Near that dome-shaped structure rose what at first the scout took to be the smoke of a large fire, but when he was lower down on the long flight of steps he saw that a pool of some kind lay there, sending up steam, and he recalled the mud pots he had seen hissing and bubbling by the way he had come from Skyline. He saw, also, as he got still farther down with his captors, that the houses were of stone, a grayish-white marble apparently, and that they were richly ornamented with gold, or with something which glittered like that metal. The stone stairway led to the circular street before the domed house, and there a great concourse of red-feathered Indians, whose armlets, leg bands, and other ornaments flashed in the sun. In their midst, standing as on a pedestal, he beheld a white woman, clothed in white, fringed deerskins, with a circlet of gold on her abundant black hair, and behind her, his face pale and his manner nervous, stood Tom Conover, staring at the captive scout. “The traitor!” was the scout’s indignant thought, as he flashed Conover a look of high scorn. “This is worse than that affair of the Niobrara.” A way opened before him between ranks of Indians, and Buffalo Bill was conducted through it into a stone prison. When he was thrust in, and the door banged behind him, a human form flung itself against him. “Ach! Donnerwetter! Dis is awful!” It was the baron. CHAPTER XXIV. BUFFALO BILL HEARS THE TRUTH. Buffalo Bill knew the worst. He and his friends were condemned to death. They were crouched together in the little prison, whose shining bars and heavy door were too much for their combined strength. Wild Bill and Nomad were there, as well as the baron and the scout. The Piute and his Apaches, out scouting when the attack of the Red Feathers was made on Wild Bill and Nomad, had escaped, perhaps by running, and where they were now, or whether living or dead, could not be told. Though knowing now the worst, Buffalo Bill and his friends were not cast down. Peril only seemed to quicken the spirits of Wild Bill. While as for old Nomad, he did not fear Indians, nor did he fear death. Nor was the baron as much alarmed as one might have expected. About the middle of the afternoon Buffalo Bill was taken from the prison and conducted to a room in the dome-shaped building which has already been mentioned. From its general appearance Buffalo Bill had already decided that it was a temple, perhaps of sun worshipers, and this seemed to be borne out by the fact that over the wide portal through which he was taken was a large, rayed image of the sun, in gold, resembling the gold piece he had found in the trail.