But soon after he turned his attention to Clarice Carr, and it ended as the miner related to Bonnie Belle, in the leading of the maiden into a treacherous trap from which she would not have escaped without large ransom, but for Deadshot Dean’s tracking the outlaws to their lair, with Buffalo Bill. When the maiden was rescued, and the outlaws brought prisoners into camp, the excitement was intense, and disciplined soldiers though they were, there were mutterings of such intense hatred heard against Silk Lasso Sam that a double guard was placed about him. That they had all been most cleverly taken in, every officer had to admit, though they could not but admire the magnificent nerve and daring of the outlaw chief, who they realized was no ordinary man, and hoped that an end would soon come to his many red deeds when he died on the gallows. CHAPTER VI. THE LAST APPEAL. The coach out of Pocket City carried as passengers Carrol Dean and Bonnie Belle, on their way East to the home of the miner. Bonnie Belle did not say to her friends in Yellow Dust Valley that she would not return, for she feared that the result might be disastrous to her interests there. She told them she was going East on an important mission, and her interests in Pocket City were left to the management of the one who held the position of clerk in the Frying Pan Hotel. Deadshot Dean had written to his wife to expect him home soon, and that he would bring with him one whom she would also be glad to welcome. The stage-trail from Pocket City led within forty miles of Pioneer Post, and into the one from the fort at a point where there was a station with a corral of horses for the coaches and couriers. It was while the coach was nearing this station that the driver heard the clatter of hoofs behind him, and, turning his head, saw a horseman coming along at rapid speed after the coach. His first thought was that he was a road-agent in chase, and his next that the man might be a courier bearing despatches from the fort. But the horseman soon overtook the coach, and called out: “Ho, driver, have you Bonnie Belle a passenger with you?” “I has,” was the reply of Sandy Gill, the driver, and he eyed the horseman curiously. “Then I have a letter for her.” “A letter for me?” and Bonnie Belle looked out of the coach-window with surprise at the man, who was dressed as an army courier, and was well mounted. “Are you Bonnie Belle, miss?” “Yes, I am so called.” “Of Yellow Dust Valley?” “Yes, of Pocket City.” “I have a letter, then, for you, miss.” “Who has sent me a letter?” “Its reading will tell you, miss.” “You are not from the Yellow Dust country?” “No, miss, I am from the fort at Pioneer Post.” Bonnie Belle started at this, and glanced at the miner. “What does it mean?” she asked Dean, seeming anxious not to touch the letter for some reason. The miner asked: “Do you come from the fort, my man?” “Yes, sir.”