He drew the memorable locket from his pocket. The trinket had been knocked out of shape, and there was a deep dent in the center.
“When I left here to go to Medicine Bluff with you, Buffalo Bill,” pursued Gentleman Jim, “I put that locket in the breast pocket of my coat. During our fight with the outlaws in the gully, one of the scoundrels fired his revolver at me, pointblank. I felt a shock at my breast, but thought little of it until, when I went to return the locket to Allie, I discovered it in that condition. There was also,” he added, touching the breast of his coat, “this bullet-hole over my heart. Undoubtedly, that locket, which got Allie into so much trouble, squared the account by saving my life.”
“Things turn out thet way sometimes, Gentleman Jim,” said Nomad, “purvidin’ ye hev what we call Cody-luck.”
“Cody-luck has been with us all through our work at Medicine Bluff,” averred James Brisco.
“And in Chavorta Gorge,” supplemented Dell, with a soft look at the scout.
“Especially in Chavorta Gorge,” spoke up De Bray, thinking of his twenty thousand.
“And here’s hoping that Cody-luck will be with the king of scouts and his pards, and with some of the rest of us, as long as we live!” said Brisco.
“Amen to that!” were the words that ran round the board.
But little more remains to be told concerning the work of the king of scouts in and near Sun Dance Cañon.