“A job of salt!” muttered Buffalo Bill. “The atmosphere is beginning to clear.”
“Lawless,” proceeded Wild Bill, “is expecting a man here to take ore-samples from the mine. If the mine pans out, according to schedule, a hundred thousand is to change hands. That would be quite a plum to fall into the hands of a squawman like Lawless.”
“It will never fall into the hands of Lawless now.”
“I should say not,” said Hickok; “and let us emphasize the ‘now.’ Seeing the stranger get off the Montegordo stage, I thought he was the come-on, and, always being ready to stretch out a helping hand to the unfortunate, I stretched out a hand to Lawless—and Lawless played me to a fare-you-well. He acted the part of the Eastern come-on to the life.”
“The Easterner’s name is Bingham, not Smith,” said the scout.
“It was all one to me, at that stage of the game,” and Wild Bill proceeded with his account.
The way he had been lured to the slope, ostensibly to meet Clancy, and the way Clancy had unexpectedly met him from behind with a club, was told; then followed a description of what took place in the mine, the setting off of the three blasts, and the retreat of Lawless and his men.
“I closed my eyes,” said Wild Bill, “when the charges went off. Lawless had told me that Clancy was a master hand at setting off giant powder, and that he had drilled the holes in such a way that I wouldn’t be touched by flying rock, but would be neatly and securely walled into a rocky chamber. I wasn’t taking Lawless’ word for anything, and expected as much as could be that I would be hit by a splinter of rock, and wiped out. I wasn’t much caring, between the three of us. Death seemed certain, anyway, and I was rather hoping it would be quick, rather than long-drawn out.
“But Clancy must have known his business. After my ears had recovered from the jar, I opened my eyes, and discovered several things. But I didn’t discover them by sight, for I was in the blackest kind of night.
“The first of my discoveries was this, that I wasn’t hurt by the explosion. The next discovery was that the powder-fumes had not entered my chamber as thickly as I supposed they would do. Most of the fumes must have passed into the level, from some cause that I can’t exactly figure out. However that may be, the absence of powder-smoke left the little air I had just that much clearer and purer.