MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES.
Nick Nomad had disappeared with such a mystery in the manner of his
going that Buffalo Bill was bewildered.
The room into which Nomad had run was, apparently, but an ordinary
room, with no door but the one he had gone through; and it had but
one window, which was closed and locked, and which, the scout was
absolutely sure, Nomad had not opened. Even a casual examination of
that window was enough to show that Nomad would not have had time to
open it and get through it before the scout’s appearance; and even
if he could have succeeded in doing that, he could not, from the
outside, have locked it, for it was locked from the inside.
Buffalo Bill stood amazed and aghast when, after much calling, he
had no response, and after much examination he could not solve the
mystery.
The floor, the walls, the ceiling, were solid; the window was closed
tightly, and the one door had been in sight, and Nomad had not come
out by it. He had gone into that room, and then had “evaporated.”
While the scout was still puzzling over this singular thing, Pizen
Kate appeared at the outer door of the house, which she pushed open
boldly, and entered. Figuratively, there was blood in her eye, and
she was painted for the warpath. She looked suspiciously at the
scout.
“Where is he?” she said. “He came in here! You been helpin’ him?”
“Madam, I wish I knew.”
“Well, if you was here, you seen him, didn’t ye? Where’d he go?
Before I git through with him I’m goin’ to l’arn him a few things,
you bet! Run away from me in Kansas City, he did--and jes’ now, when
I was lecturin’ him on the sin of his acts, he kited out ag’in. He
come in here, fer I seen him; but he outrun me. Now, where is he?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Well, why _don’t_ you know? Didn’t you see him come in?”
“I did. He went into that room. I was to follow him, for I wanted to
have a talk with him; but when I entered the room he was not in it.
If you can find him, or tell what became of him, I shall be obliged
to you, for I’m as anxious to know where he is as you are.”
She gave him a stare of disbelief, then she walked to the door and
looked in.
“He ain’t in there,” she said, withdrawing her head, “and he never
was in there, and you know it. Playin’ with my feelin’s, aire ye?
And me a pore, lone woman! Well, now that’s what I’d expect of you,
Persimmon Pete, and nothin’ else. You’ve hid him away, and aire
laughin’ at me, thinkin’ it’s smart. But you’ll find I ain’t a lady
to be trifled with. I want my husband.” She planted herself before
the scout and flourished her ancient umbrella. “I want my ondutiful
husband, and I want him this minute!”
The scout was too anxious and too greatly mystified to laugh.
“Madam, if I knew where he was, I shouldn’t turn him over to your
tender mercies, but I don’t know where he is.”
“Do you mean to tell me he went into that room, and then drapped out
o’ sight?”
“He did.”
She went to the door and looked in again.
“You used to tell some big lies, Persimmon Pete, when you was sellin’
that Injun medicine, that you said would cure about anything in
creation; but you must have been practicin’ some lately, fer that’s
the biggest lie that ever was told.”
“It looks it,” he admitted.
She glared at him in disbelief.
“I can’t stay to talk with you,” he added, “for I’m going to call for
Latimer. He may be able to explain this thing. There must be a way
out of that room which I know nothing about and cannot discover.”
“What is it?” called Latimer.
“Will you be so good as to come here?” Cody asked. “Here’s a mystery
that is baffling and serious, but you may be able to make it seem
quite simple.”
Latimer came forward. “Yes?” he said questioningly.
“Nomad came into this hall but a little while ago. He was hurrying,
and as he came in he told me to follow him into that room, as he
wished a word with me in private. I followed him to the door, and
then on into the room; but he wasn’t there. He did not come out by
the door, for it was in my view all the time, and he could not have
gone out by the window and left it locked on the inside, if he’d had
time, which he had not. Will you be so good as to point out what
other way he could have gone out of that room?”
Latimer hesitated.
“Will you step to the door and look in,” said the scout.
John Latimer obeyed this, but when he turned about his face showed
agitation.
“It’s one of the mysteries of this strange place,” he said, in a low
voice. “All of my servants have disappeared in just that way. For
a while they are here working around; then they are gone. I don’t
know what becomes of them. I get other servants, and they likewise
disappear.”
His manner was agitated. Buffalo Bill stood aghast.
“Are you in sober earnest, Mr. Latimer?”
“Never more so,” was the answer.
Pizen Kate stared her disbelief, and then broke into a cackle of
spiteful laughter.
“Do ye think it’s nice,” she said, “for two men to try to fool a
pore, lone woman in that way? I found my lawful and wedded husband
here, after chasin’ him all the way frum Kansas City. And you,
sympathizin’ with him in his abandonment of me, his true and lovin’
wife, git up this kind of a yarn to keep me frum takin’ him back with
me.”
John Latimer seemed hurt by the accusation. Buffalo Bill strode
again to the door, and then walked on into the room. He began to
sound the walls with the butt of a revolver, and to sound the boards
of the floor with his heels. Latimer followed him to the door.
Pizen Kate was still raving, accusing them of conspiring to deprive
her of her husband.
“Woman, will you stop that clatter?” cried Latimer, whose nerves were
jarred by her abusive talk.
“No, I will not!” she declared. “Not till I’ve found that man, and
had the law on you two men fer hidin’ him away from me. Do ye suppose
I’m fool enough to believe sich a story as you’re tellin’?”
Buffalo Bill came out of the room baffled. “Have these other
disappearances been just in this way?” he inquired of Latimer.
“Not in just that way, Cody. I’ve twice sent servants on errands,
from which they have never returned. Once, a month ago, I had a
servant girl at work in my kitchen. I was in my own rooms. I heard
her scream. When I got to the kitchen there was not a soul in it, and
I have seen nothing of that girl since.”
Pizen Kate stared at him.
“You’re just tellin’ that to scare me away from this place.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“You never saw anything strange yourself?” asked the scout.
“Never.”
“And you have formed no theory to account for it?”
“I haven’t been able to, Cody.”
Pizen Kate walked into the room and began to look it over.
“I’ve had a good deal of dealings with men,” she said, as she came
out, “and I know that you two fellers aire lyin’. But if you think
you kin scare Pizen Kate that easy, then you don’t know her. I come
here huntin’ fer my lawful husband, and I’m goin’ to stay till I find
him.”
Buffalo Bill made now another inspection of the mysterious room, and
this time he was accompanied in his examination of it by Latimer.
Pizen Kate stood in the door, keenly watching them, and now and then
sarcastically commenting.
Buffalo Bill had never been more puzzled in his life than when he
gave up further search there as a useless waste of time. He now
commenced a thorough search of the house, asking Latimer’s aid, while
Pizen Kate went to the outside, as if she thought she might be in
a better position to see there; for she doubtless reasoned that if
Nomad was still in the house, and tried to get out of it, he could
not easily do so and escape her eyes.
Buffalo Bill’s search was unavailing. Nick Nomad was gone.