Читать книгу Buffalo Bill's Weird Warning; Or, Dauntless Dell's Rival онлайн

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Sounds of scrambling feet came from below him, followed by the voice of Tex.

“Thar he is! See him squirm, will ye? Pepper him! Turn loose at him!”

Just then the hole above suddenly darkened. Wild Bill was still a target, but not so plain.

The shaft echoed with a patter of reports. A sharp, stinging blow struck the heel of Wild Bill’s boot, the broad brim of his hat shook, and he was raked along one side as by a red-hot iron.

“Wow!” he muttered; “if they put a piece of lead into one of my arms——”

And just then that is exactly what they did. It was Wild Bill’s left arm. The strength went out of the arm in a flash, and Wild Bill only saved himself from dropping back to the bottom of the shaft by a fierce grip on the rope with his right hand.

How could he climb now? The outlook was anything but reassuring.

All this time the Laramie man felt a movement of the rope, as though Crawling Bear, at the top of the shaft, was tinkering with it under the cover he had placed over the opening.

“I reckon he ain’t climbin’ no more,” roared the voice of Clancy, from the depths. “Lay holt, thar, Tex, an’ see if ye kain’t crawl up an’ haul ther whelp back. He’s winged, mebby, an’ kain’t climb.”