“Say to Colonel Carr I will arrive with the command to-morrow, not caring to push the cattle.”
The sergeant at once reported to Buffalo Bill what the lieutenant had said, and the two started off at a pace more than double that at which the troops were traveling, retarded as they were by the guns, a couple of ambulances, and some pack mules.
The sun was yet above the horizon when the sentinel on the watchtower reported the coming of two horsemen by the trail leading to the Indian country.
The coming of the scout and Sergeant Fallon was soon reported to the colonel.
Their stories were told, the sergeant telling his first, and both were listened to with the greatest attention by the colonel, who then said:
“Sergeant, your daring and gallant conduct shall be reported, with a strong recommendation, added to others already sent to Washington, for your promotion to a lieutenancy.”
“It will be a well-won appointment, sergeant, but, as you request it, it will be best to say as little as possible about your going into the Indian lines, as it might reach the ears of the outlaw, who you say left the camps after your first visit, presumably going to Pioneer City.”
“Then he will be up to more deviltry, I fear; but, sergeant, your daughter is not here, you know, or had you heard of her departure?”
“My daughter not here, sir?” Sergeant Fallon’s face turned to the hue of death.
“Don’t be alarmed, man, for she only went by Jack Jessop’s coach this morning to Pioneer City to see her lawyer, who wrote to her that he was laid up there with rheumatism, and wished both of you to come on there.
“As she did not know you would return, she went alone; but what ails you, sergeant?”
“Colonel Carr, that letter was a trick of the outlaw chief to get my child into his clutches again!” gasped the sergeant.
The words of the sergeant fairly startled the colonel, and he looked anxiously toward the scout and said:
“Cody, the sergeant is too deeply moved to speak.
“It means, colonel,” answered Buffalo Bill, “that while in the Indian lines Sergeant Fallon had a long talk with Eagle, the outlaw leader, and became his ally in an intended capture of himself, the sergeant, and Miss Fallon. A compact was entered into between them, as I understood it from Sergeant Fallon, that he should inveigle himself and Miss Fallon to take the coach to Pioneer City, and he would hold it up and capture them.