CHAPTER XV.THE GALLANT TROOPERS.
Buffalo Bill scaled successfully the slope of the mountain above the outlaw camp and got away.
He heard the uproar in the camp, and was almost tempted to turn back, fearing for the life of Nick Nomad; but he went on. He did not really see how he could help Nomad without at the same time putting his own life in such jeopardy that the risk could not be justified.
Two hours later he reached his horse, which he mounted, and then shaped his course by the stars in the direction of the camp of troopers.
Midnight was long past when he reached their camp and reported his discoveries.
“I must have half an hour’s sleep,” he said, “and while I am getting it have everything made ready for an immediate advance.”
He dropped down by one of the fires, in his clothing, and was sleeping almost at once, as soundly as a child.
The lieutenant in command of the troopers awoke him at the end of his brief nap. Then, once more, the redoubtable scout was in the saddle, this time leading the troopers forth toward the discovered camp of the desperadoes of the Sepulcher Mountains.
The men under Buffalo Bill gained the base of the mountain over against the outlaw camp shortly before daylight, having ridden hard to accomplish it.
There the horses were left, one man out of four dropping back to hold them, while the other three went forward. Buffalo Bill again led the advance, up the slopes of the mountain.
His spying of the previous afternoon had convinced him of the folly of trying to take those barricades by assault. He did not doubt the courage and ability of the troopers, than whom braver men never lived, but it would have been criminal, he felt, to ask them to lay down their lives in front of those deadly barricades when the camp might be taken in an easier way. His plan was to climb the mountain, and descend in the darkness just before the dawn upon the outlaw camp, endeavoring by this descent and the suddenness of the attack to surprise and stampede its defenders.
In spite of his strenuous efforts to get down the slope while the darkness was densest, the very fact that the darkness was so great kept the scout from doing this. For the descent had to be made with caution; and, consequently, was made with wearying slowness.
The gray dawn was in the east when the troopers crouched like mountain lions on the rocky ground that overhung the outlaw camp.
Down in the camp there was some kind of stir, though what it meant could not be determined. In the gray light the shapes of the low huts were almost indistinguishable. The sentries that the scout knew were there could not be seen, for not a light flickered, and no camp-fire glow was seen. Nevertheless, he was sure that behind the barricades the outlaws werewaiting and watching, and that alert sentinels were making their ceaseless and vigilant rounds.
Suddenly a single revolver shot sounded down in the camp, breaking with startling clearness on the still air of the dawn. Following it there was an excited clamor.
Buffalo Bill did not know what that shot meant. He realized that it might be a signal that he and the troopers had been discovered. Yet he did not hesitate, but gave instantly the command to charge, hoping to gain some advantage by the excitement and confusion into which the outlaws seemed to have been thrown.
The troopers leaped, some sliding and rolling, down the bowldered slope. Then their charging cheer rose, and their carbines flamed and cracked as they gained the lower ground, and rushed upon the huts they now beheld before them.
Most of the outlaws were at the moment behind the barricades which defended the two sides of the camp, at the entrances of the pass. Some of them, however, were in or near one of the huts, and, with wild yells, they tried to meet the onset of the charging troopers.
At the head of the troopers was seen the tall form of Buffalo Bill, as, with revolver in hand, he led the charge.
Desperadoes went down under the fire of the troopers, and troopers fell, shot by desperadoes; and then the troopers were in the midst of the huts, and the battle was on in all its fury.