“Cold fodder to-night,” said the scout firmly. “Well. My orderly always packs a small spirit-lamp. He can make shift to get us all a cup of coffee,” said Danforth, and he proceeded to give the necessary orders, and the troop was soon bivouacked for the night. The horses, well hobbled, grazed within bowshot of the camp, and a sentinel placed so as to overlook them where they were on the plain. No wily enemy might approach them without the watcher, if he be sharp-eyed, seeing the marauder. Yet Buffalo Bill did not altogether trust to the watchfulness of the troopers. He was in need of rest, and he rolled up in his blanket and left Danforth to smoke his pipe alone, early in the evening. But when the midnight watch turned out the old scout arose like a specter, spoke to the corporal in charge, and stole out of the camp. Knowing the avarice of Boyd Bennett and suspecting that of his men, he felt sure that they would not give up so easily the chance of finding and appropriating the pay-chest which Captain Hinkley had lost his life to defend. In the first blush of the attack by the troopers, the outlaws had broken and fled. But they would recover their nerve. They might be joined by some of Oak Heart’s braves, with whom Cody knew Bennett fraternized. They might even hear the full particulars of the Indians’ hold-up of the stage, and be more confident than ever of the fact that Cody had hidden the treasure. The scout believed that, as he and Danforth had moved so quickly, the coach with its present guard would get through in safety to Fort Advance. It was probably there by this time, in fact. But Bennett and his men might come back to see what was really being done by the troopers, and they would be sure to fall upon the bivouac. Therefore, the scout was on the alert. He made a complete circuit of the camp, but out of sight and gunshot of the sentinels. He did not care to furnish a target for his own friends. Having agreed with the corporal on a signal, he would not come in without sounding it, and so warning the bluecoats of his return. However, he found no sign of an enemy, although he spent an hour and a half in creeping about the vicinity. And this very fact amazed and somewhat troubled him. He could not imagine Bennett under ordinary circumstances flying from an enemy without sending back a scout to learn if the trail was not being followed. Cody was dissatisfied. He feared that the reason he had not discovered such a scout was because it was some person more wily than himself! No white man could be that. Ordinarily Buffalo Bill would pitch his own cunning against a redskin’s, too; but in this case, if there was an Indian creeping about the camp, he would have the advantage over the Border King. He might have crawled to the summit of some hill and from that vantage overlook the encampment of Uncle Sam’s troops.