Buffalo Bill’s Bold Play
OR,
THE TIGER OF THE HILLS
BY
Colonel Prentiss Ingraham
Author of the celebrated “Buffalo Bill” stories published in the
BORDER STORIES. For other titles see catalogue.
[Illustration: (Colophon)]
STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
PUBLISHERS
79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York
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| Copyright, 1909 |
| By STREET & SMITH |
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| Buffalo Bill’s Bold Play |
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(Printed in the United States of America)
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
languages, including the Scandinavian.
CONTENTS
PAGE
IN APPRECIATION OF WILLIAM F. CODY 1
I. JUNIPER JOE’S JUBILEE. 5
II. “JACKSON DANE, DETECTIVE.” 15
III. THE BARON FINDS EXCITEMENT. 29
IV. SUSPICIONS. 40
V. THE SURPRISE AT JUNIPER JOE’S. 49
VI. THE BARON’S ADVENTURES. 57
VII. A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 71
VIII. STRANGE DISAPPEARANCES. 83
IX. THE CHASE. 88
X. STARTLING REVELATIONS. 99
XI. THE FOOL OF FOLLY MOUNTAIN. 106
XII. THE MISSION OF WHITE-EYED MOSES. 117
XIII. BENSON ACTS. 127
XIV. A WORRIED SHERIFF. 133
XV. THE SHERIFF’S WARNING. 145
XVI. THE GOPHER BITES. 151
XVII. THE BARON’S EXPERIENCE. 158
XVIII. AN ASSASSIN AT WORK. 167
XIX. SHIFTING THE PRISONERS. 182
XX. SPRINGING THE TRAP. 196
XXI. TIM BENSON’S ESCAPE. 206
XXII. TIM BENSON’S CLEVERNESS. 211
XXIII. BUFFALO BILL’S HOLD-UP. 221
XXIV. GORILLA JAKE. 237
XXV. THE BETTS BROTHERS. 253
XXVI. IN THE UTE VILLAGES. 259
XXVII. MATT SHEPARD AND THE MASSACRE. 263
XXVIII. HOW IT WORKED. 275
XXIX. THE DARING OF BILL BETTS. 294
XXX. THE CAPTURE OF BENSON. 305
IN APPRECIATION OF WILLIAM F. CODY
(BUFFALO BILL).
It is now some generations since Josh Billings, Ned Buntline, and
Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, intimate friends of Colonel William F.
Cody, used to forgather in the office of Francis S. Smith, then
proprietor of the _New York Weekly_. It was a dingy little office on
Rose Street, New York, but the breath of the great outdoors stirred
there when these old-timers got together. As a result of these
conversations, Colonel Ingraham and Ned Buntline began to write of
the adventures of Buffalo Bill for Street & Smith.
Colonel Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa, February 26, 1846.
Before he had reached his teens, his father, Isaac Cody, with his
mother and two sisters, migrated to Kansas, which at that time was
little more than a wilderness.
When the elder Cody was killed shortly afterward in the Kansas
“Border War,” young Bill assumed the difficult rôle of family
breadwinner. During 1860, and until the outbreak of the Civil War,
Cody lived the arduous life of a pony-express rider. Cody volunteered
his services as government scout and guide and served throughout
the Civil War with Generals McNeil and A. J. Smith. He was a
distinguished member of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry.
During the Civil War, while riding through the streets of St. Louis,
Cody rescued a frightened schoolgirl from a band of annoyers. In true
romantic style, Cody and Louisa Federci, the girl, were married March
6, 1866.
In 1867 Cody was employed to furnish a specified amount of buffalo
meat to the construction men at work on the Kansas Pacific Railroad.
It was in this period that he received the sobriquet “Buffalo Bill.”
In 1868 and for four years thereafter Colonel Cody served as scout
and guide in campaigns against the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. It was
General Sheridan who conferred on Cody the honor of chief of scouts
of the command.
After completing a period of service in the Nebraska legislature,
Cody joined the Fifth Cavalry in 1876, and was again appointed chief
of scouts.
Colonel Cody’s fame had reached the East long before, and a great
many New Yorkers went out to see him and join in his buffalo hunts,
including such men as August Belmont, James Gordon Bennett, Anson
Stager, and J. G. Heckscher. In entertaining these visitors at Fort
McPherson, Cody was accustomed to arrange wild-West exhibitions. In
return his friends invited him to visit New York. It was upon seeing
his first play in the metropolis that Cody conceived the idea of
going into the show business.
Assisted by Ned Buntline, novelist, and Colonel Ingraham, he started
his “Wild West” show, which later developed and expanded into “A
Congress of the Rough Riders of the World,” first presented at Omaha,
Nebraska. In time it became a familiar yearly entertainment in the
great cities of this country and Europe. Many famous personages
attended the performances, and became his warm friends, including Mr.
Gladstone, the Marquis of Lorne, King Edward, Queen Victoria, and the
Prince of Wales, now King of England.
At the outbreak of the Sioux, in 1890 and 1891, Colonel Cody served
at the head of the Nebraska National Guard. In 1895 Cody took up the
development of Wyoming Valley by introducing irrigation. Not long
afterward he became judge advocate general of the Wyoming National
Guard.
Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill) died in Denver, Colorado, on January
10, 1917. His legacy to a grateful world was a large share in
the development of the West, and a multitude of achievements in
horsemanship, marksmanship, and endurance that will live for ages.
His life will continue to be a leading example of the manliness,
courage, and devotion to duty that belonged to a picturesque phase
of American life now passed, like the great patriot whose career it
typified, into the Great Beyond.
BUFFALO BILL’S BOLD PLAY.
CHAPTER I.
JUNIPER JOE’S JUBILEE.
When that wonderful invitation was read by the masculine element and
the few women of Blossom Range, it created a sensation, announcing,
as it did, that Juniper Joe’s jubilee was to consist of his marriage
to a charming widow of the East, Mrs. Rafferty, followed by a dance
and “refreshments.”
Stuck up in front of the post office, in none too legible
handwriting, it invited the whole town.
The ending was a screamer:
“If you-all what sees this invitation dont come, you shore will
miss the only first-class happenin that, so fur, has hit this
hyer lively hamlet. I aint seen Mrs. Rafferty yit; but I have her
photographt, an shes all to the good, jedgin by it. Anyway, I’m
takin the risks. Every man what is goin to laff at me had better
come armed; and every man what is goin to envy me my good fortune
why he had better come armed, too. The ceremony will be performed
strictly accordin to Hoyle, by our cellerbated feller townsmen an
Jestis of the Peace Jedge Abercrombie Morris. After the weddin
there will be a dance, and after the dance refreshments of the kind
you-all can appreciate. The music aint goin to be no Wagnerian
concert stuff, but somethin that has got a lively jump in it;
furnished by that prince of fiddlers White-eyed Moses. And jokes
about Moses’ eyes or nose will provoke a homicide. Likewise anybody
callin’ his fiddle a violin will be shot on the spot. What the
refreshments aire to consist of will depend on what sort of truck
Gopher Gabe happens to have in stock behind his bar when the happy
day arrives.”
The thing was signed by “Juniper Joe.”
What the fellow’s real name was few, if any, knew; some said it was
Mason, some Morgan, some even slandered him by claiming that he
walked about among men bearing the plebeian cognomen of John Jones,
where he was better known.
Juniper Joe’s cabin--it was a big one--stood right at the edge of
the camp of Blossom Range, on the east. The back of it burrowed into
a hill; and in that hill was Juniper Joe’s mine. No one could get
into the mine, it was claimed, unless he went through the house; and
the house was always locked, when Juniper Joe was at work, or not
receiving company.
The mine had gained great fame lately. Juniper Joe had struck
“pockets” that were wonderfully rich, judging by Blossom Range
standards. They were rather high standards, too; for other men, in
other holes in the ground, were making good strikes, all round the
town.
It was because he had been so phenomenally lucky that had induced
Juniper Joe to seek a helpmate; he wanted a woman to share his
joys and sorrows, and help him to spend his surplus cash. He might
have got one even in Blossom Range, on account of the plutocratic
reputation he had suddenly acquired; but he preferred to pass them
by and seek in fields afar for the future partner of his bosom. So he
said.
Juniper Joe’s invitations were a ten days’ sensation; they would have
been a month’s sensation, if that time had intervened before the
wedding and the dance.
When the stage came in from Calumet Springs, on the morning of the
day fixed, every man who could be there was down at the stables, for
it was known that the stage was bringing the bride.
Juniper Joe was there, of course, at the forefront, ready to welcome
to this “garden spot of the mountains” the future Mrs. Joe. Also, he
was arrayed regardless; in solemn black, with a shirt and collar as
white as Mrs. Maginniss, the laundry lady, could make them; and by
extra pay she had been spurred to do her best. Topping his head was a
silk cady of the previous year’s vintage, which he had bought of the
one Jew pawnbroker of the place. The pawnbroker had worn it the first
day he came into the camp; there was still a dent in one side, where
the brickbat had landed which expressed the town’s disapproval of
that style of headgear. Israel Silverman, being by nature a wise man,
had then laid the cady gently away in moth balls; only to resurrect
it and sell it to Juniper Joe.
On this day no one took a shot with brickbat or stone at the shining
hat. One reason was that Juniper Joe had a “hostyle” temper when he
was aroused by what he considered an insult; the second reason was
a double one, but like it; he had two revolvers belted to his manly
waist, under the tails of his black broadcloth.
There was some disappointment when Mrs. Rafferty descended from the
stage; _she was veiled!_ It was a staggering blow to the curiosity
of Blossom Range. But she recognized Juniper Joe, when he rushed to
meet her; and the envious crowd was permitted to see her walk away,
with her arm hooked through his, to the “hack” he had ordered.
He escorted her, in the hack, to the best hotel in Blossom Range,
where he left her for the time being.
One other circumstance must be mentioned, in connection with that
arrival, which created almost as much curiosity as the coming of the
Widow Rafferty.
Out of the same stage coach stepped a tall man, of handsome carriage
and almost military bearing; a small, oldish man, with a seamed face
and whitening hair; and a round-bodied man, whose legs were thin as
pipe stems. They, too, took their way to the self-same hotel; but
they walked.
When they had been in the town less than an hour, it became known, or
noised about, that the three men were Buffalo Bill and his two pards,
Nick Nomad and Baron Schnitzenhauser.
But what were they there for?
Nobody could answer the question, and few people thought of them
long. Time could not be wasted on people, even so prominent, when
every one in town had to think all the while of the coming “jubilee.”
Yet the three were not wholly forgotten; for along in the afternoon a
copy of that queer invitation found its way to the men mentioned.
To it was appended a little postscript:
“Mrs. Rafferty says that as you-all was so pleasant to her while
she was with ye in the stage from Calumet Springs, that she thinks
highly of ye, and has suggested that it would be ther proper caper
if, though bein strangers, you was invited. Tharfore it’s hopin
that you-all will feel free to look on at the weddin, fling a
heel in the dancin, and sample the refreshments all ye like. In
this I am gladly jinin Mrs. Rafferty; though, at the same time,
acknowledgin that hers is the gentle hand at present on the tiller
of the bark matrimonyul. So here’s again hopin you-all will come.”
This, too, was signed “Juniper Joe.”
It is almost needless to say that the trio went.
The fiddle of White-eyed Moses was scraping, and thudding feet shook
the rafters at the time of the arrival of Buffalo Bill and his pards
at Jubilee Joe’s cabin. But the wedding ceremony had not yet taken
place. The premature dancing was due to certain men so hilariously
inclined that they had “tipped” the fiddler, and set him to going
ahead of time, because they could not wait.
But this ended, when Abercrombie Morris came into the room and asked
for quiet, announcing that the momentous moment had arrived.
“Honored as we aire this evening,” said “Judge” Morris, “we aire
under obligations to conduct ourselves as ladies and gents, and lend
a listenin’ ear to the sollum words which is goin’ to bind this man
and woman together in the holy bonds o’ matrimony.”
He was “sollum” enough himself, in his black clothing, his fat,
florid face clean-shaven, his hair plastered down tight against his
scalp with pomade; he was the only “legal light” in Blossom Range,
and appraised himself accordingly.
The main room, large as it was, was crowded to suffocation, the
guests wedging themselves round the walls in closely packed ranks,
leaving an open space in the centre, where Morris had taken his stand.
Buffalo Bill and his pards were near the outer door, but in a
position where they could witness everything that took place.
A hush fell on the crowd, as a door at the other end of the room
opened, and the bride and groom appeared in it.
Mrs. Rafferty, revealing herself for the first time, was seen to be
a medium-sized woman, light-haired, and much painted and powdered.
She was dressed in white, and carried roses. Rumor said, afterward,
that they had been ordered from Frisco, at a staggering price, by the
happy bridegroom. Mrs. Rafferty was almost as solemn in appearance as
Morris; but Juniper Joe shot happy glances here and there, apparently
willing to think that all the men in the room were dying of envy.
Abercrombie Morris, Justice of the Peace, having never officiated on
such an occasion, bungled the marriage service through nervousness;
yet drew it out to a wonderful length, sure that in Blossom Range
Fate would not soon give him such opportunity.
The crowd was respectful; it would have been quite as much so, even
if it had not noted the bulging of the coat tails of the bridegroom.
When Abercrombie Morris had pronounced the couple “husband and wife,”
Juniper Joe took much apparent delight in introducing his bride to
every one in the house he could reach conveniently.
When it was through, he made a little speech.
“What I has to say, ladies and feller citizens, is: ‘Go and do
likewise.’ Thar, on the wall, set in a picture frame which I made
to-day myself, is the thing which worked the trick fer me; and any of
you can use the same means, and make a copy of it, if you want to do
as I did.”
He pointed to an advertisement cut from a newspaper, which he had
framed and stuck against the wall.
“I don’t need to sling no wise advice to the ladies present; fer they
aire knowin’ well to the fact that they can each and every one of
’em git married any minute that they say the word. So I directs my
remarks to the male sect; which, because it’s out o’ all proportion
with the other in this hyer town, don’t have much of a show. In the
East, thar’s women so numerous that they fair jostles each other,
without half enough men to go round; a condition that is highly
prejudicial to the good of society both hyer and thar. Most any o’
them women would jump at a chanct to marry a likely man, ’specially
if he could show a good bank account. The hills round this hamlet
aire sproutin’ with gold, in pockets, leads, fissure veins, and every
other way; every man hyer has got a cinch on wealth, if only he’ll
hustle. And that wealth will git him a wife, if he wants one; it’s
what brung me mine.”
He looked round, beaming, the woman at his side.
“That’s all,” he said; “except that the room will now be cleared
fer the dancin’. White-eyed Moses has promised to hand out some o’
his choicest toe-ticklin’ selections; and you-all know how he can
do it. No firearms er knives to be allowed on the dancin’ floor; no
altercations permitted, neither. The first gent that starts one will
be bounced.”
He swung on round, still smiling, a gaunt figure, in his black
clothing.
“So,” he finished, “that’s all; git yer pardners.”
In order to do that, as there was so few women, some of the men
knotted handkerchiefs round their left arms, to indicate that they
were “women”; and the dancing began, as White-eyed Moses struck up
one of his lively quadrilles.
The new Mrs. Juniper Joe--no one could remember that even in the
ceremony Abercrombie Morris had called him anything but Juniper
Joe!--tried to dance with nearly every man there, when they besieged
her for that favor; and only gave over the attempt because the
fiddler’s arm took a cramp at last, and he stopped fiddling.
The new Mrs. Juniper Joe thus proved that she was certainly of the
strenuous type, so far as muscular activity was concerned.
As the dancing ended, and there was a rush for the “refreshments,” a
thing occurred which threw every one into a flutter of excitement.
A man who, as it appeared later, had not been invited came in. He was
a small, lithe man, with a smooth face, and keen, light-blue eyes;
Buffalo Bill had observed him almost as soon as he was in the room,
and wondered who he was.
His discovery, close by the door, which was open behind him, brought
quick work on the part of the hitherto smiling bridegroom. Juniper
Joe’s revolvers bounced out of their hiding places beneath his coat
tails, and were fired as soon as he could swing them up; the two
reports, one from each revolver, crashing together.
The lithe little man tumbled backward against the door, which his
fall half closed.
As he did so, he sent a shot which smashed the one light--a huge
kerosene lamp suspended from the ceiling--thus plunging the room into
darkness.
There was wild confusion following this shooting. Men tumbled
headlong out of the place, by the doors and windows; those who
remained flung themselves flat on the floor, to escape possible
bullets.
The loud voice of Juniper Joe was heard, commanding that another lamp
should be brought.
“I guess I got him,” he said.
But when the lamp was brought, from another room, the little man was
not found, dead or wounded, by the door. Juniper Joe’s bullets had
gone through the wood of the door; but neither on the door, nor the
floor by it, was there a stain of blood.
There were naturally vociferous howls for an explanation, by the men
who had dropped for safety; this thing of a man beginning pistol work
like that seemed to call for an apology.
Juniper Joe gave it, in a few crisp and characteristic words.
“That feller, gents,” he said, “was Tim Benson, road agent and
gin’ral outlaw, what I’m shore has been doin’ the hold-up work
recently on these hyer trails. I seen him onct, at Holbrook, when
he made a gitaway, after robbin’ the Holbrook stage. He got five
thousand dollars o’ my good money at that time, and I swore I’d kill
him if ever I got a chanct. I thought I had the chanct, jes’ now; but
dropped it, somehow. I reckon I didn’t hit him, fer he shot out the
light, and seems to have hit the safe places outside somewhar.”
Not many of the guests tarried for the “refreshments” after that.
Some went to look for Tim Benson; others, scared, thought it best to
take themselves off. In ten minutes after the shooting, Juniper Joe’s
cabin was nearly emptied.