Wah-coo-tah had likewise disappeared from the hotel during the night, and her cayuse had vanished from the stable. So quietly had the girl left, that Dell, in whose room and with whom she was lodging, had not been aware of her going.
“I presume,” said Buffalo Bill, “that Wah-coo-tah has gone back to her people.”
“That’s the best place for her, pard,” said Dell.
“No doubt about that,” returned the scout.
CHAPTER X.
THE STRANGER AND THE STEER.
“Whoop-ya! Looket thar, will ye? By the great horn spoon! Cut fer the kitchen, Wing Hi, an’ fetch me the rope that’s hangin’ thar. D’ye hear, yeh goggle-eyed yaller mug? Wake up an’ move—quick, afore I kick yer half-way thar. Wow! Never seen sich er thing as thet afore—an’ comin’ right down on ther camp, lickity larrup.”
The mining settlement of Sun Dance, baking in the mid-day heat half-way up the wall of Sun Dance Cañon, stirred languidly with the whooping words that clattered among its adobes.
There was not much life in Sun Dance during the day—night was its period of excitement and activity—but what little life there was began to show itself.
Gentleman Jim, the gambler, was dozing in a hammock stretched between two posts in the shade of the “Alcazar.” He heard the wild yell, located it as coming from the vicinity of the Lucky Strike Hotel, got out of the hammock, and went to investigate.
In the street he met Hoppy Smith, barkeeper at the Dew Drop; One-eye Perkins, postmaster and proprietor of the general store; Stump Hathaway, boss of the Spread Eagle honkatonk, and Lonesome Pete, who had ridden in from up the gulch to get a supply of tobacco and cigarette-paper.