CHAPTER XV.A MIDNIGHT INTERVIEW.
Pistols was too happy to escape with his life to grumble at anything that might be put upon him, and he was only too anxious to get away from the saloon and start upon his exile, feeling that there was safety only in placing many miles between himself and Yellow Dust Valley.
Dave Dunn, the other alleged witness against Buffalo Bill, had been led into making the charge by his comrade Pistols, and, seeing how matters were going, had slipped out of Devil’s Den and hastened to his cabin to prepare for an immediate farewell to Pocket City.
The burly fellow who had made himself a leader against Surgeon Powell would have been glad to have escaped the notice of Bonnie Belle. But her words had brought the eyes of the Vigilantes upon him, and he was anxious to get away, and so with Pistols skulked out into the darkness.
They had hastened to their respective quarters then, making an agreement to meet at Dave Dunn’s in halfan hour’s time, and when the sun rose the two were making tracks down the valley, carrying their belongings upon a pole slung between two of them, and with all the wealth they possessed in their pockets.
“I would like to see you and Buffalo Bill, Surgeon Powell,” Bonnie Belle had said, in a low tone.
“We are going at once to the hotel.”
“I will see you there,” and Bonnie Belle circled about the room, greeted everywhere with the most cordial welcome.
In the meanwhile Surgeon Powell and Buffalo Bill were congratulated on all sides by those who had not had the nerve to come to their rescue.
But they received all that was said coldly, gaging it at about what it was worth, and passed out of the saloon on to the hotel.
The scout already had a room there, and the surgeon was given one next to him, and so they repaired to them at once.
“It came over me, Bill, to follow you, believing I might be of service. I am not superstitious, as you know, but I had a dream in which I saw you in a close place with Indians about you, and when I awoke it was all so vivid to me that I wrote the colonel a note and started upon your trail without waiting untildawn. I went on to the end of Horseshoe Ned’s run, and he told me you were going down to Pocket City, so here I came.”
“And just in time, Frank, to save my life.”
“It seems so. I was told you were here, so I went over to the Den and saw what was going on, so chipped in. But, though I postponed matters for a while, we both would have been food for coyotes at this present time had not Bonnie Belle arrived as she did.”
“And how did she come?”
“I do not know.”
“She started East from the Junction.”
“Well, she came here instead, fortunately for us—— Come in!”
A Chinese servant entered and said:
“Misses say ’Melican man come with Chinaman.”
This invitation was promptly accepted by the surgeon and the scout, and they were led by the Chinaman to the private quarters of Bonnie Belle. There she had a supper spread out for them, though it was after one o’clock, and, receiving them cordially, said:
“I wish to have a talk with you, gentlemen, and you will join me at supper, please.”
They readily consented, the Chinaman waiting uponthe table, and Bonnie Belle showing herself to be a most charming hostess.
The supper over, and the Chinaman having departed, Bonnie Belle handed her guests a couple of fine cigars and said:
“I enjoy the fragrance of tobacco smoke, so please light them.”
They did so, and then Bonnie Belle threw herself into an easy chair in a tired way and said:
“I am really fatigued, for I have had a long ride since leaving the fort. I knew that you were upon my trail, Buffalo Bill, and I am glad that you were, as you came up in time to have served both Horseshoe Ned and myself well, but for the fact that our enemy had already been placed hors de combat.”
“Yes, you are fully able to protect yourself, Bonnie Belle,” said the scout.
“And others, too,” remarked Surgeon Powell.
“Well, as I wished to throw you off the scent I went on eastward by stage; but only for a couple of stations, where I secured a horse and guide, going across country to head off Sandy on his way here. I caught his coach and made him promise not to tell of my arrival, so he drove, as there were no other passengers, at once to the stables, and I got out there and ran tomy rooms here. It was Sandy who heard of the row in the Den, and he came for me, just as I intended going into the saloon as a surprise. Now I have a favor to ask of both of you.”
“Granted before asked,” said Surgeon Powell.
“Ditto,” responded Buffalo Bill.
“You are very kind, to offer to grant me a favor without knowing what it is. Suppose I ask you something that you cannot conscientiously do?” said Bonnie Belle, with a smile.
“That is impossible, foryouwould not ask anything of us which we cannot conscientiously do,” was the response of the surgeon.
“It is not too much to ask, I feel. It would have to be much, indeed, for us to refuse you, Bonnie Belle, for both of us owe you our lives, and you may be sure, if not profuse in thanks, we appreciate that we are under obligations to you,” and Surgeon Powell’s manner was sincere.
“Do not speak of what I did, for one does not deserve either thanks or gratitude for doing one’s duty. No, I only wished to ask you both not to betray me.”
“Not to betray you?”
“Yes, for no one knows here, except you two gentlemen,that I am the sister of the condemned outlaw, Silk Lasso Sam. Not a soul do I wish to know it.”
“And no one shall through me,” said Powell.
“Nor through word of mine,” added Buffalo Bill.
“I believe that Captain Caruth suspected me, and yet when I met him face to face at the fort he did not by any act show that he did. He simply looked as though he recalled Bonnie Belle in Miss Ruth Arden, and, if so, I wish that you would ask him also to keep my secret.”
“I will.”
“And he will do it.”
“I do not care to have any one here know that I am the sister of the outlaw, for it would bring me under a suspicion here with many which I would not care for. Now I can do good, and I have a certain power over the wildest spirits here, which you had an opportunity to see yourselves to-night.”
“We did, indeed,” said Buffalo Bill.
“And it was in our behalf. You have indeed wonderful power over the wild savages that congregate here in Pocket City,” the surgeon remarked.
“As the sister of the outlaw chief, no matter how innocent I might be, you can well understand how I would lose my power. A wicked man might influencethem, yet not a wicked woman. It is only by holding myself pure in all things that I retain my influence, and I wish to be so respected unto the end.”
“You are a very remarkable woman, Bonnie Belle, and one whom both Cody and myself hold the highest respect for. Let me tell you, if it is a pleasure for you to know it, that you are most highly respected and admired by all at the fort, especially by the warm friends you made in Colonel Dunwoody, Major and Mrs. Lester, and Miss Carr.
“Did they know you as Bonnie Belle they would not change their opinions in one iota regarding you. But, I can well understand that this community, knowing you to be the sister of Silk Lasso Sam, would at once suspect you of being secretly his ally in wrong-doing, so your secret shall be kept.”
“I thank you most sincerely, Surgeon Powell.”
“And permit me to say, Bonnie Belle, that I switch off your trail at once. I followed, for I believed that you intended to rescue your brother,” said Buffalo Bill. “I believed that you went to the fort to accomplish it by strategy, and, finding yourself thwarted, gave it up. Then, I frankly confess, my idea was that you intended to accomplish by force what you had failed to do by strategy, that is, secure a number ofmen here who would follow your lead and thus rescue your brother.”
“No, I would not accomplish his rescue, save his life even, by the taking of another life. What I could not accomplish by strategy I would not do by force.”
“I can believe that of you now, since what you have done and said to-night.”
“Let me tell you, Buffalo Bill, what I could have done to-night,” said Bonnie Belle eagerly.
“Yes.”
“I could have seized both you and Surgeon Powell, sent you into hiding where your best scouts could not have found you, and there have held you as hostages to be given in exchange for my brother, or put to death if he was executed.”
“You are right; you surely could have done that.”
“Without doubt,” added Frank Powell.
“But I would not do so, and I would not be known as connected with the outlaw in any way, and I thank you both for your promise not to betray me. It is late now, so I will say good night, and I will be glad to have you breakfast with me at nine, for that will give you seven hours’ sleep. Good night.”
They bowed themselves out, both impressed with the thought that they had stood in the presence of avery superior woman and one as pure as a pearl, in spite of her surroundings and the calling she followed as mistress of the Frying Pan and the Devil’s Den.
“Frank, I would not place a straw in the way of that girl to do her harm,” said Buffalo Bill, as the two friends reached their room.
“I would protect her from harm with my life, Bill,” was the Surgeon Scout’s rejoinder.
“Do you know she takes the coming execution of her brother, loving him as she does, very coolly.
“Yes, Bill, and it sets me to thinking.”
“And me.”
“You have an idea?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“That she may accomplish by strategy after all the rescue of Silk Lasso Sam.”
“It may be, for she is a very clever woman, and one dangerous to balk when she sets her mind upon carrying out a plot.”