“Dave and I planned that, but Sitting Bull has raked in our renegades and taken them down the Yellowstone.” “What rooms do Cody and his men have at the hotel?” “The big one in the north wing.” “Can’t we get at ’em there, some way?” “I’ve been thinking of that. How would it work to try ‘Bloody Ike’?” “He’d do it if there was a hundred plunkerino in it.” “He can have it, and fifty dollars extra for every one of Cody’s men he gets.” “There he is in the Red Tiger now.” “Say, Rus, when you go in send Ike out here to me.” “All right; so long.” The Indian agent moved a few feet to one side and sat down on a box. Hickok was disappointed. He feared he could not hear the conversation between the agent and Bloody Ike. But his present position was the best he could do. He would wait. Just then something happened that caused him for the moment to forget the man on the box and look to his own safety. He heard a step on the platform outside, a key inserted in the lock, and some one began fumbling with it. The Laramie man bounded behind some barrels, and crouched there. The intruder, who was trying to unlock a door that was not locked, finally entered, struck a match, and glanced down the corridor and up the stairs, and then went out, securely locking the door after him and trying it several times after he had locked it. “I see where I’m liable to arrest for ‘breaking and entering,’” murmured Wild Bill, as he once more crouched by the window. Bloody Ike soon came, and held a long confab with the Indian agent, very little of which Hickok could hear. As they passed the window moving away, the listening Hickok heard: “Now, make a clean job of it. Fumbles don’t count. You must settle this Buffalo Bill’s hash and as many of the others as possible.” “I ought to be able to do it right; I’ve handled the stuff for fifteen years in the mines--and in some other places.” The last was spoken significantly. Hickok was anxious to follow the fellows and prevent a tragedy. He had no fears for the safety of Buffalo Bill and his pards, because he had several times seen them about the saloon. He did not believe the Indian agent and Bloody Ike would attempt anything that night, but he wished to follow them and learn more of their plans. Hickok tried the window, and found it fastened with a heavy prop over the lower sash. It required but a moment to remove this, raise the sash, and leap to the ground, but in that time the men he was after had disappeared. The Laramie man hastened down the street in the direction they had gone, hoping to catch sight of them, but they had either entered some dive or had seen something to alarm them, and consequently fled.