THE HAPPY RETURN.
“I wish that Buffalo Bill were back,” said the commanding officer at
Fort McPherson. “The report that Indians are thick between here and
the Loup is not agreeable. It seems to me that if they are not checked
in time we’ll have a general Indian war on our hands this summer. And
Buffalo Bill is the best man to go out and talk to the chiefs and try
to drive some sense into them.
“The redskins are getting too bold, and if they make a raid on the
railway or some of the frontier settlements we’ll have all the trouble
on our hands that we’ll know how to handle.”
While he was thus speaking to the post adjutant an old man, pale and
feeble, approached him, leaning on a staff.
“Ah, Mr. Doyle! I’m glad to see you out. I trust you are feeling
better at last. We are looking with hope for the safe return of your
daughters, for it is quite time that the troop which I sent out under
Captain Meinhold returned and reported to me.”
“I have hoped until hope seems a mockery,” replied the old man. “My
sons died long since, and sometimes, when I think what may have
happened to them in the hands of those cruel redskins, I almost wish
that I knew my daughters were dead, also. Then I could bow my head to
God’s will and go to my grave conscious that I had nothing left to live
for.”
“Look--look, general!” cried the post adjutant. “No man save Buffalo
Bill rides like that!”
A man, with his long hair flowing out in the sunlight from his bare
head, waving a big white sombrero in his hand and sitting his horse as
if he and the animal were one, came riding like the wind toward the
fort.
As the three men looked they heard a cheerful bugle call sounding from
the direction of the Platte.
“Company B is coming in!” cried the adjutant.
“What is the news?” asked the general hastily, as Buffalo Bill rode up
to him. “What is the news, Colonel Cody?”
“The very best, general. We have wiped out one of the worst band of
outlaws this country was ever cursed with--the Death Riders.”
“My daughters? You don’t say a word about them!” groaned old Mr. Doyle.
“Are they dead?”
“They are alive and well, sir. They are just as happy as they can be,
and it won’t be many minutes now before they are here with you. I rode
on ahead to bring in the news.”
“Quick! Lift him up! The old gentleman has fainted!” cried the general.
He had fainted from sudden and excessive joy, and not until his
daughters arrived did he fully come back to his senses and to a
realization of the fact that there was yet happiness in store for him.
By this time the general was receiving the report of Captain Meinhold,
who had not only done the country the great service of breaking up a
most dangerous band of desperadoes, but had managed so well the care
of his command, aided by Buffalo Bill, that he had brought it back
efficient in men and horses and ready for immediate service. But the
gallant soldiers were not needed again for immediate active service,
although the captain himself was wanted at once for special duty with a
surveying party on the Great Lakes.
Mr. Doyle gave up all idea of going across the plains and the mountains
of the far West to California. The perils to which his daughters had
been subjected and the great anxiety he had suffered on their account
had thoroughly cured him of his desire to do that.
On the second day after the return to the fort Mainwaring sought out
the old gentleman, told him that he had won the love of his daughter
May, and asked his consent to their marriage.
“If the dear child loves you she must do as she likes,” Mr. Doyle
replied. “I would not stand in the way of her happiness. But it seems
rather hard that I have got to lose her again after just getting her
back.”
“You need not lose her, sir,” replied Mainwaring. “Neither May nor I
would wish that. You have decided not to go on to California, have you
not?”
“Yes. I have quite made up my mind on that matter. I have been very
fortunate in getting my dear girls back, and I won’t tempt Providence a
second time. I will expose them to no more dangers.”
“Then why not come to Texas with me, sir? It is a glorious country,
especially the section where my ranch is located. You could buy a ranch
near by my place, and see May as often as you wished. We could all be
happy together.”
The old gentleman caught eagerly at this idea, and it was carried out
without delay.
Mr. Doyle, with his great wealth, bought a handsome estate, and at his
death, several years later, it passed by his will to the eldest son of
his daughter, Mrs. Mainwaring.
Jack Mainwaring himself handsomely rewarded the scouts and troopers for
the work they had done in rescuing him and the girl who became his wife.
As Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill could not, of course, be offered money
for such work, he sent them each one of the finest Remington rifles he
could buy, as a keepsake.
His old adversary, Simon Ketchum, did not return to Danger Divide, and
was not heard of in that part of the boundless West for several years.
Then his fate was discovered by Buffalo Bill, who rode into a little
frontier settlement in Utah and saw a man swinging to the limb of a
tree, surrounded by a party of vigilantes, who had just hanged him for
horse stealing and murder.
The dead man was Simon Ketchum, who had met with his deserts at last.