a better rider than you think!"

"Perhaps. But he looks wild, and I like to tame _wild_ uns. I'll have
him here between sundown and dark."

"All right. I told you I'd see to getting arms. I had these revolvers,
and cartridges for them, but I want a light repeating rifle. Get me a
good one, with as much ammunition as you think I'll need!"

"All right. I'll get a now model Winchester. They rattle out lead faster
than any other tool I ever carried."

The Texan now left. He had not spoken of Wild Bill's desire to possess
that horse, because he had an idea that Mr. Willie Pond would weaken,
and give up the horse, rather than risk bloodshed for its possession.
And perhaps he had another idea--a mysterious one, which we do not care
to expose at this stage of the story.

This young Texan hastened from the German restaurant to a small, neat
house in the outskirts of the town. Knocking in a very peculiar manner,
he was admitted at once by a tall and strikingly beautiful young woman,
whom he addressed as if well acquainted with her.

"I'm here, Addie, and I've seen _him._"

"You found him all right, when you told him who sent you, did you not?"
asked the lady, leading the way to a sitting-room in the rear of the
cottage.

"Yes, ready to do anything for one you recommend."

"Poor Bill! A braver man and a truer friend never lived. He loves me,
and I fear it will be his ruin, for he will too often come within the
reach of those who would destroy him, if they only knew where and how to
reach him. Persecution and cruelty placed him on the bloody path he has
had to follow, and now--now he is an outlaw, beyond all chance for
mercy, should he ever be taken."

"He never will be taken, guarded as he is."

"You saw his guards, then?"

"Yes, forty or fifty of them, and I would rather have them as friends
than foes. He wants you to ride out with me to meet him when I go next
with some information that he needs."

"When will that be?" asked the lady.

"In the early morning, or perhaps to-night, if nothing happens to me
between now and sunset to make it unnecessary!"

"Between now and sunset? That is within two hours. Do you anticipate any
danger?"

"Not much. I have a little task before me. I have a horse to break, and
a man known as Will Bill to tame."

"Wild Bill!--the dead-shot, the desperado, who has killed at least one
man for every year of his life?"

"Yes, the same. But ask me no more questions now. After I have t