y I could have got along
with another," said Pond, rather quietly.

"What! let _him_ have the horse? Why it hasn't its equal on the plains
or in the mountains. It is a thoroughbred--a regular racer, which a
sporting man was taking through to the Pacific coast on speculation. He
played faro, lost, got broke, and put the horse up for a tenth of its
value. I got him for almost nothing compared to his worth. On that horse
you can keep out of the way of any red who scours the plains. If you
don't want him I do, for Wild Bill shall never put a leg over his back!"

"I'll keep him. Don't get mad. I'll keep him and go whenever you are
ready," said Pond, completely mastered by the excitement which this
young Texan exhibited.

"Well, we'll get the horses out of town and in a safe place to-night.
And for yourself, I'll take you to the house of a lady friend of mine to
stay to-night and to-morrow, and by to-morrow night I'll know all I want
to about the movements of the other party, and we can move so as to be
just before or behind them, as you and I will decide best."

"All right, Jack. I leave it to you. Are you sure the horse will be safe
for me to ride?"

"Yes. A horse like that once broken is broken for life. They never
forget their first lesson. A mongrel breed, stupid, resentful, and
tricky, is different. Be ready to mount when I lead him around, I will
send for your traveling-bag, and you will find it at the house where we
stop."

"I will be ready," said Pond.

The Texan now left, and Pond watched him as he hurried off to the
stable.

"The man hates Wild Bill with a deadly hatred!" he murmured. "I must
learn the cause. Perhaps it is a providence that I have fallen in with
him, and I have concluded to keep his company to the Black Hills. But I
must call the landlord and close up my account before the other comes
back with the horses."

The German was so put out by the sudden giving up of a room, which he
hoped to make profitable, that he asked an extra day's rent, and to his
surprise, got it.

CHAPTER VI.
OFF TO THE HILLS.

It was some time before Wild Bill became fully conscious after he was
carried into the saloon, and when he did come to he raved wildly about
the red-haired man he shot in Abilene, and insisted it was his ghost,
and not a real man, he had seen.

Bill's friends tried to cheer and reassure him, and got several stiff
draughts of liquor down his throat, which finally "set him up." as they
sa