“How’s my horse?” asked the Laramie man. “Nothin’ wrong with the caballo,” said one of the cowboys. “Take good care of him. I told you, Hawkins,” Wild Bill went on to the White Cap, “that Beeswax could lay down and roll over with me.” “He done it, all right,” returned Hawkins, with a sputter of profanity. “But I reckon it was a put-up job, an’ that ye didn’t calculate ter have it that-a-way.” He turned to Lige Benner and Red Steve. “Say, you fellers goin’ ter let Wild Bill keep his hair arter the way he’s fooled us? Why, he knows enough ter make us all a mighty sick lot, I can tell ye.” “I’ll take care of Wild Bill,” said Benner shortly. “Carry him up to the cabin.” Wild Bill was lifted by four men and toted up the hill to the adobe house. He saw Jerry on a horse in front of the cabin as he was carried toward the door. “You kept him from getting away, eh, Lige?” chirruped the hunchback. “That’s good, mighty good! Keep a tight hold on him, Lige. When I get back, some time to-night, I want to see that fellow here.” “You’ll see him here, Jerry, and don’t you forget that,” answered Benner. Jerry, with a look of malicious triumph at Wild Bill, whirled his horse and started toward the trail for Hackamore. The prisoner was carried on through the living room of the house and dropped on the bed in the rear chamber. Benner drove everybody out but Red Steve, then drew up a chair to the head of the bed and sat down. “Why did you do this, Hickok?” he asked, with a black scowl. “You know why I did it,” was the reply. “What’s the use of threshing that all over again?” “You’ve put me in a hard position.” “Not half so hard as you’ll be in later, Benner. You can wipe me off the slate, if you want to, but that’s not going to help your case any. Buffalo Bill knows I came here, and if I don’t get back to the Star-A ranch he’ll know what’s happened to me. You’re going to get scratched, Benner, no matter which way the cat jumps.” Benner’s face was a study. “How much did you find out?” he demanded. “A heap more than I expected to,” was Wild Bill’s answer. “He’s buffaloed us oncet, Lige,” said Red Steve, “an’ don’t let him do it ag’in. His light kin be snuffed so’st nobody’ll ever know who done it. I’ll take the job.” “Not yet awhile,” returned Benner. “See that he’s bound so he can’t slip the ropes, Steve, and then put your men on guard around the house.” “I’ll stay right in this hyer room with him, if ye want,” offered Red Steve. “That’s not what I want. You can stay at the door of the living room, and you can put one or two men at the outside window, but Wild Bill stays in here alone.” It was evident that Lige Benner hesitated to trust Red Steve alone with the prisoner. The fiery-haired Texan would perhaps have taken matters into his own hands, in spite of Benner’s orders. “Ye needn’t be afeared I’d sponge him out, Lige,” leered Red Steve, catching the drift of arrangements.