“Who is he, Wah-coo-tah?” he demanded.
“Him man long yellow coat.”
“Smith!” muttered the scout, a glitter coming into his eyes.
Then it flashed through Buffalo Bill’s mind that if Lawless would play the rôle of Smith, he must be doing it for some underhanded purpose. Quite possibly that purpose had something to do with Wild Bill, and his mysterious disappearance from the camp.
“Wah-coo-tah,” went on the scout, speaking in a low voice and hurriedly, “I came to Sun Dance looking for a friend of mine by the name of Wild Bill. I was delayed in getting to Sun Dance. When I reached here, though, I discovered that Wild Bill had disappeared last night. Immediately after supper he was last seen with the man who calls himself Smith, but who you tell me is your father, Captain Lawless. The two walked down the slope into the cañon. Lawless says he left Wild Bill and went to stay the night with a friend named Seth Coomby, and that he didn’t see where Wild Bill went, and doesn’t know anything about where he is now. If you can find out anything about him, I’d like to have you do it.”
The girl’s eyes sparkled at the thought of being able to render Pa-e-has-ka a service, and so, in a measure, pay him back for what he had done for her.
“Me find out ’bout Wild Bill,” said she. “Listen, Pa-e-has-ka. Bymby, in two, three hour, you go to top of road that leads down into cañon. Look down cañon. You see um Wah-coo-tah’s blanket wave in wind, you git um horse and come. Sabe?”
“I understand. Have you had anything to eat, Wah-coo-tah?”
“Me got plenty ‘jerked’ venison. Me all right. You watch heap sharp for blanket; and you watch heap sharp for Big Thunder. Wah-coo-tah go now. Good-by.”
The girl disappeared from the roof, and the scout, amazed by what he had overheard, left the stable and walked back to the hotel.