Buffalo Bill's Spy Trailer

Prentiss Ingraham

Description

A legendary figure of the Wild West who was canny enough to capitalize off of his own notoriety, William Cody was a renowned soldier and hunter. This action-packed tale parlays some of the historical facts surrounding Buffalo Bill's life into a larger-than-life, thrill-a-minute Western.

Sujets

• Westerns
• Western (genre)
• Western

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776530250
• Langue: English

Extrait

BUFFALO BILL'S SPY TRAILER
THE STRANGER IN CAMP
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PRENTISS INGRAHAM
 
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Buffalo Bill's Spy Trailer The Stranger in Camp First published in 1908 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-025-0 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-026-7 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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In Appreciation of William F. Cody Chapter I - The Hermit of the Grand Cañon Chapter II - The Miner's Secret Chapter III - The Grave at the Deserted Camp Chapter IV - A Vow of Vengeance Chapter V - Masked and Merciless Chapter VI - The Dumb Messenger Chapter VII - Death and Madness Chapter VIII - A Strange Burial Chapter IX - The Courier Chapter X - Doctor Dick's Drive Chapter XI - Running the Gantlet Chapter XII - A Man's Nerve Chapter XIII - A Volunteer Chapter XIV - The Way it was Done Chapter XV - A Mysterious Disappearance Chapter XVI - Taking Chances Chapter XVII - A Secret Kept Chapter XVIII - A Mysterious Sound Chapter XIX - A Fair Passenger Chapter XX - Masked Foes Chapter XXI - The Sacrifice Chapter XXII - The Ransom Chapter XXIII - The Outlaws' Captive Chapter XXIV - The Two Fugitives Chapter XXV - The Outlaw Lover Chapter XXVI - The Secret Out Chapter XXVII - The Departure Chapter XXVIII - The Lone Trail Chapter XXIX - To Welcome the Fair Guest Chapter XXX - At the Rendezvous Chapter XXXI - Doctor Dick Tells the News Chapter XXXII - The Miners' Welcome Chapter XXXIII - The Council Chapter XXXIV - A Metamorphosis Chapter XXXV - The Driver's Letter Chapter XXXVI - The Scout on the Watch Chapter XXXVII - The Miner's Mission Chapter XXXVIII - A Leaf from the Past Chapter XXXIX - The Outlaw's Confession Chapter XL - Tearing Off the Mask
In Appreciation of William F. Cody
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(BUFFALO BILL).
It is now some generations since Josh Billings, Ned Buntline, andColonel Prentiss Ingraham, intimate friends of Colonel William F. Cody,used to forgather in the office of Francis S. Smith, then proprietor ofthe New York Weekly . It was a dingy little office on Rose Street, NewYork, but the breath of the great outdoors stirred there when theseold-timers got together. As a result of these conversations, ColonelIngraham and Ned Buntline began to write of the adventures of BuffaloBill for Street & Smith.
Colonel Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa, February 26, 1846. Beforehe had reached his teens, his father, Isaac Cody, with his mother andtwo sisters, migrated to Kansas, which at that time was little more thana wilderness.
When the elder Cody was killed shortly afterward in the Kansas "BorderWar," young Bill assumed the difficult role of family breadwinner.During 1860, and until the outbreak of the Civil War, Cody lived thearduous life of a pony-express rider. Cody volunteered his services asgovernment scout and guide and served throughout the Civil War withGenerals McNeil and A. J. Smith. He was a distinguished member of theSeventh 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 trueromantic style, Cody and Louisa Federci, the girl, were married March 6,1866.
In 1867 Cody was employed to furnish a specified amount of buffalo meatto the construction men at work on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. It wasin this period that he received the sobriquet "Buffalo Bill."
In 1868 and for four years thereafter Colonel Cody served as scout andguide in campaigns against the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. It wasGeneral Sheridan who conferred on Cody the honor of chief of scouts ofthe command.
After completing a period of service in the Nebraska legislature, Codyjoined the Fifth Cavalry in 1876, and was again appointed chief ofscouts.
Colonel Cody's fame had reached the East long before, and a great manyNew Yorkers went out to see him and join in his buffalo hunts, includingsuch men as August Belmont, James Gordon Bennett, Anson Stager, andJ. G. Heckscher. In entertaining these visitors at Fort McPherson, Codywas accustomed to arrange wild-West exhibitions. In return his friendsinvited him to visit New York. It was upon seeing his first play in themetropolis 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 ofthe Rough-riders of the World," first presented at Omaha, Nebraska. Intime it became a familiar yearly entertainment in the great cities ofthis country and Europe. Many famous personages attended theperformances, and became his warm friends, including Mr. Gladstone, theMarquis 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 atthe head of the Nebraska National Guard. In 1895 Cody took up thedevelopment of Wyoming Valley by introducing irrigation. Not longafterward he became judge advocate general of the Wyoming NationalGuard.
Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill) died in Denver, Colorado, on January 10,1917. His legacy to a grateful world was a large share in thedevelopment of the West, and a multitude of achievements inhorsemanship, marksmanship, and endurance that will live for ages. Hislife will continue to be a leading example of the manliness, courage,and devotion to duty that belonged to a picturesque phase of Americanlife now passed, like the great patriot whose career it typified, intothe Great Beyond.
Chapter I - The Hermit of the Grand Cañon
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A horseman drew rein one morning, upon the brink of the Grand Cañon ofthe Colorado, a mighty abyss, too vast for the eye to take in its grandimmensity; a mighty mountain rent asunder and forming a chasm which is avalley of grandeur and beauty, through which flows the Colorado Grande.Ranges of mountains tower to cloudland on all sides with cliffs ofscarlet, blue, violet, yes, all hues of the rainbow; crystal streamsflowing merrily along; verdant meadows, vales and hills, with massiveforests everywhere—such was the sight that met the admiring gaze of thehorseman as he sat there in his saddle, his horse looking down into thecañon.
It was a spot avoided by Indians as the abiding-place of evil spirits; ascene shunned by white men, a mighty retreat where a fugitive, it wouldseem, would be forever safe, no matter what the crime that had drivenhim to seek a refuge there.
Adown from where the horseman had halted, was the bare trace of a trail,winding around the edge of an overhanging rock by a shelf that was not ayard in width and which only a man could tread whose head was cool andheart fearless.
Wrapt in admiration of the scene, the mist-clouds floating lazily upwardfrom the cañon, the silver ribbon far away that revealed the windingriver, and the songs of birds coming from a hundred leafy retreats onthe hillsides, the horseman gave a deep sigh, as though memories mostsad were awakened in his breast by the scene, and then dismounting beganto unwrap a lariat from his saddle-horn.
He was dressed as a miner, wore a slouch-hat, was of commandingpresence, and his darkly bronzed face, heavily bearded, was full ofdetermination, intelligence, and expression.
Two led horses, carrying heavy packs, were behind the animal he rode,and attaching the lariats to their bits he took one end and led the waydown the most perilous and picturesque trail along the shelf runningaround the jutting point of rocks.
When he drew near the narrowest point, he took off the saddle and packs,and one at a time led the horses downward and around the hazardousrocks.
A false step, a movement of fright in one of the animals, would send himdownward to the depths more than a mile below.
But the trembling animals seemed to have perfect confidence in theirmaster, and after a long while he got them by the point of greatestperil.
Going back and forward he carried the packs and saddles, and replacingthem upon the animals began once more the descent of the only trailleading down into the Grand Cañon, from that side.
The way was rugged, most dangerous in places, and several times hishorses barely escaped a fall over the precipice, the coolness and strongarm of the man alone saving them from death, and his stores fromdestruction.
It was nearly sunset when he at last reached the bottom of thestupendous rift, and only the tops of the cliffs were tinged with thegolden light, the valley being in densest shadow.
Going on along the cañon at a brisk pace, as though anxious to reachsome camping-place before nightfall, after a ride of several miles hecame in sight of a wooded cañon, entering the one he was then in, andwith heights towering toward heaven so far that all below seemed asblack as night.
But a stream wound out of the cañon, to mingle its clear waters with thegrand Colorado River a mile away, and massive trees grew near at hand,sheltering a cabin that stood upon the sloping hill at the base of acliff that arose thousands of feet above it.
When within a few hundred yards of the lone cabin, suddenly there was acrashing, grinding sound, a terrific roar, a rumbling, and the earthseemed shaken violently as the whole face of the mighty cliff camecrushing down into the valley, sending up showers of splintered rocksand clouds of dust that were blinding and appalling!
Back from the scene of danger fled the frightened horses, the ridershowing no desire to check their flight until a spot of safety wasreached.
Then, half a mile from the fallen cliff, he paus