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

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“Who are you?” inquired the stranger, with sudden interest.

“My name’s Hickok, William Hickok.”

The stranger hitched restlessly in his chair.

“The man I’ve heard so much about under the sobriquet of Wild Bill?” he asked.

“Tally! That’s the time you got your bean on the right number.”

The stranger fell silent for a space.

“My name is Smith,” said he finally; “J. Algernon Smith, of Chicago, and what you tell me is mighty surprising.” He drew his chair closer. “Would you mind telling me just what you have found out?”

“Sure I wouldn’t mind. I’m hungry to cut into this game, and even up with the pack of tinhorns that gave me a hot half-hour yesterday.”

And thereupon Wild Bill began telling what he had seen and heard in the level of the Forty Thieves. When he had finished, J. Algernon Smith was wide-eyed and staring.

“Really,” he managed to gasp, “this is most astounding.”

“I reckon it’s all that,” mildly answered Wild Bill. “The very name of that mine, though, is enough to make a man think some. Who’s the fellow you’re going to deal with?”