He was surrounded by seven men, all but one of whom he recognized. Clancy was one, Tex was another, and Andy was a third. The faces of two more he remembered to have seen in the level with Clancy the day before.
Another of the men, of course, was J. Algernon Smith, in his linen duster.
The seventh of the outfit was the fellow whose face was strange to Wild Bill.
The prisoner lay snugly against the hanging wall of the level. He had made no stir when he opened his eyes, and his captors did not know that he had recovered his senses. They were talking, and Wild Bill was content to lie quietly and listen.
“He got away from you,” Smith was saying, “and when he went he took the rope with him. How did you get out?”
“We was in hyer all night, cap’n,” replied Clancy; “me with this game arm, an’ all the rest more er less knocked about an’ stove up. We didn’t hev no water, er grub, er nothin’, an’ I had about calculated that we’d starve ter death; then, jest as things were lookin’ mighty dark fer us, Seth, thar, happened erlong, and we heerd him hollerin’ down the shaft.”
“I was left in Sun Dance,” spoke up Seth, who was the fellow Wild Bill had failed to recognize, “ter watch the stage an’ see if you, er Bingham, come in on it. Nothin’ came that arternoon, but the mail——”
“It will be two or three days before Bingham arrives here,” interjected Smith. “Go on, Seth.”
“As the night passed,” proceeded Seth, “an’ Clancy an’ the rest didn’t come back ter Sun Dance, I began ter feel anxious about ’em. Arter breakfast in the mornin’, I couldn’t stand the unsartinty any longer, so I saddled up an’ rode down the cañon. Seen the five hosses bunched tergether in the scrub, so I knowed the boys must be in the mine. When I climbed the ore-dump, I seen the rope layin’ on the platform, an’ I couldn’t savvy the layout, not noways. I got down on my knees, stuck my head inter the shaft, an’ let off a yell. The yell was answered, an’ it wasn’t long afore I knowed what had happened. I drapped a riata down, an’ spliced on the rope layin’ on the platform, an’ purty soon the boys was on top o’ ground.”
“We all thort the game was up,” said Clancy, when Seth had finished. “The feller that had came nosin’ inter the mine had drapped his bowie, an’ we found the name, ‘Wild Bill,’ burned inter the handle. ‘Thunder!’ I says ter the boys; ‘if thet was Wild Bill we had down here, I ain’t wonderin’ none he got away. He’s a reg’lar tornader! The wonder is,’ I says, ‘thet some o’ us didn’t git killed.’ In the arternoon I rode ter Sun Dance ter meet the stage myself, an’ thet’s how I come ter meet ye, cap’n, an’ ter tell ye a leetle o’ what took place. But I reckon us fellers ain’t got any kick comin’ now.” Clancy gave a husky laugh. “Wild Bill drapped inter yore hands, cap’n, like er reg’lar tenderfoot. It was a slick play, yere bringin’ him along when ye come ter meet me at the foot o’ thet slope. The minit ye jumped at him I knowed somethin’ was up, an’ I wasn’t more’n a brace o’ shakes in takin’ a hand.”