“Good idea,” approved Wild Bill.
At that moment Gentleman Jim called Nomad and the rest, and they went out, to find the gambler and his wife standing side by side, the gambler’s arm about his wife’s waist.
“Boys,” said Gentleman Jim, in a voice resonant with feeling, “they say it’s always darkest just before dawn. It has seemed to have been that way with me. This little woman, dearer to me than any one else in the world, has been hunting the West over for a year, trying to locate me. It was in Montegordo that she got the clue that brought her toward Sun Dance. What do you think that clue was?”
None of the others could guess.
“Why,” exclaimed Gentleman Jim happily, “it was a published account of Buffalo Bill’s exploits, that time he went to Forty Thieves Mine, to stay for three days and nights. My name—or, rather, my sobriquet of ‘Gentleman Jim’—was mixed up in the account, and Allie took a chance on that sobriquet belonging to me. You have all seen how it turned out. She and I are going back to Sun Dance now. I’ll leave you to wind up the rest of this affair, for I’m too happy myself to be of much use to anybody. If you ride to Chavorta Gorge in the morning, don’t fail to tell Buffalo Bill what has happened.”
Three horses belonging to the outlaws were found, farther along the gully. One of these horses was tendered to Mrs. Brisco for her use, and she and her husband started for Sun Dance without further delay.
A little later Hank Tenny, with three prisoners, all on led horses, was started in the same direction. Two horses carried the prisoners. One was the man who had been wounded in the gully, and he was given a horse to himself: the other two men—Coomby and Tex—were secured to the remaining Cayuse.
It was sunrise before Little Cayuse, on his borrowed Cheyenne pony, Wild Bill, Nomad, and De Bray mounted and started for Chavorta Gorge.
They had Gentleman Jim’s instructions as to the course they should take, but these instructions were unnecessary, now that Cayuse was one of the party. The boy, in his soldiering days, had become familiar with the country, and proved an excellent guide.
But Nomad and his pards never reached Chavorta Gorge. Half a dozen miles from the gap, and about midway between the ridge and Medicine Bluff, the party met the scout and Dell.