CHAPTER XLIV.REVEALED.
Again did Buffalo Bill pay a visit to the hacienda of the fair hermit. It was the day following his meeting with the cowboy king.
Again he was received, and in the garden, as before, while the señorita said:
“You have come sooner than I expected, señor; but it is well, as the cowboy king is not here.”
“Why do you fear that man?”
“Ah! I cannot tell.”
“What is he to you?”
“Do not ask me.”
“Do you love him?”
“No!”
“I am glad, for I can tell you that you need no longer fear him.”
“What do you mean?” she gasped.
“Señorita, I have read your secret, for that man was the Mexican officer I saved with you from those men that day nearly two months ago.”
“You recognize him, then?”
“Yes, and as a vile cutthroat who joined our army, robbed the paymaster, deserted, and became a fugitive and an outlaw, at last, as we believed, being killed, but, instead, coming here. Did you not know him as all that was bad?”
“Señor, I was deceived by him, for I believed him an officer of the Mexican army. I was left this place, and he urged me to marry him secretly, and I did so, then coming here to live, and obeying him blindly. At times he came here, I believing he was on duty when he was away.
“It was when he was here that you rescued us, and from men I now think were not outlaws, but those who suspected him of certain deeds and determined to kill him. Perhaps they were my own cowboys, who sought to kill him, not wishing a master over them.
“Of late, I have had reason to doubt him, and I meant to know the truth, even if he killed me, as he has often threatened to do.”
“Have no fear now, for he is dead.”
“No, no, it cannot be, for he bears a charmed life.”
“It has ended—the charm is broken, as was the case when you lost your bracelet.”
“Which he gave to me; but do you know that he is dead?”
“I killed him, Señorita Suelo Sada,” calmly said Buffalo Bill.
“You?”
“Yes, I made you a widow, I am glad to say, for that man was the leader of the secret foes of this valley, the one who has put the curse upon it which all have dreaded.”
“God bless you, señor, for those words. You havefreed me from worse than death. But only lately did I suspect that he was really bad at heart, and the words I got came to me by a secret letter, and I was told to closely watch his movements and I would discover the truth.
“My servants here are innocent, all in the hacienda, but I believe all the cowboys are guilty, and were members of his band.”
“I know that they were; but let me tell you that they are all prisoners now, for I led my men to their retreat last night, on the cliffs, back of my ranch, and through a secret entrance into the old hacienda, surprised their hidden camp.
“They had there a score of prisoners, men, women, and children, held for ransom, and I learned the story from dying lips, and enough more to enable us, under Señor Otega and his chief of cowboys, to find the secret entrance to the cliffs.
“We set free all who were there, killed the five guards over them, and to-day rounded up and captured your cowboys, seven in number, who shared the ransoms paid with their chief.
“You were not guilty, I know, Señorita Suelo Moro, for such is your name as Dallas Moro’s wife; but you will be so thought by many in this valley, and my advice is that you at once leave here and seek a home elsewhere, where no cloud hangs over your life, and Señor Otega will see to your property here.”
“Señor Cody, again I say, ‘God bless you,’ and from my heart I thank you more than words can tell. I have an ample fortune of my own, independent of this accursed ranch, where I have known only sorrow; but what I have done he forced me to do. To Señor Otega I leave this ranch, cattle and all, for him to dispose of, and pay back to those who have paid ransom, every dollar they have been cheated out of.
“Señor, with my few faithful servants I will leave here at sunset, and into your hands will I give the paper by which Señor Otega can act for me.”
From his heart Buffalo Bill pitied the beautiful and unhappy woman, and he was glad, a few hours after, to see her and her few faithful servants depart from the hacienda forever, while Señor Otega willingly accepted the duty, to carry out the mission she had intrusted to him, through Cody.
As quickly as Buffalo Bill and his secret sleuths had entered the mysterious valley, they departed from it, carrying with them their horses and cattle, and their prisoners also, to deliver over to the commandant of the fort nearest the scene, who held control of that part of the country.
Among the prisoners was Riel, the innkeeper, who, next to the cowboy king, was the guilty one in the many crimes committed in the beautiful valley.
It is needless to say that quick punishment was visited upon all the prisoners, and Buffalo Bill andhis sleuths of the saddle gained great praise for their splendid services rendered, and Colonel Carr sent a special report to headquarters about the great chief of scouts’ brilliant achievement.
As to the beautiful valley, it is as peaceful to-day as a Quaker village, and the fair hermit of the hacienda is forgotten, for she was never heard of again by those who dwelt in the Silver Lake settlement, while the haunted ranch remains but a ruin, surrounded by its graves.
THE END.
No. 104 of theBuffalo Bill Border Stories, entitled “Buffalo Bill’s Barricade,” is a rattling good story of Indian warfare among the red men themselves, helped out by the great scout, who as usual, is on the side of those who are fighting for the right.
No. 104 of theBuffalo Bill Border Stories, entitled “Buffalo Bill’s Barricade,” is a rattling good story of Indian warfare among the red men themselves, helped out by the great scout, who as usual, is on the side of those who are fighting for the right.
A REQUEST
Conditions due to the war have made it very difficult for us to keep in print all of the books listed in our catalogues. We still have about fifteen hundred different titles that we are in a position to supply. These represent the best books in our line. We could not afford, in the circumstances, to reprint any of the less popular works.We aim to keep in stock the works of such authors as Bertha Clay, Charles Garvice, May Agnes Fleming, Nicholas Carter, Mary J. Holmes, Mrs. Harriet Lewis, Horatio Alger, and the other famous authors who are represented in our line by ten or more titles. Therefore, if your dealer cannot supply you with exactly the book you want, you are almost sure to find in his stock another title by the same author, which you have not read.It short, we are asking you to take what your dealer can supply, rather than to insist upon just what you want. You won’t lose anything by such substitution, because the books by the authors named are very uniform in quality.In ordering Street & Smith novels by mail, it is advisable to make a choice of at least two titles for each book wanted, so as to give us an opportunity to substitute for titles that are now out of print.STREET & SMITH CORPORATION,79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Conditions due to the war have made it very difficult for us to keep in print all of the books listed in our catalogues. We still have about fifteen hundred different titles that we are in a position to supply. These represent the best books in our line. We could not afford, in the circumstances, to reprint any of the less popular works.
We aim to keep in stock the works of such authors as Bertha Clay, Charles Garvice, May Agnes Fleming, Nicholas Carter, Mary J. Holmes, Mrs. Harriet Lewis, Horatio Alger, and the other famous authors who are represented in our line by ten or more titles. Therefore, if your dealer cannot supply you with exactly the book you want, you are almost sure to find in his stock another title by the same author, which you have not read.
It short, we are asking you to take what your dealer can supply, rather than to insist upon just what you want. You won’t lose anything by such substitution, because the books by the authors named are very uniform in quality.
In ordering Street & Smith novels by mail, it is advisable to make a choice of at least two titles for each book wanted, so as to give us an opportunity to substitute for titles that are now out of print.
STREET & SMITH CORPORATION,79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Transcriber’s NotesThe Table of Contents at the beginning of the book was created by the transcriber.Inconsistencies in hyphenation such as “gold-boomer”/“gold boomer” have been maintained.Minor punctuation and spelling errors have been silently corrected and, except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, especially in dialogue, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.Page 2: “A Congress of the Rough-riders of the World” changed to “A Congress of the Rough Riders of the World”.Page 238: “Lighting match after mach” changed to “Lighting match after match”.
Transcriber’s Notes
The Table of Contents at the beginning of the book was created by the transcriber.Inconsistencies in hyphenation such as “gold-boomer”/“gold boomer” have been maintained.Minor punctuation and spelling errors have been silently corrected and, except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, especially in dialogue, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
The Table of Contents at the beginning of the book was created by the transcriber.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation such as “gold-boomer”/“gold boomer” have been maintained.
Minor punctuation and spelling errors have been silently corrected and, except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, especially in dialogue, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.