CHAPTER XXXIX. A CRY FOR HELP.

In a large cavern penetrating a pile of rocks, rising to an elevation that commanded a view of the Indian village, sat Buffalo Bill. He had a strong field-glass, and for two days he had been studying the camp, and all that went in or came out of it.

He had seen many things which led him to know that Boyd Bennett was as two-faced with his Indian friends as he had been with the whites. This murder was not the first the medicine chief had done.

“Well, I’ll never get them down finer than I have them now,” he was saying thoughtfully. “I wish I had Texas here to send back word to Captain Keyes. A knowledge of the exact situation of the village and just how many warriors old Oak Heart has might be of inestimable value later--if I don’t get away again!”

The great scout intended to go into the village and boldly face the renegade. He had hoped by lingering about the place in secret to catch the medicine chief unawares, and so put him out of the way before delivering himself to the tribe. For it was Boyd Bennett alone whom the scout feared. He had a secret possession which he believed might save him from death at the hands of the Sioux, providing Bennett was not there to use his influence as medicine chief against him.

As he came to this final desperate decision, however, Buffalo Bill saw the renegade come into view among the rocks, and in his arms he carried the struggling figure of the White Antelope. Catching sight of the scout, the girl shrieked in English:

“Long Hair! Save me! save me!”

The renegade turned his bloodshot eyes upon the scout. He shrieked with ungovernable fury at him and gibbered:

“Raise your hand, Buffalo Bill, and I will kill her!”

Buffalo Bill raised his rifle and sighted pointblank at his old foe. But the scoundrel held the girl before his own body, besides threatening her with his upraised knife. At another time--or given another person than the White Antelope--the scout would have risked one of his wonderful shots and perhaps brought the bandit chief down before he could have done his captive harm. He hesitated, however, for he had great reason for desiring to save the girl’s life. The fluctuation of a hair’s breadth in his aim might put the rifle-ball into her body instead of Boyd Bennett’s.

Therefore the scout, with a groan, dropped his gun. The girl shrieked again, and in a moment Bennett leaped behind a boulder and fled along a secret path, entirely hidden from the scout’s station.

Buffalo Bill heard the girl’s heartrending shrieks as she was carried swiftly into the hills. They appealed to him strongly, and, quickly girding himself for the chase, he followed on the trail of the abductor.

The object of the bandit’s mad act Buffalo Bill did not realize. Bennett’s bloodthirsty killing of the sentinel--and formerly of Red Knife--seemed to point to the fact that the man’s brain was turned. Why he had fled now from the encampment with the chief’s daughter was a deep mystery, unless he was indeed mad.

The scout’s mind, however, was given up mainly to planning for the release of the girl and the overcoming of her captor. Boyd Bennett seemed to be alone in this abduction plot, and the scout felt rejoiced that at last it seemed he was to meet the fellow with something like an equal chance.

The principal thing now was to not give Bennett start enough to hide in the rocks. Buffalo Bill could hear the scrambling of the man with the girl in his arms, although for some time he could not see him. Not until they rounded the spur of the mountain and arrived upon the farther slope did the scout obtain a glimpse of the object of his pursuit.

Then, to his bitter disappointment, he beheld Boyd Bennett, still lugging the girl, running down the hill toward a thicket, near which was tethered a horse, saddled and bridled! As he ran the renegade--now a traitor both to the reds and the whites--uttered a shrill “coee!” and immediately a horseman appeared from behind the thicket. It was one of the outlaw’s old gang, Buffalo Bill made no doubt, and he had been here in waiting, with the extra horse for his chief and the girl.

White Antelope no longer struggled in the fiend’s arms. Buffalo Bill knew that she had fainted and lay limply across Bennett’s saddle as he put her up and mounted in such haste. But the scout was too far away now for a shot. The two villains started their horses down the slope and were quickly out of sight, and all this without a single redskin being aroused!

Plainly Bennett had planned this coup with great cunning. He had placed his own braves in positions to bar Buffalo Bill from the valley where the camp lay, but had allowed one of Oak Heart’s braves to bar one exit. That brave Cody had seen the scoundrel kill and scalp, so leaving a plain path into the encampment if the scout wished to go that way.

But two strong desires led the scout upon a different trail. His interest in White Antelope was no small interest. Happenings of late had really increased it, indeed. And Boyd Bennett must be run down!

Afoot as he was, the scout hurried after the two outlaws and their fair-haired captive, for by keeping doggedly at it a man may run down a horse. Providing the outlaws had no fresh horses and their destination was far away, Cody felt confident that he would overtake them even though he continued afoot.

But chance favored him. Bennett and his companions followed a trace through the mountains which passed within a few miles of the valley in which Buffalo Bill had left Chief, his big white horse. The scout left the trail long enough to obtain his mount, which, having fed well and being rested, was as eager for the trail as his master.

Back to the bandit’s trail the scout rode, and the white stallion flung mile after mile of the rocky way beneath his feet. Bennett and his companion had not tried to disguise their trail. Evidently they felt either sure of no pursuit, or considered themselves a match for Buffalo Bill. Bennett probably did not think that the Indians themselves would miss White Antelope until the trail was stale and he would be too far away with the girl to be overtaken.

The pursuer came upon the place where the trio had camped at noon. They had boldly built a fire and cooked food, and Cody even found the marks of the girl’s moccasins in the soft ground beside the trail. Perhaps she had shrewdly stepped there when her captors were not looking, hoping that their trail was being followed. At another place she had torn some beadwork from her garments and flung it on the ground.

“She’s a sharp girl, all right,” said Cody to himself. “And if she has confidence in my following and saving her, I swear it shall not be misplaced!”

Before night, however, the scout received a shock which made him almost despair. The trail he was following came down into a great valley through the middle of which flowed a broad river. On the river’s bank the hoof-marks of Bennett’s mount and his companion’s were joined by those of a dozen other horses!

“They’ve been caught, by thunder!” was Cody’s first thought.

Then he saw that this supposition was entirely wrong, and his heart sank. These were not unshod Indian ponies. Nor could they be a party of peaceful travelers who had joined Bennett and his friend. It was the rest of the gang. The outlaws had here joined their leader, and, instead of following two scoundrels, the scout was up against the entire gang--and single-handed!

Then did he wish that he had sought out a part of Captain Keyes’ command and brought them on this hunt for the bandit leader and his helpless captive. He shuddered to think of what might be White Antelope’s fate among these ruffians. He could not go back now for help; and yet, if he overtook the gang, what could he, a man alone, do toward getting the girl free?

Yet Buffalo Bill, the Border King, had spent years of his life in taking chances. He had been up against as serious odds before, and had come out on top. He did not hesitate for a single instant, but crossed the river at the ford, and followed the hoof-prints of the gang up the opposite bank of the river.

If they were making for their rendezvous, well and good. He would at least learn one--perhaps the principal--hiding-place of the gang, and later could bring a party to overwhelm them. Meantime, he would trust to luck and a merciful Providence to assist him in obtaining White Antelope’s release unharmed from the villainous crew.