He knew their story, having overheard it from the lips of the colonel at the fort, the colonel having received it from Buffalo Bill. The nuggets were all undoubtedly of Aztec origin; but how they had come into the hands of this medicine man was unknown. He had given one of them to Cody, as a sign of his good will and friendship, at a time when the scout had brought him out of a fever, which all his own skill and the skill of the tribe could not combat. It was that nugget which the scout had presented to Colonel Montrose, of Fort Cimarron. The other nuggets the medicine man sacredly guarded. The Cheyenne village was thrown into a flutter of excitement and alarm by the coming of the young Cheyennes, for it was expected that troopers would be hot upon their heels. That night Lieutenant Barlow invaded the lodge of the medicine man, attacked him, and left him senseless on the ground, and secured the nuggets. They were more than twenty in number, and were contained in two buckskin bags covered with strange markings and bead work. The renegade got out of the lodge with the nuggets without discovery. He next secured a horse, for, being the “friend” of Red Wing, he was permitted to come and go freely in the village. When he had got his horse and secured it beyond the village lodges, he came back, and called at the lodge where the girl was held as a prisoner by the old woman. The old squaw mumbled unintelligibly, and seemed about to raise an alarm when he entered, but he gave her a shining silver piece from his pocket, which she examined with strange cackles by the light of her grease lamp. May Arlington had started up in alarm. “I have prepared a way of escape,” he whispered to her. “Come!” He might have spoken the words aloud, so far as the old woman was concerned, for the hag knew no English. May Arlington again hesitated, then she rose, trembling, and followed him. Within the folds of her dress she had secreted a knife, which she had picked up in the lodge; with it, if necessary, she would kill Barlow, or herself. But she knew she must get out of that village. Some looks given her by certain Indian braves had terrified her so that anything was preferable to staying there. Barlow and the girl were hardly beyond the line of the lodges, when a wild chorus of charging yells and cheers broke on the air. Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill, with Ben Stevens, were out there, and with them was a body of troopers from Fort Cimarron. The scouts had found Stevens, and then had encountered the pursuing troopers, who, under the leadership of the scouts, had been able to make so stealthy an advance that this charge on the Cheyennes was a complete surprise. Barlow seized May Arlington by the wrist, and started to run with her. “Halt!” was the command, for the troopers had seen him. The light was not good, and so they thought he was an Indian, who was running to get out of the village, taking, perhaps, the white girl prisoner who was known to be there.