“But I’ll say this. If we are held up there, you sit still right where you are. Otherwise, this revolver might go off in your face. I shouldn’t hold myself responsible for the consequences.” The tall peak of Stag Mountain came into view. Benson closed the woman’s hand bag and dropped the key into his pocket. Then he lifted the skirt of the dress he had put on over his clothing, and hid the revolver somewhere under it. “We’re comin’ to ther place,” Hank Elmore bellowed to them, leaning down from his high perch so that they could hear him. “But I don’t reckon we’ll meet up with any trouble to-day.” He cracked his whip over the backs of the horses, and the stage lurched and bounded into the gorge that swung past the hill, and on into the cañon noted for its many hold-ups. As if to bolster his courage, he began to sing. CHAPTER XXIII. BUFFALO BILL’S HOLD-UP. Matt Shepard bounced quickly into the room occupied by Wild Bill Hickok, at the Eagle House. “Excuse me!” he said. “But if what I hear is so, Tim Benson has got out o’ the town!” Wild Bill, who had been sitting comfortably by the window, came to his feet with a jump. “Do you reckon it’s so?” he asked. “They say he took the stage; that _he_ was the man that was seen to git on. It was only after the stage had pulled out, that Barney, the stableboy, decided that the one man who went as a passenger was Benson. Barney has got keen eyes, and I’m bettin’ his guess is the truth. If so, Benson fooled me complete.” Matt Shepard turned back to the door when he had delivered this. “I thought I’d tell you,” he said. “I’m goin’ to git some men together and shack right out after that stage. Benson has fooled me so many times----” “And may be fooling you now,” the man from Laramie reminded. “You mean this guess of Barney’s may be wrong?” “It’s just what I mean. Who else went in the stage?” “Vera Bright.” “Wow!” “But I’m guaranteein’ that she didn’t know that the man who climbed into the hearse with her was Benson.” “Where is Miss Bright going?” “On her way to ’Frisco, I heard. She’s had enough of the game here. She told me only yisterday that she believed Benson had got out of the country, and she was goin’ this morning.” “It’s a queer thing, if they’re there together.” “But just like Benson. Nobody can ever tell what he’ll do. He’s sharper than tacks and slipperier than eels. But that stage is humpin’ right along--Elmore is driving, and he makes things hum when he’s on the box.” “Yes, that’s so.” Wild Bill came out of his room, following the sheriff, and locked the door behind him. “What you goin’ to do?” Shepard asked. “I’m going to get word of this to Buffalo Bill as fast as I can.” “Where is he?” “Out on that very trail, and looking for Benson.” “You follow the stage, as soon as you can get your men together! I’ll shack out alone.”