Читать книгу Buffalo Bill's Ruse; Or, Won by Sheer Nerve - Ingraham Prentiss - Страница 7

Table of Contents

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.