CHAPTER XXVI.STARTLING NEWS.
Buffalo Bill knew that successful pursuit of Lieutenant Barlow would be difficult. Barlow had a good start, and the night was dark. Nevertheless, after firing that shot intended to arouse the fort, he ran to get his own horse, and found it gone.
He was searching for it when the palisade gate flew open, and Corporal Clendenning and some troopers rode forth, to see what the shooting meant.
The scout called to them.
“I don’t like to make accusations against an officer,” he said, as they joined him, “yet I must ask that an immediate pursuit of Lieutenant Barlow be made; and I will lead, if you will furnish me with a horse. Mine is gone.”
“Lieutenant Barlow!” gasped the amazed Clendenning.
“There is a man out here whom I have captured,” the scout went on. “A man came over the wall from the inside with a girl in his arms, and this man tried to help him. I failed to stop what seemed to be an abduction; the abductor escaped, and took the girl with him. The man who is now my prisoner confessed that the other man was Lieutenant Barlow. The girl is the young lady who was brought here charged with the theft of that nugget. You will, I’m sure, find her gone.”
They gathered round him, with astonished questions.
“But Lieutenant Barlow wouldn’t——”
“I ask for an investigation. Can any one find Barlow in the fort, or find the young lady? Let a search be made; and, meanwhile, some of you come with me and see my prisoner.”
They found the rascal, Smallpox Dave, trying to crawl away. He had made good progress, too, in spite of his being bound; but he dropped back sullenly when the scout and the troopers rode up to him.
“Tell these men what you told me,” the scout commanded; “I mean the name of the man who came over the wall with the young woman in his arms and has now ridden away.”
Smallpox Dave’s wrath blazed out now like the flash of a gunpowder explosion. A great oath ripped from his lips.
“Yes, and cuss him for the coward he is; he’s cut out, takin’ my hoss, as well as his!” he declared. “I’ll settle with him fer that!”
“His name?” said the scout.
“His name? Why, it’s that lieutenant, Barlow! And we was to work together, and I was to have half of it, and——”
“The name of the girl?”
“Ther one he was sweet on—ther Arlington girl, livin’ over yender on the prairies.”
“But there may be—must be—a mistake,” urged Corporal Clendenning. “Lieutenant Barlow wouldn’t do a thing of this kind. Besides, we can’t accept theword of such a man as this scoundrel. Cody, I’m afraid you’re making a mistake, and——”
“Corporal Clendenning, you’re the man in command here now. Give me some men to make a pursuit with.”
“Cody, I shall——”
“Furnish me a horse, then. My own horse is lame at present.”
“But Cody——” objected Clendenning again.
“Can I have a horse? Every moment makes pursuit more difficult.”
“In my opinion, Lieutenant Barlow is within the fort now, and this man is lying,” said Clendenning. “What his object is I don’t know.”
As Corporal Clendenning was unwilling to believe the statement of Smallpox Dave, and so was reluctant to furnish the scout with a horse before making an investigation, Buffalo Bill returned into the grounds of the fort with the troopers, taking his prisoner with him.
They were no more than inside when Mrs. McGee appeared, raging and almost hysterical.
“Oh, the thafe!” she cried. “That I should live to see it, and that he should strike me in that way! Och, whin I get me two hands on him I’ll choke him black in the face! Who was it? ’Twas Lieutenant Barlow! I’ve knowed he was that crooked he c’u’dn’t walk straight! And it’s the gyurl he has taken wid him, bad cess to his picture! I don’t understand it at all, but——”
“There, Clendenning, is part of the proof youwant!” said the scout. “Look for Lieutenant Barlow here, and you’ll find him gone. Look for the girl here, and you’ll find, likewise, that she is gone. Give me a horse, so that I may go in pursuit, if you don’t dare to take the responsibility of conducting such a pursuit yourself.”
There was a stir beyond the palisade gate, together with the challenge of a sentry.
“Who goes there?” the sentry asked.
The answer was sharp and clear:
“Wild Bill Hickok. My good friend, it’s so dark that I don’t even know myself, but if you’ll speak that name to Buffalo Bill, who I think is on the inside, he may bring a lantern out here and light up my face enough to recognize me.”
“Hickok!” cried Buffalo Bill, with joy. “The one man above all others that I should most prefer to see just now!”
He turned to the gate.
“That’s Wild Bill Hickok,” he said to the sentry. “I know his voice, even if he hadn’t announced his name. I’ll guarantee with my life that he is all right.”
Hickok was permitted to enter; and, as most of the men there had seen him, and all had the highest regard for him, there was almost an ovation as he came in through the gate.
He was mounted, and he threw himself out of the saddle to clasp the hand of his old pard, Buffalo Bill.
“Glad to see you—more than words can tell, Hickok! What’s the news?”
“I came to bring it,” said Wild Bill, “and you’ll sayit’s important. Half a hundred young Cheyennes broke from the reservation last night and have gone on the warpath. I’ve got news for you, too, Cody; but I reckon it’ll have to wait.”
The news of the outbreak stirred the fort. But the sensation it created was not so great as that caused by the discovery that Lieutenant Barlow had departed in that wildly sensational manner, bearing with him the young woman who had been brought into the fort but a few hours before as a prisoner, charged with the theft of a gold nugget belonging to Colonel Montrose.
That they might know more of this, the troopers gathered round Smallpox Dave, asking him questions. But by this time Smallpox Dave had become cautious. He was frightened. In telling of the wickedness of Barlow he saw that he was only incriminating himself, for he had assisted Barlow in the things he had done. So now he refused to talk, and refused to answer the questions that were hurled at him.
He was taken to the prison where Ben Stevens had for some hours been held.
Buffalo Bill went to that prison and succeeded in getting Clendenning to release Stevens.
The young lover was frantic when he learned what had befallen his sweetheart, May Arlington.
“Give me a horse,” he begged, “and I will follow him alone!”
It was the cry that had been made by Buffalo Bill.
Already the scout had made up his mind to set forth, if in no other way, mounted with Wild Bill on the back of Wild Bill’s horse.
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.
“I’ll follow him to the ends of the earth!” said Stevens; “and when I find him it’s his life or mine! This world ain’t big enough to hold the two of us from this on!”