A little later the scout saw Nomad running toward the house. Pizen Kate was not in sight. Apparently, Nomad had found a chance to get out of his hiding place unobserved by her, and was making tracks for the security of the big building. Buffalo Bill hurried through the hall and swung the front door open to admit him. “Cody, is she comin’?” Nomad panted. The scout glanced out. “I think not.” “Then, Cody,” he lowered his voice, “come into thet room over thar, fer I want a talk with ye. Fasten ther door, so that she can’t git in. And don’t let Latimer know about it. Jes’ a few minutes’ talk with ye, in thet room over thar.” He ran on toward the door of the room indicated. The scout stayed, in obedience to his request, to bar the outer door against the ferocious Pizen Kate. He occupied but a minute of time in doing it, and then followed on to the room, through whose door he had seen Nomad vanish. But when he entered the room Nomad was not there. “Nomad!” he called, looking about. There was no reply. CHAPTER V. MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES. Nick Nomad had disappeared with such a mystery in the manner of his going that Buffalo Bill was bewildered. The room into which Nomad had run was, apparently, but an ordinary room, with no door but the one he had gone through; and it had but one window, which was closed and locked, and which, the scout was absolutely sure, Nomad had not opened. Even a casual examination of that window was enough to show that Nomad would not have had time to open it and get through it before the scout’s appearance; and even if he could have succeeded in doing that, he could not, from the outside, have locked it, for it was locked from the inside. Buffalo Bill stood amazed and aghast when, after much calling, he had no response, and after much examination he could not solve the mystery. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, were solid; the window was closed tightly, and the one door had been in sight, and Nomad had not come out by it. He had gone into that room, and then had “evaporated.” While the scout was still puzzling over this singular thing, Pizen Kate appeared at the outer door of the house, which she pushed open boldly, and entered. Figuratively, there was blood in her eye, and she was painted for the warpath. She looked suspiciously at the scout. “Where is he?” she said. “He came in here! You been helpin’ him?” “Madam, I wish I knew.” “Well, if you was here, you seen him, didn’t ye? Where’d he go? Before I git through with him I’m goin’ to l’arn him a few things, you bet! Run away from me in Kansas City, he did--and jes’ now, when I was lecturin’ him on the sin of his acts, he kited out ag’in. He come in here, fer I seen him; but he outrun me. Now, where is he?” “I wish I knew.” “Well, why _don’t_ you know? Didn’t you see him come in?”