“It’s that crazy fellow they talk about, isn’t it?” “So he said. He seemed to be proud of his reputation.” “The Mad Hunter!” “Yes. And mad he certainly is--poor fellow. I suppose he’s not to be blamed for what he can’t help. But he’s better dead than at large. Ugh! Another moment, and he’d had his devil’s cross slashed on my breast, I fancy.” “You had a narrow squeak, sir.” “I certainly did. Is he dead?” Buffalo Bill was stooping over the giant. He turned him over so that his face was visible in the half-light. “_That_ shot oughtn’t to have killed him,” muttered the scout, noting the course of his bullet. “It certainly couldn’t have hurt his brain any more than it _was_ queered. He’s breathing, isn’t he?” But Buffalo Bill did not immediately reply. He had suddenly fallen silent, and when Captain Keyes looked at the scout in surprise he saw that his eyes were fixed with a most strange expression upon the unconscious madman’s face. “What’s the matter, Cody?” the officer asked. The scout still made no reply. It is doubtful if he heard his superior officer. He seemed devouring the features of the unconscious man. Little of the face could be seen for the matted beard and hair. Yet the angles of the cheek-bones and jaw were easily traced; likewise, the penthouse brows and deeply sunken eyes. The nose was prominent--a handsome nose, with its point thin and flexible, and the nostrils well marked. “No--no,” murmured the scout at last. “I never could have seen him before--never!” “What’s the matter with you, Cody?” Buffalo Bill looked up at him, and wet his lips before speaking. “I--I thought I saw a ghost, Captain Keyes--a ghost! My God! and it’s no wonder, with my mind full of the horror I _have_ seen already this evening. It--it was Danforth--he’s got into my mind, and I can’t forget him.” “Dick Danforth--Lieutenant Danforth?” “Aye--the poor boy himself.” “What under the sun has Dick got to do with this madman?” “Oh--nothing! nothing!” exclaimed Cody, leaping up. “But I have to report a very terrible thing, captain.” “Not about Dick Danforth?” “It is, sir. Lieutenant Danforth is dead--dead with all his men!” “No!” “It is the awful truth, sir.” “I cannot believe it, Cody. You are beside yourself. You look strange, man!” “Aye, and you would look strange yourself had you seen what _I_ have seen, Captain Keyes.” “Tell me!” “I was on my way to Fort Advance with the news when I happened to see you--as I supposed, facing a grizzly bear over on this ridge.” “He was worse than a grizzly,” said Keyes, with a glance at the giant. “But give me the particulars----” “Boyd Bennett has joined the Sioux, betrayed Danforth and his men into a trap, and the whole party were wiped out.” “My God, Cody!” “It is so. I saw them. I was captured by Bennett, indeed. It was within a few miles of Oak Heart’s big village.” “Ha! And did you see the wily old scoundrel himself?” “Oak Heart?” “Yes.”