“You mean——-”
“I mean that we’ll divide into two parties. If the scoundrels we seek are hiding around the Bluff, and if they have laid any sort of a trap, we can bother them by riding into their game in two detachments. Tenny and you, Gentleman Jim, are familiar with the country, so you’ll have to be separated. Tenny, Dell, and I will travel the left-hand fork; that will leave you, Nomad, Wild Bill, and De Bray to go to the right. Your force will be a little stronger than ours, but it may be that you are going into more dangerous ground. We can come together again at the Bluff.”
“Correct!” exclaimed Gentleman Jim. “This clean-up, Buffalo Bill, must be finished to-night. The—the prisoner must not be left in the hands of that gang a minute longer than necessary. I have ten thousand dollars for the man who brings her to me before sunrise——”
“Jim,” interrupted the scout, “not one of us would take your money. We’ll work just as hard for you as though there was a million dollars at stake.”
“That’s like you, Buffalo Bill,” said Gentleman Jim; “and right here I want you all to know that the prisoner is my wife.”
Startled exclamations came from those not in the secret, and in the midst of the surprise Gentleman Jim used his spurs and started along the valley.
“Come on,” he flung back over his shoulder, “all those who are to travel with me.”
Nomad, Wild Bill, and De Bray detached themselves from the party and galloped after the gambler. Tenny, Buffalo Bill, and the girl watched them vanish into the darkness that lay like a pall over the right-hand fork, then themselves spurred into the left-hand branch of the valley.
“His wife!” whispered Dell, in amazement. “Didn’t you say the woman’s name was Mrs. Brisco, Buffalo Bill?”
“Yes. Gentleman Jim’s name is Brisco; James Brisco, although Sun Dance Cañon has never known him by any other name than that of Gentleman Jim.”