THE GALLANT TROOPERS.
Buffalo Bill scaled successfully the slope of the mountain above the
outlaw camp and got away.
He heard the uproar in the camp, and was almost tempted to turn back,
fearing for the life of Nick Nomad; but he went on. He did not really
see how he could help Nomad without at the same time putting his own
life in such jeopardy that the risk could not be justified.
Two hours later he reached his horse, which he mounted, and then
shaped his course by the stars in the direction of the camp of
troopers.
Midnight was long past when he reached their camp and reported his
discoveries.
“I must have half an hour’s sleep,” he said, “and while I am getting
it have everything made ready for an immediate advance.”
He dropped down by one of the fires, in his clothing, and was
sleeping almost at once, as soundly as a child.
The lieutenant in command of the troopers awoke him at the end of his
brief nap. Then, once more, the redoubtable scout was in the saddle,
this time leading the troopers forth toward the discovered camp of
the desperadoes of the Sepulcher Mountains.
The men under Buffalo Bill gained the base of the mountain over
against the outlaw camp shortly before daylight, having ridden hard
to accomplish it.
There the horses were left, one man out of four dropping back to hold
them, while the other three went forward. Buffalo Bill again led the
advance, up the slopes of the mountain.
His spying of the previous afternoon had convinced him of the folly
of trying to take those barricades by assault. He did not doubt the
courage and ability of the troopers, than whom braver men never
lived, but it would have been criminal, he felt, to ask them to lay
down their lives in front of those deadly barricades when the camp
might be taken in an easier way. His plan was to climb the mountain,
and descend in the darkness just before the dawn upon the outlaw
camp, endeavoring by this descent and the suddenness of the attack to
surprise and stampede its defenders.
In spite of his strenuous efforts to get down the slope while the
darkness was densest, the very fact that the darkness was so great
kept the scout from doing this. For the descent had to be made with
caution; and, consequently, was made with wearying slowness.
The gray dawn was in the east when the troopers crouched like
mountain lions on the rocky ground that overhung the outlaw camp.
Down in the camp there was some kind of stir, though what it meant
could not be determined. In the gray light the shapes of the low huts
were almost indistinguishable. The sentries that the scout knew were
there could not be seen, for not a light flickered, and no camp-fire
glow was seen. Nevertheless, he was sure that behind the barricades
the outlaws were waiting and watching, and that alert sentinels were
making their ceaseless and vigilant rounds.
Suddenly a single revolver shot sounded down in the camp, breaking
with startling clearness on the still air of the dawn. Following it
there was an excited clamor.
Buffalo Bill did not know what that shot meant. He realized that it
might be a signal that he and the troopers had been discovered. Yet
he did not hesitate, but gave instantly the command to charge, hoping
to gain some advantage by the excitement and confusion into which the
outlaws seemed to have been thrown.
The troopers leaped, some sliding and rolling, down the bowldered
slope. Then their charging cheer rose, and their carbines flamed and
cracked as they gained the lower ground, and rushed upon the huts
they now beheld before them.
Most of the outlaws were at the moment behind the barricades which
defended the two sides of the camp, at the entrances of the pass.
Some of them, however, were in or near one of the huts, and, with
wild yells, they tried to meet the onset of the charging troopers.
At the head of the troopers was seen the tall form of Buffalo Bill,
as, with revolver in hand, he led the charge.
Desperadoes went down under the fire of the troopers, and troopers
fell, shot by desperadoes; and then the troopers were in the midst of
the huts, and the battle was on in all its fury.