A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE.
Some three months before the opening of this story, the Hale emigrant
train had pulled out from Border City, bound for Colorado, under the
guidance of a noted gambler, who had suddenly offered his services to
run the settlers to their destination.
This gambler guide was Kent King, a man well known as a good prairie
scout, yet supposed to think too much of his comfort to take to the
hardships of an overland journey again.
A skillful card player, he always had plenty of money; and, with the
education of a gentleman, he was very popular in the society of that
day. Judge Hale, the head and front of the settler’s train, was warned
against the Gambler Guide.
Hale was told that Kent King was only going in that capacity on
account of Mary Hale, the only child of the judge; but the warning was
unheeded, and the train pulled out on its way to the Far West.
As Kent King was a thorough plainsman, a dead shot, and a man of
undisputed courage, there were many along who congratulated themselves
upon their luck in securing as good a guide. But, from the first, it
was evident that Mary Hale was the attraction which drew Kent King. It
was also evident that the judge seemed willing that his daughter should
receive the attentions of the guide.
In fact, Judge Hale encouraged them to such an extent that Parson
Miller, an emigrating preacher along with the train, was notified to
hold himself in readiness to perform a marriage ceremony within a few
days.
That the wedding would have taken place there is no doubt but for the
timely arrival in camp of Buffalo Bill, the army scout. When Buffalo
Bill heard that the girl, with the consent of her father, was to be
forced into an immediate marriage with the gambler, he decided at once
that she should not be so sacrificed.
Buffalo Bill knew that the Gambler Guide was one of the most desperate
characters on the border. Therefore, he sought out a character of the
train, whose bargaining propensities had gained for him the name of Old
Negotiate, and held a conversation with him, the result of which was
the conclusion between them that without a parson there would be no
wedding.
And there was no wedding, for the next morning the parson and Old
Negotiate went on a hunt; the former got lost and was found by Buffalo
Bill; and when they at last reached the train, weeks after, they were
accompanied by a band of Texas herders known as Revolver Riders.
This band the reader has already met in this story, in the party of
Captain Dash and his men.
Their arrival in the camp of the settlers caused a change. Kent King
was taken prisoner by Captain Dash, who determined to carry him to
Texas, to be tried there for crimes committed, and Buffalo Bill was
made the guide of the train to Denver.
The judge seemed delighted at the change, for he had been acting under
a power held over him by the gambler, who held some secret of his past
life.