Riding leisurely on the back trail, not caring to push his horses too hard, Buffalo Bill reached his basin camp in the mountains on the third day, and the animal he left there pranced like a colt at seeing him come back.

His first work was to make his quarters more secure and comfortable, and this took him a day, and the following, having strengthened the barrier in the pa.s.s, to prevent his horses from breaking out, he started off on foot for the W---- and Last Chance stage-trail.

He would not ride, as he did not wish his trail to be seen by any prowling road-agents, and on foot he could accomplish more and be concealed far better than if he had gone mounted.

Before parting with Surgeon Frank Powell at the fort, Buffalo Bill had drawn a map of the country, marking the trail the surgeon-scout was to follow, and also just where he was to meet him, the place of rendezvous being the deserted camp where was the grave of Black-heart Bill.

When Buffalo Bill approached the trail, at the scene of the Dead Line tragedies, he went most cautiously. But no one was there, and going up to the little cross, the scout bent over and thrust his hand into the spot where, as old Huckleberry, he had his "post-office" with Harding.

He took out a slip of paper, and read it with clouded brow. It was as follows:

"I slip away at night from Last Chance to leave this here for you. It was unfortunate that you should have had to go to the fort when you did, as on my run back I was held up here by the agents.

"I had taken your advice, and pressed through the other end at night, thus escaping men lying in wait for me.

"On my return I had a young lady pa.s.senger, a Miss Celeste Seldon, coming out here to find her father, a miner, and a young man whom she had sent in search of him. It was the young man I told you of who had been wounded and had never regained his reason.

"I had a large sum of money, which was taken, and Miss Seldon was carried off as a captive, to be held for ransom.

"The miners have subscribed the ransom money, and she is to be released. I will let you know particulars more fully as soon as I get the opportunity, endeavoring to have a letter here for you when I come to make the exchange, paying the ransom and receiving the lady from the outlaws.

"Doctor d.i.c.k will come with me; but the outlaws threaten to kill Miss Seldon if others come, or if any one else leaves Last Chance to pursue them, and that chief will keep his word.

HARDING."

Then there followed a postscript, which read:

"The young messenger, Bernard Brandon, has most mysteriously disappeared, and no search can find him.

"H."

Buffalo Bill read this letter over twice, and said in a musing way:

"Those outlaws are becoming bold, indeed, when they deliberately rob a young girl and make her their prisoner. The man Brandon was her messenger, sent in search of her father, and his mysterious disappearance, _to me_, means that he has been captured by the road-agents.

"Now, I dare not halt the coach on the way to receive the girl, if the road-agents give her up; but I will be on the watch, see it go by, and be as near this spot when the ransom is paid as I dare be, for from here I may be able to track those devils to their lair."

So saying, the scout set out upon his return for his basin camp.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

THE SCOUT ON THE WATCH.

When Buffalo Bill returned from the Dead Line to his secret camp, it was to prepare himself for several days' absence from it, for his intention was to hang about the Last Chance trail, discovering all that it was in his power to do.

He found a retreat upon a cliff, where there was a thicket of pines, giving him a view in both directions of the trail for a mile or more.

He saw from there the coach coming to the rendezvous, with the ransom money for Celeste Seldon's release, and upon the box beside the driver was Doctor d.i.c.k.

Yet the scout did not know who might be inside the stage, so dared not make any sign of his presence.

On went the coach, and Buffalo Bill at once started down from the cliff, and followed in its trail at an Indian trot, which kept him well up with it, yet just out of sight.

As he approached the Dead Line, he went more cautiously, and, reaching the entrance to the pa.s.s, made a flank movement and climbed to the top of the ridge.

It was after continued search that he at last found a point of observation, and he risked his life by reaching a spot where he would be dashed to death, hundreds of feet below, should his foot slip or nerve fail him.

From this spot, where he clung to a tree, he turned his field-gla.s.s down the pa.s.s, and could see the coach standing at the Dead Line, a quarter of a mile away. He saw that the coach had been turned to the right-about, the team being headed back for Last Chance, and Doctor d.i.c.k was standing near it, Harding being still on the box and grasping the reins.

Watching, with every nerve strung, the scout saw the masked road-agent appear, and later the fair captive. Then followed two other road-agents bearing the baggage of Celeste Seldon, and soon after the coach started upon its return.

Buffalo Bill could not have reached a point to head it off had he tried, and he felt that he must still be cautious. But he was determined to reach the Dead Line and take up the trail from there, for certainly the road-agents had not allowed Celeste Seldon to walk to the scene of the exchange.

After half an hour he gained a point just over the Dead Line, and from there saw that all was quiet. The outlaws had left, beyond all doubt.

It was an hour before the scout could make his way around to the Dead Line, and there he felt in the little "post-office" for a letter from Harding. But none was there.

"He dared not attempt it," he muttered.

Then taking a leaf from his note-book, he wrote:

"I am again on the trail. I saw the lady returned to you. I will take the outlaws' trail from here, and hope to track them to their lair.

"In a few days, now, I will have the surgeon-scout with me in my work, so the end is not far away.

"Keep me posted as before, as I will you.

"Yours, B. B."

This was placed in the receptacle near the cross, and, shouldering his rifle, Buffalo Bill set out to look for trails.

It took him a long while to satisfy himself that he was on the right track, but at last he struck off at a lively step along a trail which only a man of his frontier skill could have discovered.

After a walk of a mile he suddenly came upon a spot where there were the tracks of a horse visible. These he followed a mile farther, and the scout saw that the ground was trampled down, but not by hoofs.

The track he had followed thus far had been that of one hoof only, showing that the other three had been m.u.f.fled, but one had lost its covering.

The trampled gra.s.s and ground revealed that the horses had been left there, and all had had their hoofs m.u.f.fled in some way.

But the keen eyes of the scout picked up the trail, and he followed it quite rapidly until he came to a small stream.

"There were eight horses along, as their tracks show here, but how many men I do not know. When they have gone some miles farther they will remove the m.u.f.fles from their horses' hoofs, and then the trail will be easy to follow, and it now looks to me as though I will be able to track them to their retreat, and that means the end.

"But night is coming on now, and this is just the place for me to branch off and go to my own camp, following the trail to-morrow on horseback."