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Updated: June 12, 2025
Bob Scott grinned at the cavalrymen as they told the story. He assured them that they had got off lightly, and that if Bucks's signals had not alarmed the little war-party they might have carried away scalps as well as horses. "We shall be in luck if we don't hear more of those fellows," said he to Bucks afterward.
There was now manifestly nothing to do but to go in, and later in the day a freight train was flagged and the whole party, with Scuffy and the hounds, returned to Casement's camp. Scott sent his dogs thence to the ranch in Medicine Bend, and at Bucks's urgent request Scuffy was sent with them to await his own return to head-quarters.
"Up then, Bob?" "Their camp is just above the bend. They have spotted our trail, too, somehow. It may be they are riding easy to close in on us," smiled Scott, while Bucks's hair began to pull. "Our way out is over this divide." He indicated the rough country east of the creek as he spoke.
The veteran campaigner eyed Bucks's horse carefully as he turned in his saddle, but Scott's wiry beast appeared quite fresh, and Stanley, turning his eyes, again swept the horizon for a friendly break in the black walls ahead. As he did so he was startled to see, directly in front, Indians riding at full speed out of the hills he was heading for.
It was the signal for his followers, and in another minute half a dozen guns covered Bucks and his companion. Seconds meant minutes then. Bucks understood that only one shot was needed as the signal for his own destruction. What he did not quite realize was that the gambler confronting him and his victim read something in Bucks's eye that caused him to hesitate.
All that remained in the open was the team and wagon, but this left the outlaws at a disadvantage, for if they wanted to get their outfit and go on their way they must expose themselves to Bucks's fire.
Hughie repeated the message to get it letter-perfect; to handle stuff at the Wickiup signed "J. S. B." was like handling diamonds on a jeweller's tongs or arteries on a surgeon's hook; and, in truth, Bucks's words were the arteries and pulse-beat of the mountain division.
Bucks's excitement increased as he saw the businesslike preparations for the chase. "Have you any idea you can catch them, Bob?" he asked feverishly. Bob Scott's smile was not a complete answer. "How can you catch anybody in this country?" continued Bucks, regarding the scout sceptically. But Scott looked across the interminable waste of sage-brush and rock as if he felt at home with it.
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