Buffalo Bill's Pursuit; Or, The Heavy Hand of JusticeIngraham, Prentiss
General
Buffalo Bill's Pursuit; Or, The Heavy Hand of Justice
Ingraham, Prentiss
Buffalo Bill, 1846-1917 -- Fiction; Dime novels
“I reckon I can trust ye; and if I can’t trust ye I can watch ye.
Hold the hoss’ head, and I’ll sail up to his back.”
The scout held the horse by the head, and with an agility that was
surprising, disdaining his aid, she put a foot in the stirrup and
mounted to the animal’s back, seating herself behind the saddle.
“I’m spryer’n I look,” she said, “otherwise I couldn’t got into that
tree where ye found me. Now, if you’ll mount, we’ll jog along, and
you can tell me more about yerself while we’re goin’. I’ll say to you
that Pizen Jane, of Cinnabar, is searchin’ fer somebody she hopes to
find; and if she finds him, interestin’ times aire billed to foller
fer all concerned. That’s why I’m on this trail; what you’re on it
fur ain’t appeared yit, so fur as I know.”
Buffalo Bill mounted, smiling at the woman’s naïve manner of trying
to “pump” him.
Then they jogged on, as quaint a pair as the trail had seen in many a
day.
CHAPTER III.
CHASED BY WOLVES.
Because of the intense midsummer heat in that desert region, Buffalo
Bill did not journey far that morning, but relieved his horse of its
double burden long before noon, and took shelter from the burning sun
in the shady depths of the cañon, at a point where its sides were
scalable for man and beast.
Pizen Jane seemed impervious to the heat, and declared her anxiety to
go on. But she descended into the cañon, and there helped the scout
eat the food which remained after her famine feast of the morning.
Throughout the journey, and now, as she and the scout rested, she
asked strange questions without number, all tending to show that she
still did not believe he was the man he represented himself to be.
What her own intentions and plans were she cloaked with much
cleverness, though she talked all around the subject, drowning it in
a very sea of words.
Buffalo Bill gained the idea, however, that she had suffered some
wrong at the hands of some man, or men, or that some bitter grief and
disappointment had come to her; for the avenging, or righting, of
which she had set forth alone on this dangerous trail. In addition,
it seemed that she suspected him of being in some manner concerned in
the wrong done her, and that she had proofs of it she more than once
hinted.
“I begin to fear you are crazy, madam,” he said, at length, when she
had vexed him with her many hints of personal wrongdoing. “But please
remember that I never met you before, and know absolutely nothing of
any of the men you so veiledly speak of. I might know more, if you
would be more open in what you say.”
“And then you’d know too much, if you ain’t the reel Buffler!” she
cackled. “Pizen Jane may be homely lookin’, and no doubt she is, but
she ain’t no fool.”
They did not go on until the cool shadows of evening covered the
trail. They continued the journey far into the night, going forward
by the light of the moon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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