THE SURGEON SCOUT’S WARNING.
Frank Powell’s wounds were painful, though not serious. He had been
taken to one of the pleasantest rooms in the Frying Pan, and thither
went Bonnie Belle and a Chinese servant, with water, arnica, and
bandages.
“I have come to dress your wounds, Surgeon Powell, under your
direction,” she said, with a smile.
“They amount to but little to one who has roughed it as I have, Miss
Arden.”
“There, you are calling me Miss Arden, when you know that here I am
Bonnie Belle.”
“I will not mistake again, Bonnie Belle.”
“Here, Chin-Chin, get ready to help me,” and, having placed the basin
and other things upon the table, she drew back the collar of the
surgeon’s shirt and glanced at the wound.
“What do you think of it?” she asked.
“The bullet passed through, and touched no bones, so it will soon
heal,” he said.
She then bathed the two wounds where the bullet cut its way in and
out and bandaged the shoulder firmly.
“Now to that cut upon the head.”
The blow had cut to the bone, but the skull was not injured, and,
being washed clean, she took a couple of stitches, drawing it
together, after which it was also dressed carefully.
Chin-Chin, meanwhile, was sent for some supper for the Surgeon Scout,
who ate heartily of what was brought to him, and, left to himself,
was soon after sound asleep.
The next day Bonnie Belle visited him with Chin-Chin, again dressed
his wounds, and then said:
“Now, Surgeon Powell, I have written a letter to the fort that you
are here, and I suppose a troop will soon be sent for you.”
“Yes, but there was no need of it, as I could have gone on alone.”
“No, sir, that I would not allow, for brave and strong as you are you
are not able to take that ride alone, so you are to remain here until
your comrades come for you.”
“You are the captain, Bonnie Belle, and so I obey. But I have
something to say to you.”
“Well, sir?”
“You do not know that Buffalo Bill is on my trail.”
She started and asked:
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that Buffalo Bill was to follow the coach to the end of the
run. He did not say as much, but I feel sure that he did so.”
“Yes.”
“Of course he came upon the scene where the coach had been held up,
and where were the bodies of the rescuer and of Horseshoe Ned, if the
latter was killed, which I doubt.”
“I think I see your meaning now.”
“Yes, for Buffalo Bill coming upon this scene read it like an open
book. He returned to the fort and got a force with which to follow
the rescuers, and he did so with all the promptness for which he is
famous. That is the way I read it, anyhow.”
“And that means that he will come here?”
“Yes, and very soon.”
“But my brother guarded against that by dividing the men, as you
know, and covering up the trails as well as he could.”
“Your brother did not guard against the fact that Buffalo Bill was
upon his trail. He supposed that it would, perhaps, be a couple of
days before the rescue was known, and so the trails would be in a
manner stale before there would be any one on his track. What became
of his rescuers he doubtless did not care, so long as he reached you
in safety and found a hiding-place.”
“I fear such is the nature of my brother, Doctor Powell.”
“I merely judge him by his actions in the past, and, though I feel
that he deserves hanging, and should be hanged without any hesitation
if taken, as he will surely be, for your sake I give you this
warning.”
“It is most kind of you.”
“No, it is just to you, for I feel that you are here, living the life
you do, only to save your brother, to redeem him. You have played
a bold game for his rescue, and as you believe in his reformation,
as he has pledged himself to lead a different life, I shall not be
the one to thwart you, so give you a warning that if Buffalo Bill
comes here with his scouts, as he surely will, he will ferret out the
hiding-place of your brother, and you will see him hanged before your
eyes, I very much fear.”
“Then you would advise me to at once remove him to a safe retreat?”
anxiously asked Bonnie Bell.
“I would advise you to send him far from here at once, Bonnie
Belle. If he goes back to his old ways of wickedness again, then
you have done far more than your duty by him, and he must take the
consequences.”
“Yes, it must be so,” she said sadly, and then, as she turned from
the room, she continued:
“I thank you, Surgeon Powell; and I will at once take your advice.”
“I may have done wrong, but it was in justice to that noble girl,”
muttered the Surgeon Scout, when left alone.
From the room of the Surgeon Scout Bonnie Belle went with very
thoughtful face to her room.
She soon made her arrangements for bringing the outlaw to her own
quarters, for she could do nothing else.
Then she looked the situation squarely in the face and decided to
speak and act at once. Delays are dangerous, and, with Buffalo Bill
upon the trail of her brother, she understood just what it meant.
So she said, after some time spent in silent thought:
“Brother, I wish to talk with you.”
“I am very tired, sis, so say another time.”
“No, it must be now, for I have something to tell you that will
startle you.”
“Well?”
“Buffalo Bill is upon your trail.”
“How do you know this?”
“From the Surgeon Scout.”
“Bah! he has tried to frighten you.”
“And has been successful.”
“You are frightened, then?”
“I am.”
“And I am not.”
“Well, we shall see what cause you have.”
“Fire away.”
“The Surgeon Scout did not try to frighten me.”
“What then?”
“He did me a kindness, as after all I had risked and done for you he
did not wish me to see you hanged.”
“He is very kind.”
There was a sneer in the man’s tones.
“You misunderstand him, as I will prove to you. He told me that he
had been sent East by Colonel Dunwoody under orders, and that fearful
of an attack upon the coach, to rescue you--for my men were not
suspected of being treacherous, except that they might be bribed to
release you, detectives though they were supposed to be--Buffalo Bill
had decided to follow the coach, and did so.”
“Ah!”
“He therefore came upon the scene and, of course, rode back to the
fort for aid.”
“This looks bad, if true.”
“It is true, for Surgeon Powell told me for my good, with the hope
that you might have a chance to prove to me that your reformation was
sincere.”
The outlaw wore a troubled look now, for he knew what Buffalo Bill
was on a trail.
“Well, Ruth, what is to be done?”
“If you remain here, knowing as he does that you are my brother,
Buffalo Bill will prevent your escape, for he will put spies upon
this hotel and you will be captured when you least expect it.”
“It looks bad for me, sis.”
“Yes, unless you go at once from here.”
“How can I?”
“I will go to the stable and get my best horse for you, yes, two
of them, for one you can use as a pack-animal. I will fit you up a
disguise, some provisions to last you a week or more, and when all is
in readiness you can meet me at the cliff on the trail to Hangman’s
Gulch.
“That trail is well traveled, and you can take the bed of the stream
then, following down it for miles. This will destroy any trail, for
I will drag back a bush over the trail of the horses to the stream,
leaving a rope to it as though a horse had been hitched to it and had
broke away.”
“You are as ingenious as Buffalo Bill, sis.”
“When we are working for a life our brains are on the alert, brother.
Now you get the provisions, blankets, ammunition, and weapons packed
up, for I will bring them to you with the pack-saddle at once, and I
will see to the horses going to the edge of the timber. You will have
to carry the pack-saddle that far yourself, but the other horse will
be all saddled and bridled ready for you.”
“I will not mind it, Ruth; but I want the best animals you have.”
“You shall have them.”
“And you know that I have no money.”
“Indeed?”
“It is so.”
“I heard that you had been allowed to keep what you had on you of
value when taken.”
“It is not so, for I was robbed of everything,” said the outlaw with
ready lie, for he had then upon him some gold, paper money, and
valuables to the amount of ten thousand dollars.
“Well, brother, I am not sorry, for that which you had had been
gained dishonorably and would have brought you bad luck. I will
give you ten thousand dollars in bills, which you can carry easily,
and when I know in the future that you have reformed, that you have
atoned for the past all that lies within your power, then will I
share with you the fortune that I possess.”
“You are very kind to me, Ruth; but I believe if I had more money now
I could invest it so well that you would not have to give me a cent.”
“I cannot give you more now, brother; but should you need it, you
know where I told you to write to me, and I will readily help you.
But have you decided where you will go?”
“Yes, I shall go to South America somewhere and invest my money
there.”
“Well, may success attend you, brother, wherever you go. But now I
have to ask a favor of you.”
“Granted.”
“Here is our mother’s prayer-book and in it is a lock of her hair.
Will you clasp this sacred book in your hand, grasp mine with the
other, and solemnly vow to me your pledge of reformation of your life
and atonement for your past sins as far as is within your power to do
so?”
A cloud swept over the face of the outlaw, but he answered:
“I will.”
She placed the prayer-book in his left hand, grasped his right in
both her own, and then repeated the pledge she wished him to make to
her.
His voice quivered as he repeated it after her, but he kept on to the
end, and then she said:
“Brother Arden, I have perfect faith in you now that you will keep
your pledge to me. Now I must hasten to get you away under cover of
the darkness.”
And half an hour after the devoted sister parted from her outlaw
brother at the little stream, she returning to the camps dragging
after her a cedar bush to wipe out the trails of the two horses she
had led to that spot to await his coming.
And, once more a free man, Arden Leigh was launched again upon the
world, no longer known as Silk Lasso Sam, the outlaw.