“I hope he can take his time about it, sir, when his time comes, for no better man did I ever meet, nor do I care to know,” was the scout’s comment. “If he has an enemy, Jack, it is an outlaw, an Indian, or a villain.” “You are right, sir. But we had better get all the sleep we can, for we will be kept humping it to-morrow, if Buffalo Bill can find horses to ride.” “Yes, he’s a rough and ready rider, and it would take a score of horses to break him down. Good night,” and, wrapping his blanket about him, the captain dropped off to sleep at once. Texas Jack had said that all the men could rest, for he would keep watch, and he started off alone, leaving the whole camp in deep slumber. He, too, had an iron frame, and lantern in hand he picked out the trail for a distance of some six or seven miles. Then he returned to camp, on foot as he had gone, and, as it was yet an hour before dawn, aroused the men so that they could reach the place he had gone to before daylight, get breakfast, and be ready for the trail when able to see it. CHAPTER XXIII. THE COLONEL RECEIVES A LETTER. Toward sunset of the day the troop and scouts started to follow Buffalo Bill upon the outlaws’ trail, a horseman was seen coming rapidly toward the fort. He was coming along the trail from the post nearest above, where there was a more direct and frequent communication than from Pioneer Post with the East. It was soon seen that he was a military courier, and his coming was watched with great interest. The news brought by Buffalo Bill had fallen like a thunderbolt upon those in the fort. The colonel was more impressed by it than he cared to reveal. He naturally supposed that the outlaw chief had escaped, and what the fate of Surgeon Powell was no one could tell. That his body had not been found was hopeful that he had not been killed. The fate of the other two detectives was uncertain. What it all meant could only be surmised. The colonel could not find it in his heart to connect Ruth Arden, as he knew her, with this tragic escape of her brother. It did not seem like the woman he had met to plan an escape where death must ensue; the innocent fall to save the wicked outlaw chief. In the fort there was a diversity of opinion, and all were very freely expressed. Clarice Carr did not know what to believe, while Nina de Sutro, after thinking the matter over, said to herself: “That is the work of that girl and no one else. She was determined that her brother should not hang, and she plotted to have him rescued at all costs. In some way she learned of his intended removal from the fort, and so she planned accordingly, and plotted well. “If so, she has put herself in a very unfortunate position, for she can be looked upon as an accessory. Oh, that in the mâlée Arden had been killed! How rejoiced would I be, for then his tongue would be forever silenced. What a fool I was to allow him to bluff me as he did.