buffalo bill opened the palaver.

“i have not come to smoke the peace pipe, but to talk,” he said. “if the talk of the ute is good then we may smoke the peace pipe. if not, the soldiers and the scouts are ready for battle. they are many, and there will be more behind to come if they are not enough.”

“what has the paleface chief to say to bear killer, the chief of the wasatch utes?”

“the wasatch? if you belong away over there in utah what are you doing on this side of the great mountain?”

“that is the business of bear killer—not of the paleface. bear killer is like the wind; he goes wherever his spirit wills, and asks leave from no man. what is the talk of the paleface?”

“this chief will speak,” said buffalo bill, waving his hand toward captain meinhold, who came riding up with wild bill, thus making the conferring parties equal in numbers.

“where are the two white captives—the girls who were in your possession?” asked the captain sternly.

the chief glanced off quickly toward the base of the cliff, where mainwaring had declared he had seen the girls, and a look of pleasure lighted up his face, for he had supposed the whites had recaptured them already while the fight was going on.

“why does the paleface chief ask?” he said, now ready to prevaricate or do anything else in order to gain time, for he believed that the four braves he had[170] left in charge of the girls had been crafty enough to retreat with them.

“because he has a right,” was the reply. “the father of these girls mourns for them at the fort of the white soldiers. and they must go back to him, safe and well, or not a red man here shall live to say he has seen them! i speak straight and plain. where are they? i want them, and mean to have them.”

“bear killer is a great warrior. he is chief of the wasatch. many braves follow him——”

“bear killer, if that’s your name, will be a head less in height very soon if he does not give me a straight answer!” cried the captain angrily. “where are the girls? speak—or i pull up that flag and my troops will ride you down!”

“bear killer, before the battle, sent them away out of danger,” said the chief, again glancing toward the spot where they had been left.

“alone?” asked buffalo bill, who had detected the look.

“no; with four braves to guard them from harm.”

“wild bill, ride to that cliff over there. call half a dozen men to go with you as you pass,” said buffalo bill nervously. “mainwaring said that he saw women there, and i didn’t believe him. he went with only norfolk ben in his company, and neither of them knows much about indians. go quickly, old fellow, for i feel uneasy.”

“you left the girls with four braves?” said the captain to the ute chief. “can you not call them in now?”

“if i do what will the paleface chief give for the girls whom bear killer took from the shawnees? they are mine by a red man’s right. i took them from the red men—not from the palefaces.”

“i will give you cold steel and lead, and plenty of both, if you don’t give them up!” was the hot retort. “i shan’t waste any more time in talk. talking is not my trade. i had rather fight.”

“the paleface has seen that the utes can fight,” said bear killer proudly.

then he glanced uneasily toward the hill whither wild bill and half a dozen scouts were galloping, as buffalo bill had directed.

“you will soon see—and feel—what my soldiers can do if these girls are not produced and given up!” said the captain. “i am in no mood for trifling. i have not ridden so far for nothing.”

bear killer saw with alarm that the cavalry, evidently impatient, were remounting their horses.

“we will talk,” he said. “we do not want to fight you palefaces. you have good guns that shoot a great many times, and we do not want to lose many braves for the sake of two women. you may take them.”

“then send one of your braves back with orders to your people to stay where they are, and go up with us to get the girls. my people shall not move unless yours do.”

bear killer had a struggle with his pride before he could agree to this, but he knew very well what well-armed and mounted white troops could do, so he sent a warrior back, and leaving the truce flags flying between the parties, he rode on toward the cliff with the captain and buffalo bill.

wild bill and his men were there searching rapidly from rock to rock for signs which might lead to the discovery of the girls.

four dead indians, unscalped, lay upon the ground, pierced by rifle balls.

they were seen when captain meinhold, buffalo bill, and the ute chief rode up.

“who has killed these braves?” demanded bear killer angrily. “these were the guards i left with the girls.”

“mainwaring and norfolk ben must have done it,” said buffalo bill, turning to the captain. “were they not at our lines when you passed?”

he asked this last question of wild bill.

“no. the last seen of them was on that cliff, when they got your permission to ride over this way and search.”

“these men are cold,” said the captain. “they must have been dead a good while. they were killed before you came near the ground, wild bill.”

bear killer, whose looks showed his passionate indignation, burst out:

“the palefaces speak with double tongues! my braves have been killed with big bullets, such as the palefaces use, for lead does not cost them so much as it does the red man. they ask me for the girls after they have killed their guards and taken them.”

“it is not so,” replied the captain. “your braves were not killed by our men, neither have any of us seen the girls.”

“it looks very dark. i cannot see my way clear,” said bear killer. “my braves are killed—and killed by white men, who do not take scalps. the women are gone. who did it?”

buffalo bill, who had joined wild bill in the search, cried out:

“there have been men here who don’t belong to our crowd—white men, too! they wore moccasins, and all of my men wear boots—so do the soldiers of the captain. those men came down the hill in the water and hid behind the rocks and shot the braves in the back. their tracks tell the story.”

“where, then, is mr. mainwaring and that man norfolk ben you spoke of?” asked the captain.

“they must be on the trail of the men who carried off the girls, for beyond here i see no track of the girls,” said wild bill.

“go to the top of the hill, some of you, quick!” cried buffalo bill. “that is where mainwaring said he had seen them. if only i had believed him then he should not have gone alone.”

wild bill and some of the other scouts, by different routes, hurried to reach the indicated spot. those who followed the bed of the little stream were there first. wild bill was not among them, but he was not far behind the rest.

his report was quickly made. in one spot, where dry sand had blown into a gully, there were the tracks of the girls, of men in moccasins, and over these the small, slender boot marks made by mainwaring and the broader track of ben’s brogans.

just beyond this strip of sand there was a sudden descent—a kind of channel between two cliffs—and then the tracks were lost, for it was hard, solid rock in every direction for a considerable distance.

“the girls have been taken by these white ruffians who killed their guards,” said buffalo bill, who went up himself and examined the tracks.

“they must be followed,” said captain meinhold. “but it is singular that mr. mainwaring and the man who went with him have not returned. surely he would not be so rash as to follow on the trail alone.”

the captain had come up the ascent with bear killer.

“there is no trail here to find,” remarked wild bill. “if he has followed them he must either have seen them or else gone off on a blind chase.”

“we’ve got to find out. i wouldn’t have him hurt for anything!” cried buffalo bill. “captain, you can settle the truce with the ute chief, i reckon, while i try to hunt up mainwaring and the girls.”

“there is nothing to settle,” said bear killer gravely. “i have had a big fight and have killed many men. i have lost a great many braves, too. my brother is among them. i do not want to lose any more. the palefaces can go their way in peace, and i will go mine in the same way if they will let me.”

“we have no war with you,” said captain meinhold. “only when the red man raises the hatchet to strike at us do we strike back.”

“it is well. bear killer will go bury his dead, and then he will go back over the mountains to the wasatch, for there will be great mourning in all his villages. but we have many scalps to carry back.”

the chief rode away, and then captain meinhold joined buffalo bill again.

the latter had just returned from an unavailing search for the trail of mainwaring and the others, but wild bill and the other scouts were still looking for it.

“i’m afraid mainwaring has met with bad luck, or we should have heard from him before now,” said the border king. “brave and rash, he has hurried on, and perhaps been shot down by those villains who have now got the girls in their power. i dreaded to keep on looking, for i feared that i would come across his body.”

a shout from wild bill, who came hurrying back, told them he had news of some sort for them.

“i’ve found where they took their horses,” he said. “it was a pretty strong party, for some of them remained behind while the rest went forward and attacked the four indians.”

“have you seen any sign of mainwaring?” asked buffalo bill eagerly.

“yes; he and norfolk ben have been taken and carried along. their tracks are plain where the horses were kept.”

“it is strange that they were not killed on the spot. but we must take the trail at once—that is if captain meinhold will do it.”

“of course,” answered the brave officer. “i came to help you out of a scrape, if you were in one, and i and my men will see this business through.”

“thank you, captain. some day i hope to repay you. the safety of mainwaring means more to me than i can say.”

“i never knew buffalo bill forget to pay a debt, either to a friend or an enemy,” said wild bill. “but we are losing time. suppose i take the scouts and get along on the trail? i don’t believe there are more of those rascals than we can handle if we should chance to come up with them.”

“i’ll join you with the rest of our fellows, and then the captain and the troopers can come along at their leisure,” said buffalo bill.

“we had better all try to keep together,” suggested the captain. “they cannot have much start, and we surely can overtake them.”

“we’ll do it!” said buffalo bill, with grim determination; “or there’s one of us here who’ll break his neck trying! if young mainwaring has been lost or killed i won’t be able to forgive myself easily for letting him go off in that way, with only norfolk ben to accompany him. i made a serious error in judgment in not crediting what he said about seeing the girls.”

this was a thing which the border king very seldom had occasion to confess, but, like most men who are not in the habit of making mistakes, he was perfectly ready to admit them when he did.

the captain now sent back orders for the troops to ride around to where the trail could be taken, and then went with buffalo bill to the point, guided by wild bill.

sure enough there were tracks showing where a large band of horses had stood for some time, for the ground was all trodden up, and then on the thus softened ground the tracks of men could be seen.

among these the keen eye of buffalo bill soon detected the boot marks made by mainwaring, the brogan tracks of ben, and in one place the small impressions left by the girls’ feet.

“we’re surely on their trail now,” he said, when he made this last discovery.

by the time all the horses had been brought up from the place where they had been left at the foot of the cliff the troop, with the rest of the scouts, were there.

steve hathaway came with them.

when he saw the tracks he shook his head.

“boss,” he said to buffalo bill, “you might as well count your friend and norfolk ben dead and the girls safe in the hands of those fellows. bill harkness, the boss of the death riders, has been here. do you see that track? that big track? his foot is the biggest in the gang.”

“i’ll soon have the measure of it,” said buffalo bill, springing from his horse.

“be a little easy, mate, and listen to me, for i may help you more than you think of. these chaps are strong, and they can lay for you in a dozen places between here and nick’s tavern, where they quarter.”

“let them lay, steve,” said buffalo bill. “we’ll lay them out as soon as we get within range!”

“i can’t see him ride right into the jaws of death!” cried steve hathaway. “he saved me once, and i’ll save him now!”

and he rode on at a gallop to join buffalo bill at the head of the column.