Читать книгу Buffalo Bill's Weird Warning; Or, Dauntless Dell's Rival - Ingraham Prentiss - Страница 5

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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.