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 half an 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 until dawn. 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 upon the 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 to my 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, for _you_ would 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 influence them, 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 of men 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 a very 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.”