REVEALED.
Again did Buffalo Bill pay a visit to the hacienda of the fair
hermit. It was the day following his meeting with the cowboy king.
Again he was received, and in the garden, as before, while the
señorita said:
“You have come sooner than I expected, señor; but it is well, as the
cowboy king is not here.”
“Why do you fear that man?”
“Ah! I cannot tell.”
“What is he to you?”
“Do not ask me.”
“Do you love him?”
“No!”
“I am glad, for I can tell you that you need no longer fear him.”
“What do you mean?” she gasped.
“Señorita, I have read your secret, for that man was the Mexican
officer I saved with you from those men that day nearly two months
ago.”
“You recognize him, then?”
“Yes, and as a vile cutthroat who joined our army, robbed the
paymaster, deserted, and became a fugitive and an outlaw, at last,
as we believed, being killed, but, instead, coming here. Did you not
know him as all that was bad?”
“Señor, I was deceived by him, for I believed him an officer of the
Mexican army. I was left this place, and he urged me to marry him
secretly, and I did so, then coming here to live, and obeying him
blindly. At times he came here, I believing he was on duty when he
was away.
“It was when he was here that you rescued us, and from men I now
think were not outlaws, but those who suspected him of certain deeds
and determined to kill him. Perhaps they were my own cowboys, who
sought to kill him, not wishing a master over them.
“Of late, I have had reason to doubt him, and I meant to know the
truth, even if he killed me, as he has often threatened to do.”
“Have no fear now, for he is dead.”
“No, no, it cannot be, for he bears a charmed life.”
“It has ended--the charm is broken, as was the case when you lost
your bracelet.”
“Which he gave to me; but do you know that he is dead?”
“I killed him, Señorita Suelo Sada,” calmly said Buffalo Bill.
“You?”
“Yes, I made you a widow, I am glad to say, for that man was the
leader of the secret foes of this valley, the one who has put the
curse upon it which all have dreaded.”
“God bless you, señor, for those words. You have freed me from worse
than death. But only lately did I suspect that he was really bad at
heart, and the words I got came to me by a secret letter, and I was
told to closely watch his movements and I would discover the truth.
“My servants here are innocent, all in the hacienda, but I believe
all the cowboys are guilty, and were members of his band.”
“I know that they were; but let me tell you that they are all
prisoners now, for I led my men to their retreat last night, on the
cliffs, back of my ranch, and through a secret entrance into the old
hacienda, surprised their hidden camp.
“They had there a score of prisoners, men, women, and children, held
for ransom, and I learned the story from dying lips, and enough more
to enable us, under Señor Otega and his chief of cowboys, to find the
secret entrance to the cliffs.
“We set free all who were there, killed the five guards over them,
and to-day rounded up and captured your cowboys, seven in number, who
shared the ransoms paid with their chief.
“You were not guilty, I know, Señorita Suelo Moro, for such is your
name as Dallas Moro’s wife; but you will be so thought by many in
this valley, and my advice is that you at once leave here and seek a
home elsewhere, where no cloud hangs over your life, and Señor Otega
will see to your property here.”
“Señor Cody, again I say, ‘God bless you,’ and from my heart I thank
you more than words can tell. I have an ample fortune of my own,
independent of this accursed ranch, where I have known only sorrow;
but what I have done he forced me to do. To Señor Otega I leave this
ranch, cattle and all, for him to dispose of, and pay back to those
who have paid ransom, every dollar they have been cheated out of.
“Señor, with my few faithful servants I will leave here at sunset,
and into your hands will I give the paper by which Señor Otega can
act for me.”
From his heart Buffalo Bill pitied the beautiful and unhappy
woman, and he was glad, a few hours after, to see her and her few
faithful servants depart from the hacienda forever, while Señor
Otega willingly accepted the duty, to carry out the mission she had
intrusted to him, through Cody.
As quickly as Buffalo Bill and his secret sleuths had entered the
mysterious valley, they departed from it, carrying with them their
horses and cattle, and their prisoners also, to deliver over to the
commandant of the fort nearest the scene, who held control of that
part of the country.
Among the prisoners was Riel, the innkeeper, who, next to the
cowboy king, was the guilty one in the many crimes committed in the
beautiful valley.
It is needless to say that quick punishment was visited upon all the
prisoners, and Buffalo Bill and his sleuths of the saddle gained
great praise for their splendid services rendered, and Colonel Carr
sent a special report to headquarters about the great chief of
scouts’ brilliant achievement.
As to the beautiful valley, it is as peaceful to-day as a Quaker
village, and the fair hermit of the hacienda is forgotten, for she
was never heard of again by those who dwelt in the Silver Lake
settlement, while the haunted ranch remains but a ruin, surrounded by
its graves.
THE END.
No. 104 of the BUFFALO BILL BORDER STORIES, entitled “Buffalo
Bill’s Barricade,” is a rattling good story of Indian warfare among
the red men themselves, helped out by the great scout, who as
usual, is on the side of those who are fighting for the right.
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Transcriber’s Notes
The Table of Contents at the beginning of the book was created by
the transcriber.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation such as “gold-boomer”/“gold boomer”
have been maintained.
Minor punctuation and spelling errors have been silently corrected
and, except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the
text, especially in dialogue, and inconsistent or archaic usage,
have been retained.
Page 2: “A Congress of the Rough-riders of the World” changed to “A
Congress of the Rough Riders of the World”.
Page 238: “Lighting match after mach” changed to “Lighting match
after match”.