The sentinel saw him coming--could not help seeing him--and looked at him intently. But the scout had his rough hat pulled well down over his face, almost concealing it, and the suspicions of the sentinel were not yet aroused. When Buffalo Bill drew near the cabin door something in his gait appeared to excite the suspicion of the guard. “Why--that you, Ned? What in thunder ye comin’----” He was not given time to say more, nor to lift his rifle, which he had dropped to the hollow of his arm. With a leap as light as that of a panther Buffalo Bill was at his side, and the heavy blanket was over the sentinel’s head. At the same instant the scout drove his heavy fist into the sentinel’s face with such force that he was knocked insensible. Fortunately the muffling blanket kept the heavy blow from being heard in the cabin, but, unfortunately, as the sentinel fell, he swung backward and struck his arm against the door, making a sound somewhat like the thump of a heavy fist of a rough man who imperatively demands entrance. The door against which the sentinel had struck his arm--there were two doors on that side of the cabin, showing that it was divided into two rooms--was swung almost instantly open, and a man stood before scout. Behind him was another man, and behind this man the form of a girl--the girl being, as Buffalo Bill guessed, Rose Carter. The sentinel lay limp in Buffalo Bill’s arms, his face upturned, for the scout had jerked away the hooded blanket. “What’s up?” the man asked, in a curious voice. Without hesitation, Buffalo Bill answered: “Things wasn’t lookin’ jest as they ought to outside, an’ I come up ter report, and this feller was layin’ right by the door--keeled over in a fit, I reckon, an’ when----” Having talked with the first sentinel he had made a prisoner, Buffalo Bill was imitating the peculiarities of the man’s speech, and so clever was the imitation that the man in the doorway was for a moment deceived. That moment was enough for Buffalo Bill’s purpose. He stepped forward with his burden, as if for the purpose of bearing it into the room. “Not in heur,” the man objected. “Take it into t’other room, whar ther capt’in is.” He was not given time to say anything more, for Buffalo Bill’s strong right hand shot out at this juncture and caught him by the throat in an iron grip. As he pushed this man on into the room, holding him by the throat, the scout let the insensible form of the guard slip to the ground. The man he had taken by the throat was not willing to be subdued without a struggle, however, and began to writhe and twist and fight with all his strength. There was a stir in the other room, which, as the scout now saw, was connected by a door with this room. With a quick glance around, Buffalo Bill saw that the other occupants of the room were Carter and his daughter Rose.