“Then came his rivalry of me for the love of Kathleen Clyde, who is now my wife, and you remember how he shot me down in her presence, fled, believing he had killed me, and forging your father’s name, secured a large sum from the bank, and became a fugitive from justice?” “Alas! I know all.” “You and your father, with sorrow in your hearts, went abroad, and his failing health brought you back to America, to ranch-life in California. He died there, and then you sought the reformation of your wicked brother, seeking him in these wilds, where few other women would have, or could have, come as you have done. “You found him at last in Silk Lasso Sam, the leader of an outlaw band, and failing to turn him from his wickedness, you did only right to let him go his way and raise no hand longer to save him. Fortunately, I was driven to this land to make money by digging in the old claim my father had bought, for now you have a friend, a brother, in me, and you must do as I say.” “I will.” “I did not seek the downfall of your brother through any feeling of revenge, but because I had been secretly made, by Colonel Dunwoody, of Pioneer Post, through having saved the life of Buffalo Bill, as you remember, a Secret Service scout. I did not know until you told me, before my going, that Silk Lasso Sam was your brother, my old foe, and remembering you only as a girl just verging into your teens, I did not recognize Ruth Leigh in Bonnie Belle. I tracked your brother to his lair, and let me tell you of his latest villainy.” “Tell me all, for I wish nothing hidden from me.” “After visiting you here, he broke every pledge he had made you. He went, with two followers, to the Overland Trail to Pioneer Post, and lay in ambush until the coach came along, when he held it up. One plucky passenger opened fire, killing one of the outlaws and slightly wounding the chief, whose horse, also was shot under him. In retaliation, the outlaws killed the driver and the passenger, and then the daring idea seized upon your brother to enter the fort.” “And he was captured?” “Not then, for he played passenger, and was treated with the greatest kindness by all. Being in secret communication with his men, he arranged a plot to have a young lady there, Miss Clarice Carr, the belle of the fort, and himself captured by the band, intending to force from her a large ransom for her release. “Little did she suspect his treachery, and they were captured and taken to the secret retreat of the outlaws, one of whom pretended to be Silk Lasso Sam, the chief. Fortunately, it was just then that I reached the trail and found Buffalo Bill and Surgeon Powell upon it, with the soldiers. “The map, however, enabled me to guide them there, and to Miss Carr’s horror, she discovered the perfidy of the man she had believed to be a gentleman. He denied the charges against him, but I made myself known to him, and he said no more, and was taken to the fort, tried, and sentenced to die upon the gallows.”