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

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A sudden silence fell over the gang. All of them turned their eyes on the prisoner, and Smith got up and stepped toward him.

“Got your wits back, have you?” Smith demanded, with a scowl.

“I didn’t have much sense when I started in to do you a friendly turn,” said Wild Bill. “That’s where I went lame. Who are you, anyhow?”

A hoarse laugh broke from the man’s lips. The next moment he had stripped away the linen duster, revealing a tall, supple form clad in gaudy costume. About the shoulders was a short jacket of black velvet, strung with silver-dollar buttons that flashed in the candlelight; about the waist was a silken sash of red, supporting a brace of silver-mounted derringers. Boots made of fancy leather arose to the knee, and a black sombrero capped the flashy apparel.

“In the first place,” said the man, with a fiendish grin, “my name is not Smith, but Lawless.”

“Well, I’ll be hanged!” muttered Wild Bill. “You’re Lawless, and I jumped right at you, in the Lucky Strike Hotel, supposing you were the tenderfoot who’s coming here to drop into your game! That’s a big one on me, and I reckon that fool play makes me deserve all I’ve got coming. Well, well! This would be plumb comical if it wasn’t so blamed serious.”