She placed the prayer-book in his left hand, grasped his right in both her own, and then repeated the pledge she wished him to make to her. His voice quivered as he repeated it after her, but he kept on to the end, and then she said: “Brother Arden, I have perfect faith in you now that you will keep your pledge to me. Now I must hasten to get you away under cover of the darkness.” And half an hour after the devoted sister parted from her outlaw brother at the little stream, she returning to the camps dragging after her a cedar bush to wipe out the trails of the two horses she had led to that spot to await his coming. And, once more a free man, Arden Leigh was launched again upon the world, no longer known as Silk Lasso Sam, the outlaw. CHAPTER XXVI. BONNIE BELL’S WORK DONE. The scouts under Buffalo Bill came into camp the following day after starting upon the trails, two of them with horses which they had found astray in the timber, and two more with a prisoner they had taken. Two others reported having killed a man whom they overtook and who showed fight, and thus were the pretended detectives, the comrades of Raymond, accounted for. Texas Jack had the best story to tell, however. He had tracked a horse down toward Pocket City and discovered that there was a man on foot going along that way, too. He had trailed them to a spot half a dozen miles from Yellow Dust Valley, and there a horse had joined them, as the tracks showed. This horse came from the direction of Yellow Dust Valley. “That is the trail we take, Captain Caruth, and I am going to ask you to camp your men outside of Pocket City, and you and the major go on with me alone,” said Buffalo Bill. “You will discover my reason later, and, if I mistake not, we will find Surgeon Powell in Pocket City, for I cannot believe that harm has befallen him.” So the command moved on its way, and Buffalo Bill guided them to the camping-place near the cabin of Deadshot Dean. It was night then, and, accompanied by Major Lester and Captain Caruth, Buffalo Bill rode on into Pocket City and halted at the Frying Pan. But for the warning given by the Surgeon Scout, it would have been to the great surprise of Bonnie Belle, as she came out of her rooms, to be suddenly confronted by the tall form of the scout, and to see behind him the two officers in uniform. The scout acted as spokesman, and said: “Bonnie Belle, we are here to find Surgeon Powell, and I feel that you will give what information you can regarding him.” “Then you missed my courier to the fort, sent this morning?” “We saw no courier.” “I sent to the fort a letter to Colonel Dunwoody explaining all, and---- But why this disguise any longer, for I see that Major Lester and Captain Caruth both know me now as Miss Arden, but here remember I must be only Bonnie Belle.