“We allowed you was,” explained old Nomad, “er you wouldn’t opened up in thet way. Glad ter know it was a false alarm.” Juniper Joe, standing up, with the noose of the lariat removed, was walking about, apparently testing his strength; suddenly he started off at a clipping gait, showing how little he had been hurt by his fall. The baron and Nomad yelled when they saw him start. Buffalo Bill, instead of yelling, plucked out a revolver, swung it round his head, and hurled it at the fleeing man. It struck him in the back of the neck and knocked him sprawling. Though he fell heavily, and was somewhat stunned, Juniper Joe still had full use of his tongue, as his raving showed when they ran up to him. He demanded the reason for such treatment. “Well, we’re going to hold you, you know!” Buffalo Bill told him. Juniper Joe tried to pretend surprise. “What fer?” he howled. “For the murder of Jackson Dane--if that was his name.” Juniper Joe declared that he did not know what they were talking about. “You tried to kill him once, at the time of your wedding, when you claimed he was Tim Benson, the road agent.” “Waal, that feller was Tim Benson; but I ain’t seen him since.” “As we think you know all about it, and for other reasons, we’re now going to take you back to Blossom Range,” Buffalo Bill told him. Juniper Joe protested against this loudly. “Perhaps you will tell us who, then, was with you?” Juniper Joe denied that any one had been with him. “Waugh! We won’t fool wi’ no sech liar,” Nomad whooped. “You’ve showed thet ye kin walk--you done some runnin’ a while ago; so we’re goin’ to tie ye and march ye ahead of us, wi’ the understandin’ ef yer don’t go peaceable you’ll go some other way.” When he saw that neither lying nor anything else would do him any good, Juniper Joe submitted, but with bad grace; after which he became sullen, refusing to answer questions. On the return to the town, as they were able to pick an easier trail than they had followed in getting there, the scout’s party made better progress. They did not stop to follow the trail of the supposed woman; but Nomad was detached to see what he could do with it, under instructions not to waste too much time, but to report in the town by nightfall. The baron’s head still troubling him, he went along with Buffalo Bill. When Buffalo Bill entered Blossom Range with his prisoner, the afternoon stage was coming in from Calumet Springs. So he took his prisoner right down to the stage stables, though Juniper Joe protested against this outrage. One of the passengers by the stage was the marshal of Calumet Springs, who had with him a woman, Miss Vera Bright, whom he had brought back to Blossom Range. She stared at Buffalo Bill’s prisoner. “I think it will be well if we take them into a room here together, and see if they won’t do some talking,” was the scout’s statement to the Calumet Springs marshal.