Buffalo Bill's Big Surprise; Or, The Biggest Stampede on RecordIngraham, Prentiss
General
Buffalo Bill's Big Surprise; Or, The Biggest Stampede on Record
Ingraham, Prentiss
Buffalo Bill, 1846-1917 -- Fiction; Dime novels
Texas Jack had laid the form upon the floor before the fire, and,
with a couple of the men who had come in, was standing looking at it.
It was clad in a white garment, made to resemble a shroud, and the
head was also wrapped around, though two holes had been made for the
eyes to peer through. On each side, near the belt, there were two
slits, through which the arms could be thrust.
The white covering was taken from the form by Buffalo Bill and Texas
Jack, and a dark, foreign face was exposed.
“It is a Mexican,” said Texas Jack.
“Yes, and he came to kill, if need be.”
Buffalo Bill pointed to the belt of arms the man wore. He was attired
half in Mexican, half in frontier garb, and his face was an evil
one. Also, about his waist was a buckskin belt that contained several
hundred dollars in gold.
“Well, Jack, we need not report the killing of this man, at least
just yet. We will wait and see if we hear of it, and, if so, the man
who makes it known we will spot. I trust, now, the boys will not fear
ghosts any more.”
“I hope not, chief.”
“Send each one of them here to have a look for himself, and they will
know that I was right when I said an effort would be made to scare us
away from here.
“As we did not scare, they will try some other plan to get rid of us;
but, one thing is certain, that these men have some way of entering
and leaving the hacienda we do not know of, but must find out.
“You see there is not a sound now, for they know that one of their
spirits has come to grief.”
Texas Jack went out after the men, and they all took a look at the
“ghost,” made their comments, saw where the bullet of the chief had
struck him in the head, and then the body was put in a vacant room, a
guard placed in the grounds, at the gate, and the rest of the scouts
returned to their blankets, Pinto Paul remarking:
“Well, I take no more stock in ghosts, though I don’t just love this
old owl’s nest.”
The night passed away without much sleep for a few of the scouts.
There was not another sound heard in the hacienda, and the horses
and cattle quieted down. This proved to the men that they had been
frightened by the white-robed form going about among them.
The body of the dead Mexican was buried in the walled inclosure,
while Winfield prepared breakfast and put things to rights.
After the meal was over, he and six of the scouts took the cattle to
graze, while Texas Jack and the others started upon a thorough search
of the old mission ranch. They were anxious to find out just where
their disturbers of the night before had hidden, or, if concealed in
the place, how they had got into it, and made their exit.
Having posted men here and there on the watch, one in the tower,
one upstairs, one in the grounds, and seen the others start in the
search, Buffalo Bill put on his best rig and rode away, his men
wondering where, and why he had dressed up. He rode his best horse,
carried a rifle slung to his saddle, and seemed prepared to meet
friend or foe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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