Mrs. Dean, on being interviewed, told her story; but it did not change the general belief that the girl had been abducted; it being argued that “Buffalo Bill” had used persuasions that were false to get her out of the town, so that in truth it was an abduction. Mrs. Dean had heard Panther Pete’s declarations that young Denton had already departed for West’s mining claim in the Blue Hills; and, of course, this was seen at once to have been a lie. Hence, it was believed that the statement that the girl’s father had asked her to go out there was also a lie. A tremendous excitement was created. The half-drunken men at the Flash Light heard the news of the abduction, and of the shooting of Denton. They roared their rage, and the vigilantes rushed about as if they hoped to capture the man they had already determined to hang. While this tremendous excitement was at white heat, Buffalo Bill rode leisurely into the town. Riding up to the hitching rail in front of the Flash Light Saloon, where, as he saw, something exciting was occurring, he calmly tied his horse, and was on the point of entering the place when he was seen. A wild roar of surprise and rage rose. Then a swarm of men stormed out of the saloon and quickly surrounded him. He could not at first understand the nature of their clamor, but he saw them fingering their weapons, and saw that their tones and manner were threatening in the extreme. “What’s the trouble, friends?” he asked. “It’s you!” was bellowed at him. “Is that so? Let us go into the Flash Light, where you may all drink at my expense, and there we will talk it over.” “Here come the vigilantes, with Slocum and Rainey!” some one howled. Rainey and Slocum had quickly gathered their following, and were now descending on the scout. Slocum was in the lead, spectacularly waving his hand, and Rainey carried a revolver. “Surrender!” Slocum shouted, almost hysterically. Buffalo Bill looked amazed. “Surrender! Why should I surrender?” A roar of wrath went up. Slocum planted himself in front of the scout, in an oratorical attitude. “Because, sir,” he shouted, “you are a would-be murderer. Not a half an hour ago, sir, you shot down in cold blood one of our esteemed feller citerzens, Ben Denton. That he’s livin’ is not your fault. He got a bullet in his left shoulder, sir, and it came near wingin’ him on the way to that land where murderers like you, sir, can never hope to go. That’s the first indictment we bring against you before the court of Judge Lynch, sir. “I am,” he waved his hand, “the prosecuting attorney, charged by the citerzens of this town with assistin’ the judge in the performance of his duty, and in the bringin’ to jestice of them that has willfully and wickedly violated the law.