Buffalo Bill's Bold Play; Or, The Tiger of the HillsIngraham, Prentiss
General
Buffalo Bill's Bold Play; Or, The Tiger of the Hills
Ingraham, Prentiss
Buffalo Bill, 1846-1917 -- Fiction; Dime novels
Old Nomad was right in saying that when the baron tackled a job that
interested him he would hang to it like a dog to a root.
The baron loved excitement, though he was not an excitable man. All
hunters love excitement--that is why they hunt. Now, of all manner of
hunting, there is nothing so tremendously exciting as a man hunt. It
holds that tingling spice of personal danger which makes all other
forms of hunting tame in comparison.
The German was in some ways a very shrewd man, though in others he
was the personification of folly. But, taken all around, he had
a good deal more hard horse sense that he was ever likely to get
credit for. And some of his intuitions--call them guesses, if you
will!--were really remarkable.
When he heard from Buffalo Bill that the fellow calling himself
Jackson Dane had gone down to the Casino, and had been heard in
conversation with Vera Bright, the baron’s intuitions told him that
here was something worth investigating. He did not know what it was,
but that did not matter. He determined to investigate, and he did,
with the wonderful patience of a German. It is a patience which makes
the Germans seem slow at times, but which enables them to “get there.”
In his miner’s clothing, the baron went down first to Gopher Gabe’s
booze mill; but finding nothing there that interested him at the
time, or offered anything, he went on to the Casino, which was not
far distant. In fact, the Casino and Gopher Gabe’s disreputable
establishment had secret inner connections, and Gopher Gabe was
financially interested in the Casino. It was a sort of attachment to
his bar, for there were “wine rooms” in the rear of the Casino, to
which, at certain times, waiters passed continually with beverages.
The baron knew all this, without having to ask about it.
As no great time had elapsed since Buffalo Bill had been watching,
the baron reasoned that Jackson Dane was still somewhere behind the
doors of the Casino.
To get the hang of the entrances and exits, he went round to the back
of the building, which abutted on an alley, where he found a rear
door. But as the alley, after a semi-circular swing, came back to
the main street, the baron found a spot where he could conveniently
observe it, while at the same time watching the front entrances, and
particularly that door marked “Private,” through which Jackson Dane
had passed.
But it was a long and tiresome wait.
The baron, not caring to produce the long-stemmed pipe dear to his
German heart, though he had it with him, bought a cheap clay article
at a tobacco store on the corner; which he enjoyed, as he squatted
silently in a convenient doorway.
Now and then he walked about, mingling with the people who came and
went. But ever his eyes were on the doors, even when he seemed to be
looking in other directions; not a man came out that the baron did
not see and size up. Thus he remained until night came; when for his
supper he bought a sandwich on the corner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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