“Excitement is the breath of life to me, major. Wait till I get old. Perhaps I may want to settle down then.” This Boyd Bennett was an old enemy of Buffalo Bill’s. He was a deserter from the United States Army, and had become the leader of one of those bands of road-agents that cropped up so thickly soon after the close of the Civil War. The West was overrun with disbanded guerrillas who had fought on both sides of the great struggle--wild and masterless men who had lived so long by the power of the sword, that they would not conform to law and order when legitimate fighting was supposed to be ended. These cursed the growing West. Boyd Bennett had committed several crimes, but had as yet escaped apprehension and punishment. An army paymaster was soon to make the rounds by coach, paying off the several garrisons; and so it was important to locate Boyd Bennett, the overland bandit, and his gang, and make sure that they were not plotting to seize the paymaster’s treasure. After a couple of days’ trailing into the Indian country, the scout found that Oak Heart and his warriors were seemingly too much battered by the battle at Fort Advance to think of making another raid at present. They were likely to lie low for awhile. So Buffalo Bill went in search of Boyd Bennett and his gang. He knew that the rendezvous of the road-agents was usually near some stage-road, and the scout chanced upon the road leading from Fort Advance to Alikon. He knew the time of the coach-running, and after riding along the trail for a couple of miles he came upon the coach as he expected. That is, he expected to find the coach about here; but the scene presented to his gaze, when he beheld it, was most startling. There was the coach; the horses were standing patiently in the trail; and yet no driver was on the box, nor did he see any one near at first. Spurring forward, Buffalo Bill beheld the driver sprawling on the ground, with the reins still clutched tightly in his hands. It was Bud Sharkey, whom the scout knew well; and the unfortunate fellow had been shot from his seat on the stage-coach. There were three other dead bodies on the ground--an officer and two soldiers. They were all dead, and, furthermore, the scout noted now that the four had been scalped. CHAPTER XV. THE TREASURE CHEST. This dreadful discovery told the scout that Indians had held up the coach. Yet he wondered if it had been done for robbery as well as murder? The officer he recognized as Captain Hinkley, the paymaster; the soldiers were his guard. He was a week ahead of his time; yet he had not managed to get safely through. The fact that Indians had done the deed, however, disturbed Buffalo Bill. He could not understand it. The marks of half a dozen unshod ponies proved that his first suspicion was correct. Some of Oak Heart’s young braves might have done this. It was true, too, that the driver and soldiers had all been shot with arrows.