About this book

Buffalo Bill's death message or, In the face of doom

Prentiss Ingraham

19—Ted Strong’s Surprise 41—Ted Strong’s Motor Car 20—Ted Strong’s Wolf Hunters 42—Ted Strong in Montana 21—Ted Strong’s Crooked Trail 43—Ted Strong’s Contract 22—Ted Strong in Colorado ---------- We have arranged with the author, Edward C. Taylor, to continue the stories, and the following, therefore, are new stories, right up to the minute. They are going to make a big hit, for we have abundant proof in the way of letters that readers of paper books are strong for Ted Strong. ---------- In order that there may be no confusion, we desire to say that the books listed below will be issued during the respective months in New York City and vicinity. They may not reach the readers at a distance promptly, on account of delays in transportation. To be published in January, 1927. 44—Ted Strong’s Stolen Pinto 45—Ted Strong’s Saddle Pard To be published in February, 1927. 46—Ted Strong and the Sioux 47—Ted Strong’s Bronchos Players To be published in March, 1927. 48—Ted Strong’s Ranch War 49—Ted Strong and the Cattle Raiders To be published in April, 1927. 50—Ted Strong’s Great Round-up 51—Ted Strong’s Big Horn Trail To be published in May, 1927. 52—Ted Strong in Bandit Cañon 53—Ted Strong at Z-Bar Ranch 54—Ted Strong’s Cattle Feud To be published in June, 1927. 55—Ted Strong’s Border Battle 56—Ted Strong on U. P. Duty ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Buffalo Bill’s Death Message OR, IN THE FACE OF DOOM BY Colonel Prentiss Ingraham Author of the celebrated “Buffalo Bill” stories, published in the BORDER STORIES. For other titles see catalogue. STREET & SMITH CORPORATION PUBLISHERS 79–89 Seventh Avenue, New York ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright, 1907 By STREET & SMITH ------- Buffalo Bill’s Death Message (Printed in the United States of America) All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ IN APPRECIATION OF WILLIAM F. CODY (BUFFALO BILL). ------- It is now some generations since Josh Billings, Ned Buntline, and Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, intimate friends of Colonel William F. Cody, used to forgather in the office of Francis S. Smith, then proprietor of the New York Weekly. It was a dingy little office on Rose Street, New York, but the breath of the great outdoors stirred there when these old-timers got together. As a result of these conversations, Colonel Ingraham and Ned Buntline began to write of the adventures of Buffalo Bill for Street & Smith. Colonel Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa, February 26, 1846. Before he had reached his teens, his father, Isaac Cody, with his mother and two sisters, migrated to Kansas, which at that time was little more than a wilderness. When the elder Cody was killed shortly afterward in the Kansas “Border War,” young Bill assumed the difficult rôle of family breadwinner. During 1860, and until the outbreak of the Civil War, Cody lived the arduous life of a pony-express rider. Cody volunteered his services as government scout and guide and served throughout the Civil War with Generals McNeil and A. J. Smith. He was a distinguished member of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry. During the Civil War, while riding through the streets of St. Louis, Cody rescued a frightened schoolgirl from a band of annoyers. In true romantic style, Cody and Louisa Federci, the girl, were married March 6, 1866. In 1867 Cody was employed to furnish a specified amount of buffalo meat to the construction men at work on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. It was in this period that he received the sobriquet “Buffalo Bill.” In 1868 and for four years thereafter Colonel Cody served as scout and guide in campaigns against the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. It was General Sheridan who conferred on Cody the honor of chief of scouts of the command. After completing a period of service in the Nebraska legislature, Cody joined the Fifth Cavalry in 1876, and was again appointed chief of scouts. Colonel Cody’s fame had reached the East long before, and a great many New Yorkers went out to see him and join in his buffalo hunts, including such men as August Belmont, James Gordon Bennett, Anson Stager, and J. G. Heckscher. In entertaining these visitors at Fort McPherson, Cody was accustomed to arrange wild-West exhibitions. In return his friends invited him to visit New York. It was upon seeing his first play in the metropolis that Cody conceived the idea of going into the show business. Assisted by Ned Buntline, novelist, and Colonel Ingraham, he started his “Wild West” show, which later developed and expanded into “A Congress of the Rough-riders of the World,” first presented at Omaha, Nebraska. In time it became a familiar yearly entertainment in the great cities of this country and Europe. Many famous personages attended the performances, and became his warm friends, including Mr. Gladstone, the Marquis of Lorne, King Edward, Queen Victoria, and the Prince of Wales, now King of England. At the outbreak of the Sioux, in 1890 and 1891, Colonel Cody served at the head of the Nebraska National Guard. In 1895 Cody took up the development of Wyoming Valley by introducing irrigation. Not long afterward he became judge advocate general of the Wyoming National Guard. Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill) died in Denver, Colorado, on January 10, 1917. His legacy to a grateful world was a large share in the development of the West, and a multitude of achievements in horsemanship, marksmanship, and endurance that will live for ages. His life will continue to be a leading example of the manliness, courage, and devotion to duty that belonged to a picturesque phase of American life now passed, like the great patriot whose career it typified, into the Great Beyond. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. MYSTERIOUS LETTERS. 9 II. KLAMATH JOHN’S MESSAGE. 17 III. BUFFALO BILL DECIDES. 26 IV. DOWN THE CAÑON. 32 V. THROUGH THE TUNNEL. 39 VI. ON THE UNDERGROUND RIVER. 47 VII. SKULL AND CROSSBONES. 53 VIII. THE PRISONER. 60 IX. THE PRISONER’S ESCAPE. 68 X. DANGER AND DARING. 75 XI. THE RETREAT. 85 XII. RED REYNARD’S PLANS. 89 XIII. SURPRISING DISCOVERIES. 97 XIV. ASSAULT AND BATTERY. 102 XV. THE BEWITCHED COMPASS. 114 XVI. TRACKS IN THE SAND. 123 XVII. THE SPOTS OF LIGHT. 129 XVIII. THE PARTY WITH THE HELIOGRAPH. 136 XIX. A STARTLING ATTACK. 141 XX. ANOTHER SURPRISE. 147 XXI. FURTHER SURPRISES. 154 XXII. MORE DISCOVERIES. 161 XXIII. AN AMAZING DISCLOSURE. 170 XXIV. UNSELFISH HEROISM. 178 XXV. A HEROIC EFFORT. 186 XXVI. INDIANS AND PRISONERS. 192 XXVII. THE AZTEC SLAVES. 198 XXVIII. THE ESCAPE. 206 XXIX. AN ENIGMATICAL HOST. 216 XXX. THE GOLDEN DAGGER. 227 XXXI. AGAIN IN DANGER. 236 XXXII. THE MYSTERY OF THE DAGGER. 242 XXXIII. A STRANGE MESSAGE. 249 XXXIV. FACING DEATH. 256 XXXV. ENOS SPALDING. 262 XXXVI. HEMMED IN. 272 XXXVII. AT THE SAN PAZ HACIENDA. 282 XXXVIII. THE PRISONER OF THE TOWER. 289 XXXIX. A PERILOUS CLIMB. 295 XL. A PERILOUS POSITION. 301 XLI. MUSIC HATH CHARMS. 312 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BUFFALO BILL’S DEATH MESSAGE. --------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER I. MYSTERIOUS LETTERS. A singular tapping on the door of his room awoke Buffalo Bill, who was in the St. Cloud Hotel, in the town of Klamath, which was about as near to the “jumping-off place” of civilization as one could get without going over the boundary. The wary scout remained quietly in bed when he heard the tapping, his only movement being to clutch the revolver he had placed under his pillow on retiring for the night. The room was as dark as a “stack of black cats,” and he knew that complete darkness reigned outside, or a little light would have reached him through the window. The tapping was repeated at intervals for the better part of five minutes, then there was a resounding thump on the panel of the door. Shortly after that the scout heard soft footsteps moving away, and when the footsteps ceased to sound, he struck a match cautiously, and looked at his watch. “Four o’clock!” he said. “Just the darkest hour before dawn. Daylight will be here in a little while.” He blew out the match, and lay back quietly on his pillow, listening. Not so much as a rat now stirred. “I wonder what that meant?” was his thought. “Well, I’m not anxious enough to know to run risks in trying to find out. Some rascal might have wanted to assassinate me. There’s no telling.” Klamath was notorious for its desperadoes at that time, and Buffalo Bill was pretty sure that more than one man in the town would be glad to take his life. “If any one is really anxious to see me,” was his thought, “let him come to me in broad daylight. This is no hour for an interview, and the thing didn’t look honest.” He was out of bed as soon as the dawn came, and after hastily dressing, he took his revolver and tiptoed to the door. He more than half expected to discover that an assassin lurked in the big hall. But when he opened the door, he was surprised in another way. Pinned to the panel was a folded sheet of paper, held in place by a