CHAPTER XVIII.
THE ROUND-UP AT SPANGLER’S.
Wah-coo-tah was taken to the Lucky Strike Hotel and placed in Dell’s room; the room from which, one night not long before, she had taken French leave. Nomad stopped at the Alcazar and summoned Gentleman Jim.
Cayuse, Pete, Blake, and Tenny took care of the horses, and Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill, and Dell sat in Dell’s room and waited anxiously for Gentleman Jim to come.
When he arrived, which he did in a very few moments, he carried a professional-looking grip.
“Your three days are not up yet, Buffalo Bill,” said Gentleman Jim, with a smile.
“I’m going back to the Forty Thieves to-morrow,” returned the scout, “to finish them up. I didn’t know you were a doctor, Gentleman Jim.”
Something of a sad expression crossed the gambler’s face.
“I used to be a doctor back East,” he answered, and turned to the cot where Wah-coo-tah was lying.
The scout knew, as did every one else in Sun Dance Cañon, that Gentleman Jim’s past held a story—and not a particularly pleasant story, either. But just what that story was no living man had ever heard from the gambler’s lips.
Gentleman Jim’s soft, white hands moved about Wah-coo-tah with almost womanly tenderness. After he had made a brief examination, he opened the satchel and took out an instrument-case.