Prentiss Ingraham

“ Sunrise was no more than upon them when they beheld a man who had set forth to find and misguide the pursuers of Panther Pete; a man who was one of the “stool pigeons” already described.
This man came up to them, riding a piebald pony. He had keen black eyes that bored them through and through. His clothing was nondescript, but the rifle he bore and the revolvers he carried were of the best and latest patterns.
“Howdy!” he said, and he looked Buffalo Bill straight in the face, knowing at a glance who he was, for the resemblance to the man who was his leader was remarkable. ”

“ They had been numerous, those lakelike illusions, and he knew what they were—the deceptive mirage of the dry lands of the high plains. That blue “sea,” and a sort of heatlike shimmer that hovered above it, made it impossible now for him to see a mile in the direction of the shot, whereas before those deceptive things appeared the eye could range to the very limit of vision. While trying to look through that blue illusion he fancied he heard the distant trampling of hoofs.
Instantly he dropped from the saddle to the ground and laid an ear against the turf, to aid his hearing. ”

“ The scout had listened at first in amusement and amazement. He now saw that there was black meaning back of all this fustian; that in truth this bombastic orator represented a committee of vigilantes determined to take his life. He saw, too, how easy it was for these men to mistake him for the man who had been masquerading in his place.
“See here,” said Buffalo Bill, “you are making the greatest mistake of your life. I have heard of the rascal for whom you take me, and I agree that if what has been reported of him is true he deserves hanging; but I am not that man. ”

“ A cry of rage broke from Barlow.
“Hickok,” he shouted, “you lie; you lie like a dog!”
The hot blood reddened the face of the bound man.
“You’ll have a chance to take that back, if these red gentlemen don’t make short work of me,” he said. “Never does any man tell me to my teeth that I’m a liar, and afterward live to brag about it. He’ll meet me with pistols in hand, and one or the other of us will turn up his toes to the daisies. You’ve heard of Wild Bill.”
Barlow’s face paled. Wild Bill, the dead shot of the West, did have rather an unenviable reputation as a dead shot and a duelist ”

“ He knew that it was Buffalo Bill who had appeared at the corner of the wall, and with whom he had left Smallpox Dave fighting. And he feared the scout above all other men, for Buffalo Bill was noted as a hater of wrongs of all kinds, and as a relentless punisher of wrongdoers. ”

“ They rallied under the inspiriting commands of their disguised white leader, and the fight that followed was sanguine enough to please even Pizen Kate, who climbed into a tree as soon as it began, and from that coign of vantage watched it throughout.
Nomad and Buffalo Bill also climbed into trees and witnessed the battle between the Redskin Rovers and the white outlaws.
For a little while it seemed that the Indians would break at once into flight, so desperate and deadly was the outlaw charge; but when the white leader put himself at their head and rallied them they made a stout stand. ”

“ There is no more romantic character in American history than William F. Cody, or as he was internationally known, Buffalo Bill. He, with Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, Wild Bill Hickok, General Custer, and a few other adventurous spirits, laid the foundation of our great West.
There is no more brilliant page in American history than the winning of the West. Never did pioneers live more thrilling lives, so rife with adventure and brave deeds as the old scouts and plainsmen. ”

“ Buffalo Bill now drew a revolver. He did not intend to be hanged by this mob. If his life was to be lost he would lose it fighting, not at the end of a rope.
Suddenly he drove his spurs desperately into the flanks of his horse, having before that, by a slash of his knife, released it from the hitching rack. It made one jump, then a revolver cracked, and the horse fell sprawling, a bullet in its brain.
The scout would have been hurled violently to the ground if he had not disengaged his feet from the stirrups and landed in an upright position. ”

“ A smashing blow in the face stopped the stammering words and threw Wilkins blind and bleeding against one of the cottonwoods. When he recovered enough to crawl to his feet, Barlow was sitting before him, staring at him in the half darkness.
“Wilkins,” he said, “that’s just to teach you that you can’t monkey with me! When you go wrong again I shall shoot you, which will be a great deal worse.” ”

“ But Clendenning now relented.
“I can furnish you a horse, Cody,” he said. “I beg your pardon if I’ve been wrong, and I hope I’m not wrong now. It all seems strange. I wish I could do more, Cody; but you may have a horse, and as many of them as you want.”
So much delay had resulted that it seemed almost like making the proverbial search for a needle in a haystack when Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill rode forth from Fort Cimarron in pursuit of Lieutenant Barlow. With them went the young cowboy, Ben Stevens. ”

“ When they passed into the large rooms Latimer apologized for their apparent disorder.
“You perhaps heard him boasting of his horse,” the scout continued, still speaking of Nick Nomad.
“A bag of bones, Cody!” cried Latimer. “I wonder the brute can carry him.”
“Yet a wonderful horse. According to Nomad, it is the most wonderful horse in America, or in the world. And it really is a beast of rare intelligence. He has so trained it that its actions at times seem almost human.”
“My new hostler seems to be rather a wonderful man,” remarked Latimer, with a dry smile. ”

“ As soon as he was safe in this village, Barlow had the girl placed in one of the lodges, in care of an old Indian squaw, assuring the girl that it was the best he could do, and that she would not be harmed there. Then he began a search for the old medicine man who was said to have that store of sacred gold nuggets.
He found the medicine man without trouble, for the old fellow had a lodge of immense size not far from the heart of the village, where he mumbled his charms and incantations, and performed the mysterious rites which awed the Cheyennes and gave him so much power over them. ”

“ Fortunately it was two or three feet deep, and before it grew some mesquite bushes.
He stopped in this hollow, and there picketed his horse with his lariat, driving an iron pin into the ground with his boot heel, and attaching to the pin the lariat end.
He had no more than done so when the blue mirage vanished.
It was a singular thing. A fog lifts or falls slowly, and does not disappear for some time. But this was almost uncanny in the quickness with which it disappeared. At one time the blue sea of the mirage lay before him, with the shimmery-heat appearance above its surface. ”

“ In other words, I’m not Bill Cody. And I reckon, too, that you’ve heard of me; most people round here have. Do you want to know who I am? I’m Panther Pete.”
She screamed, and crowded closer against the wall when she heard that dreaded name. Panther Pete! [265] It was a name of infamy, a name that reeked with blood, a name to blanch the cheek of woman or man; for the miscreant who bore it was notorious as a murderer and outlaw, with innumerable black and bloody crimes laid at his door. ”

“ In the doorway of a lonely sod house May Arlington, the daughter of a government message bearer, stood shading her eyes from the glare of the hot sun, and looking out across the level grassland.
Another horseman, not Buffalo Bill, was riding swiftly over the open country before her and coming in her direction.
[112]
She knew he was not her father, who was absent far to the southward. But she hoped he was her lover, big bluff Ben Stevens, the handsomest and most athletic youth in the region of the country known as No Man’s Land, lying along the border of the upper Panhandle of Texas. ”

“ He had no way of knowing but that Cheyennes, eager for his blood, awaited him in some grassy hollow, and would shoot him when he came in range, or jump out upon him unawares and tomahawk him. He was taking no more chances than he was forced to. Yet he kept straight on, dragging at the reins of his horse and keeping his eyes on the trail, spelling out its meaning as he advanced.
Looking ahead, he saw that the blue mirages were disappearing; the advance of the sun into the higher sky was driving them away. ”

“ The disguised white man had sprung to his feet when Nomad made his mad charge.
The next motion of the scout brought out the hidden pistol from his hunting shirt, and with it he took a shot at the painted figure of the renegade, toppling him over with a bullet through his shoulder. Then Buffalo Bill leaped to the assistance of the other prisoners; and with a speed that defied description he cut them free.
“Move lively!” he whispered. “That’s Nomad. Run, while the redskins are frightened! This way!” ”

“ A number of Indians ran after the horse, while others gathered round the fallen chief. They picked up the groaning white man, and one, who was apparently a medicine man, began to work over him, for the fallen white man was half unconscious from the effects of that terrible kick.
Nomad was cackling to himself, filled with delight over the achievement of his raw-boned steed, yet having discretion enough to keep his wicked glee from the notice of the redskins.
The attention drawn to the escaping horse and to the fallen leader furnished Buffalo Bill with a much-needed opportunity. ”

“ It had been a long time since there had been any Indian trouble in that section of the Southwest. But people who live near Indians are never sure when the red men will decide to take to the warpath; and lately there had been murmurings and mutterings among the Cheyennes, who were herded on their reservation not more than a day’s ride away.
May’s father had heard of it, and had spoken of it, but he did not believe the Cheyennes would dare make trouble, when there were soldiers no farther than Fort Cimarron.
The horseman, riding rapidly, drew near, with a quick clatter of hoofs. ”

“ Barlow and the Cheyennes knew that they would be pursued without delay.
When a band of fiery young Indians break away from a reservation, the first thing to do is to send troopers after them, to bring them back, or whip them into subjection before they have time to do any harm.
In addition, the flight of Barlow from Fort Cimarron with the girl who had been held there on the false charge of the theft of the nugget would send pursuers after him.
All this Buffalo Bill likewise knew. And he knew, further, that one of the things pursued Indians are likely to do is to trap their pursuers. ”

“ They’re treating us well now because of what I did for Red Wing; but if they find us tricky they’ll be severe with us. I’m trying to think out a plan. I’ll save you; and some day you will know that I’m not the black devil you’ve been thinking me.”
That was a long and wearing ride for May Arlington; it taxed her strength to the utmost.
To be hurried forward through the gloom of night surrounded by feathered Indians who are on the warpath, having for a companion a white man whose actions had been brutal and seemed to be treacherous, was a situation about as bad as can be conceived. ”

“ It was like the sudden outburst of a chorusing band of wolves; for the old man had the power of making his yells peculiarly bewildering, and as if coming from many different points of the compass. As he yelled, he cast aside the concealing coat and pushed back the concealing cap, thus revealing to the astonished redskins the sight of a skeleton horseman, apparently seated on nothing but air, for the body of the old horse was at first indistinguishable in the darkness.
As he thus displayed his skeleton lines, Nomad’s revolver began to pop ”

“ Ellen West had never before seen the devil displayed in human form as she now saw it in this smiling, handsome fellow, who said these things as coolly as if they were but jest, and sat there, his white teeth showing as he laughed. ”

“ He was a good borderman and understood Indian ways, and what to do in emergencies. The cowboy life makes one quick of thought, and it does not breed weaklings.
Buffalo Bill lay behind the screen of the mesquite, watching the young Cheyennes until they were out of sight. He saw that they were heading steadily toward the Southwest, and that they were hurrying.
Apparently they feared a pursuit of troopers from the fort; and for that reason, though they probably knew that Wild Bill was not the only white man out on those level grasslands, they feared to tarry or go after those others. ”

“ The scene was the wide piazza in front of the Flash Light, and the time late afternoon. In the street were several score men of the border type—miners, cowboys, [219] ranchmen—together with the scum and rabble always to be found in such a place.
Few of the reputable citizens of the town of Scarlet Gulch were in that noisy crowd; they had something more important to do than to hang round Nate Rainey’s saloon and listen to the big words of Bug-eye Slocum. But all the dangerous elements of the community were represented, from the blackleg gambler to the cheap street loafer. ”

“ You will be the wife of Panther Pete, and queen of the road agents! Doesn’t the prospect allure you? If it doesn’t, it ought to. To be queen of our road agents isn’t so small a matter as you may think it. They’re a jolly lot, and fighters every one, from the ground up. There are worse jobs than being queen to a set of fellows like that. Why, if you should be kind to ’em, and say a good word now and then to ’em, there ain’t a man among ’em wouldn’t die for you, and feel happy if you paid him with a smile. ”

“ She wanted to scream again.
“You know I told you that once, at your home over there in Scarlet Gulch,” he continued calmly. “You thought I was Buffalo Bill, and you smiled when I said it. I’m the same man, and when I say it now you show a weak disposition and a tendency to holler, which is unkind of you.”
She turned on him in wild desperation. “You must let me out of this house!” she cried. “I won’t stay here. You promised to take me to my father, and——”
“Promises made to a handsome woman are like the proverbial pie crust, made to be broken. ”

“ The powerful glass drew the Indians well within range of his eyes.
“Yes, Cheyennes,” he said, “and young bucks from the reservation; and they’ve got Hickok, more’s the pity! Those young rascals are out for scalps and plunder. When they get ‘good’ again, they’ll hurry back to the reservation, slip in some dark night, and swear that they have never been away from it a minute.”
Wild Bill rode upright and seemed not to be seriously hurt, as Buffalo Bill was glad to observe. ”

“ Nebuchadnezzar did not have enough discernment to discover that this was a white man, who had befriended him, seeing only the paint and the feathers. Indians were not to his liking. Hence, when the man sought to put forth a hand to touch him he wheeled with amazing quickness, launched out again with both heels, and, striking the man squarely in the breast, knocked him down. At the same instant, apparently discovering for the first time that he was not tied, he gave a shrill squeal, and dashed out of the camp. ”