CAPTAIN LAWLESS.
How long Wild Bill remained unconscious he never knew, but it must
have been a considerable time. He had been struck down at the foot
of the rocky slope, and when he opened his eyes he was lying in the
level of the Forty Thieves.
Wild Bill had no difficulty in recognizing the level, for three or
four candles were burning in niches of the rock, and lighted the
place sufficiently for him to make observations.
The Laramie man’s unconsciousness had lasted long enough for his
captors to remove him from the slope four or five miles down the
cañon and lower him into the mine.
His hands and feet were bound, and a savage pain from his left arm,
cramped around behind him, in no wise mitigated the discomforts of
his situation. His head, too, was aching, and his brain was still
dizzy.
He was surrounded by seven men, all but one of whom he recognized.
Clancy was one, Tex was another, and Andy was a third. The faces of
two more he remembered to have seen in the level with Clancy the day
before.
Another of the men, of course, was J. Algernon Smith, in his linen
duster.
The seventh of the outfit was the fellow whose face was strange to
Wild Bill.
The prisoner lay snugly against the hanging wall of the level. He
had made no stir when he opened his eyes, and his captors did not
know that he had recovered his senses. They were talking, and Wild
Bill was content to lie quietly and listen.
“He got away from you,” Smith was saying, “and when he went he took
the rope with him. How did you get out?”
“We was in hyer all night, cap’n,” replied Clancy; “me with this game
arm, an’ all the rest more er less knocked about an’ stove up. We
didn’t hev no water, er grub, er nothin’, an’ I had about calculated
that we’d starve ter death; then, jest as things were lookin’ mighty
dark fer us, Seth, thar, happened erlong, and we heerd him hollerin’
down the shaft.”
“I was left in Sun Dance,” spoke up Seth, who was the fellow Wild
Bill had failed to recognize, “ter watch the stage an’ see if you, er
Bingham, come in on it. Nothin’ came that arternoon, but the mail----”
“It will be two or three days before Bingham arrives here,”
interjected Smith. “Go on, Seth.”
“As the night passed,” proceeded Seth, “an’ Clancy an’ the rest
didn’t come back ter Sun Dance, I began ter feel anxious about ’em.
Arter breakfast in the mornin’, I couldn’t stand the unsartinty any
longer, so I saddled up an’ rode down the cañon. Seen the five hosses
bunched tergether in the scrub, so I knowed the boys must be in the
mine. When I climbed the ore-dump, I seen the rope layin’ on the
platform, an’ I couldn’t savvy the layout, not noways. I got down on
my knees, stuck my head inter the shaft, an’ let off a yell. The yell
was answered, an’ it wasn’t long afore I knowed what had happened.
I drapped a riata down, an’ spliced on the rope layin’ on the
platform, an’ purty soon the boys was on top o’ ground.”
“We all thort the game was up,” said Clancy, when Seth had finished.
“The feller that had came nosin’ inter the mine had drapped his
bowie, an’ we found the name, ‘Wild Bill,’ burned inter the handle.
‘Thunder!’ I says ter the boys; ‘if thet was Wild Bill we had down
here, I ain’t wonderin’ none he got away. He’s a reg’lar tornader!
The wonder is,’ I says, ‘thet some o’ us didn’t git killed.’ In the
arternoon I rode ter Sun Dance ter meet the stage myself, an’ thet’s
how I come ter meet ye, cap’n, an’ ter tell ye a leetle o’ what took
place. But I reckon us fellers ain’t got any kick comin’ _now_.”
Clancy gave a husky laugh. “Wild Bill drapped inter yore hands,
cap’n, like er reg’lar tenderfoot. It was a slick play, yere bringin’
him along when ye come ter meet me at the foot o’ thet slope. The
minit ye jumped at him I knowed somethin’ was up, an’ I wasn’t more’n
a brace o’ shakes in takin’ a hand.”
“It was a tight squeak,” said Smith. “We came within a hair’s breadth
of having this whole story get out. If it had ever reached Bingham’s
ears it would have cost this gang a cool hundred thousand.”
“Ye’re sure Wild Bill didn’t do any talkin’?”
“He says he didn’t, and I believe he told the truth.”
“But thar was some ’un with him. He didn’t git out o’ the shaft
without help.”
“That man was a Ponca Indian. He didn’t stop in Sun Dance long, but
was sent out of camp by Wild Bill, with a paper-talk for Buffalo
Bill, at Fort Sill.”
“Consarn it!” grunted Tex moodily. “Ain’t we goin’ ter work through
this trick without hevin’ Buffler Bill mixed up in it?”
A muttered oath escaped the lips of Smith.
“If Buffler Bill mixes up in this,” said he, “we’ll take care of him,
just as we’re going to take care of Wild Bill. There’s seven of us,
and I’ve got the nerve to think I’m as good a man as Buffalo Bill.”
“You’ve got nerve enough for anything, Smith,” spoke up Wild Bill,
“but when you compare yourself with Cody, you’re a little bit wide of
your trail.”
A sudden silence fell over the gang. All of them turned their eyes on
the prisoner, and Smith got up and stepped toward him.
“Got your wits back, have you?” Smith demanded, with a scowl.
“I didn’t have much sense when I started in to do you a friendly
turn,” said Wild Bill. “That’s where I went lame. Who are you,
anyhow?”
A hoarse laugh broke from the man’s lips. The next moment he had
stripped away the linen duster, revealing a tall, supple form clad
in gaudy costume. About the shoulders was a short jacket of black
velvet, strung with silver-dollar buttons that flashed in the
candlelight; about the waist was a silken sash of red, supporting a
brace of silver-mounted derringers. Boots made of fancy leather arose
to the knee, and a black sombrero capped the flashy apparel.
“In the first place,” said the man, with a fiendish grin, “my name is
not Smith, but Lawless.”
“Well, I’ll be hanged!” muttered Wild Bill. “You’re Lawless, and I
jumped right at you, in the Lucky Strike Hotel, supposing you were
the tenderfoot who’s coming here to drop into your game! That’s a big
one on me, and I reckon that fool play makes me deserve all I’ve
got coming. Well, well! This would be plumb comical if it wasn’t so
blamed serious.”
“It _is_ serious--for you,” said Captain Lawless. “What you know
stands between me and my men and one hundred thousand dollars. Why
did you mix up in this thing, in the first place?”
“I heard shooting down in this mine, and was curious to find out what
it meant.”
“You found out--and that’s what’s going to make you trouble.”
Lawless turned away.
“Is everything ready, Clancy?” he asked.
“The fuses are all ready ter light.”
“Then snake him off down the level and we’ll finish this right up.
See that you make a good job of it.”
Obeying a gesture from Clancy, Andy and Tex caught Wild Bill by the
shoulders and dragged him some ten feet toward the shaft of the mine.
Seth followed with a candle.
A stub crosscut opened off the level at this point, and Wild Bill was
dragged into this and along it for fifteen feet, as he judged. That
brought him to the end of the crosscut, which proved to be a blind
wall.
“We’re going to put you in a pocket, Wild Bill,” said Lawless, who
had followed, “and leave you there. You’ll not be able to bother
anybody; and, of course, you’ll never live to get out, even if you’re
not killed by the blast.”
“I’m not following you very clearly,” said Wild Bill. “Is it your
intention to send me across the divide?”
“That’s it. You know too much, and we can’t take any chances with
you. Look here.”
Lawless passed to the entrance of the crosscut and waved the candle
back and forth. In the candlelight. Wild Bill saw the ends of three
fuses, placed on a line.
“At the end of each fuse,” explained Lawless calmly, “there’s a heavy
charge of powder. Clancy loaded the holes, and he knows just what a
charge will do when it’s put down in any given place. He has set this
blast so as to wall up the crosscut and leave you in a rock cell.
Clancy says that you won’t be hurt by the flying rock when the blast
goes off, but that you’ll be walled in so you can’t get out. You’ll
not have any water or food, and you’ll not have much air. That can’t
be helped.”
“You’re a fiend!” gritted Wild Bill, glaring at the calm face of
Lawless.
“This job of salt is going to win out. Bingham will find less gold in
the Forty Thieves than he imagined; but, if he digs away the barrier
we’re going to throw up, he’ll find something else here that will
surprise him.”
“Why can’t you use a bullet or a knife, if you’re bound to put me out
of the way?” called Wild Bill. “What do you want to go to all this
trouble for?”
“This will look like an accident, if you’re ever found.”
“Look like an accident!” answered Wild Bill ironically. “How do you
figure that, if I’m ever found with my hands and feet tied?”
“If Clancy is right, and you’re not hit by flying rock, or smothered
before an hour or two, you’ll get rid of the ropes.”
“And you’re _white_!” muttered Wild Bill, as though it was hard for
him to couple such a murderous act with a man of that color. “Why,
you inhuman scoundrel, you ought to be black as the ace of spades,
and to wear horns! This may be the end of me, but it won’t be the
end of this business for you. My pard, Bill Cody, is coming to Sun
Dance Cañon to meet me. If he doesn’t meet me, he’ll know something
is wrong, and when he runs out the trail, you’ll owe him something.
_And whatever you owe Cody, you’ll pay!_”
“If I ever owe Cody anything,” scowled Lawless, “I’ll pay him just as
I’m paying you. I didn’t pip my shell yesterday. You’re wide of your
trail, Hickok, if you think I’m not able to take care of myself.”
Lawless disappeared from the mouth of the crosscut.
“Touch off the blasts,” Wild Bill heard him say to Clancy; “all the
rest of you,” he added, “go on to the shaft. We’ve got to make a
quick getaway as soon as the fuses are fired.”
Then, with staring eyes, Wild Bill saw Clancy take a candle and bend
down. From one fuse to another went the candle gleam, leaving a
sputtering blue flame at the end of each fuse.
Having finished his work, Clancy whirled and raced after Lawless and
the rest, who had already started for the shaft.
Turning on his side, with his face against the rocks, Wild Bill
waited for the deafening detonation which was to throw a barrier of
rock across the mouth of the crosscut and wall him up in a living
tomb.