabin home from Sunset Hill a better man for the burial he had witnessed of poor Shuffles.
CHAPTER XVII.
A SISTER OF MERCY.
Let us now return to the fort, after the departure of Ruth Arden. It has been seen how the coach was held up on the trail, at Deep Dell Brook, and that the road-agent quickly met his punishment at the hands of Ruth, whose shooting was the admiration of Horseshoe Ned, for he told the story over and over again at the station.
Buffalo Bill, it has also been seen, followed the trail until convinced that Ruth had gone East, and yet, to make sure, he had gone to Pocket City, where he had saved Deadshot Dean’s cabin from being broken into, and got Tom and Jerry into trouble for their lawless housebreaking.
Having had the dream he had, of Buffalo Bill being hemmed in by redskins, Surgeon Powell, his stanch friend, had gone off upon his trail, with a result already known to the reader.
The departure of the chief of scouts and the Surgeon Scout, so soon after the going of Ruth Arden, set a number in the fort to thinking what it could mean.