“That struck me.”
“Ah! and it was at Deep Dell Brook?”
“Yes, the horses were drinkin’ thar, and doc and me was talkin’, when suddenly came a blow that knocked me clear off the box, for I was down on the ground just out of the stream when I came round. The team was standing near me, just waitin’ like humans for me ter come round, and when I tried to git up I found I was uncommon dizzy.
“But I did git up at last, and then I see thet ther mail-bags was gone and I scrambled up to my box as best I could and come on. I don’t know no more about it than you does, Bill, save that thar is one of them detectives dead inside the coach, and he ’pears to hev been robbed, too, for I recommember thet he hed a watch and chain.”
Buffalo Bill sprang quickly to the coach door, threw it open, and there he beheld a dead man.
It was Henry Raymond. There was a bullet wound in his heart.
There was evidence that he had also been robbed, though in searching through the pockets of the man he found a bundle of papers of which he at once took possession.
He mounted to the top of the coach and saw there red stains and indications of a struggle. The grip-sack of Surgeon Powell and the baggage of the prisoner and the detective were also missing.
At last Buffalo Bill said, as though at a loss to know what to do:
“Ned?”