SETTING A TRAP.
While they were still talking, Black John made his appearance, riding
up in such furious haste that his horse was white with foam. He had
circled the pursuers and got ahead of them.
“Git a move on ye!” he commanded.
“But, see here,” said Toby Sam, “does you understand ther situation?
This feller didn’t have the emeralds at all, but the girl’s got ’em,
and she’s on the stage; so we’re figurin’ about sendin’ a man to the
railroad, and tryin’ to open up negotiations with her, and sorter
trade him to her fer the emeralds. We reckon it may work.”
Black John answered, with an oath:
“She didn’t go on the stage, but jumped out; and now she’s with
Buffalo Bill, Pawnee Bill, and that old trapper, and they’re
follerin’ your trail.”
It was a study in human nature to watch the effect of this
revelation. It held singular proof of the fear which the names of
Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill had inspired in such men. They were
almost in a panic, some of them jerking the heads of their horses
round as if they wished to ride away as quickly as they could.
Black John had the buckskin bag of emeralds at the moment in an inner
pocket of his coat, but he did not mention that to them. He had made
up his mind to keep the emeralds for himself.
Another desire had come into his heart--the desire to rid himself
forever of the pursuit of Buffalo Bill and his companions. Buffalo
Bill had an unpleasant way of taking a trail and staying with it
until he accomplished what he set out for. To stop Buffalo Bill it
would be necessary to kill him. Of that Black John was certain. So
now he had planned to compass the death of Buffalo Bill and his
comrades, and to capture the girl.
If the girl was captured and the emeralds were not found on her, that
could not be charged to him; and if she should admit that they had
been hidden, and should point out the place, and then they were not
found, that could not be charged against him.
Altogether, he fancied he had worked out a clever plan, and at once
proposed it.
“Ride on,” he said, “and I’ve got a proposition to talk over as we
go.”
He stared at the prisoner through the holes of his black half mask,
and Bruce Clayton returned the stare with interest.
It was a strange-looking cavalcade that moved on--the prisoner bound
and tied to his horse in the midst of those masked figures.
Black John unfolded his plan:
“We can lay fer ’em and trap ’em, and git the emeralds from the girl,
and at the same time wipe out Buffalo Bill and the devils that aire
with him. It’s the trick to play.”
It did not suit Toby Sam, the coward. And others of the gang shared
his feelings and his fears. Buffalo Bill, Pawnee Bill, and old Nick
Nomad were noted as the most desperate fighters of the border, and
they were men not easy to trap. It was a certain thing that in an
attempt to “wipe them out,” some of the outlaws would meet death.
Toby Sam and those who thought as he did were not yet ready to die.
“It’d be a better and a safer plan,” said Toby Sam, “if we git word
to ’em that we’ll swap this young feller fer the emeralds. That girl
will jump at the offer, fer she’s goin’ to marry this feller. She’ll
take that bait quick; and, as far as the young feller is concerned,
we don’t want him, and if we keep him we’ll jes’ have to kill him.”
Even as he talked, Toby Sam looked backward, fearing to see the
pursuing scouts.
“If we git them emeralds,” he added, “and make a divvy, we’ll be that
well fixed fer money that we can quit this hyer other bizness we’ve
been workin’.”
He meant the mustang catching. They followed mustang catching as a
blind. As mustangers, they had an excuse for being in that part of
the country, and for shifting from point to point; and mustanging
explained the money they occasionally displayed in the gambling
resorts and saloons of the towns. They did not really care for
mustanging, though they were glad enough to sell the mustangs they
caught.
Toby Sam, being disguised and anxious to conceal his identity from
Bruce, did not say “mustanging,” yet his comrades knew what he meant.
Black John was not pleased to see so many of his men incline to Toby
Sam’s view.
“We’ve got to wipe out them cussed scouts!” he declared. “We’ll all
be in the penitentiary inside of a month if we don’t. And the thing
now will be dead easy. Jes’ lay fer ’em, as they come follerin’
on our trail, shoot ’em from ambush, and that ends ’em. Nothing
dangerous er to be skeered of about that.”
Black John’s position as “boss,” together with his arguments, won;
and the outlaws began to look for a good point for an ambuscade.
They found it soon, on a hillside that overlooked a narrow pass
through which the pursuers would be expected to go. They rode through
the pass, circuited around, and gained the hillside, and lay down
there under some scrubby trees.
Their horses were placed beyond the hill, and the prisoner was left
there in charge of two men, one of whom was Toby Sam. For Black John
knew what a coward Toby was, and feared to place him where he might
think his precious hide was in danger.