_ CHAPTER XXXVIII. A LEAF FROM THE PAST
When the surgeon-scout was guided to the deserted camp by Andrew Seldon, he at once saw that Buffalo Bill had not reached there. But there he was to wait for him, and so the horses were staked out and the two made themselves at home there.
Doctor Powell went to have a look at the grave of Black-heart Bill, and the inscription upon the white bark of the aspen-tree, and said, as he read the name:
"Hugh Mayhew was his name."
"Yes, sir."
"There was a Sergeant Manton Mayhew killed at Fort Faraway by Sergeant Wallace Weston, who was sentenced to be shot for the deed, but escaped the very moment of his execution."
"Was he never captured, sir?"
"Poor fellow, he went to an even worse fate than being shot, for he wandered into the desert and died of starvation there. I knew that he was guilty of killing Manton Mayhew, but I am sure he had some grave reason for so doing, but which he would never make known.
"He was a splendid soldier, brave and true, and he would have been commissioned had not that sad affair occurred."
"Did he give no reason for his act, sir?"
"None; he simply accepted his fate, though it was said to clear himself he would have had to compromise others, and this he would not do."
"Poor fellow!"
"Yes, I often think of his sad fate."
An antelope was killed that afternoon, and after enjoying a good supper the surgeon and the gold-hunter lighted their pipes and sat down for a talk, both anxiously awaiting the coming of Buffalo Bill.
After sitting in silence for some minutes the gold-hunter said:
"Surgeon Powell, you were speaking of Wallace Weston to-day?"
"Yes."
"You may have noted that the name of Mayhew is upon yonder aspen-tree?"
"And referred to the fact."
"I put it there."
"Yes."
"Then I knew who Black-heart Bill was."
"That is so. I had not thought of that."
"He was the brother of Manton Mayhew, the sergeant."
"Indeed!"
"Yes, sir."
"You knew Sergeant Mayhew, then?"
"Intimately, for we were boys together."
"Ah! tell me of him."
"We lived near each other, sir, and Manton Mayhew was my rival at school, and also for the love of a pretty girl whom I idolized. He did all in his power to ruin me, and when I obtained a position in a bank, where he also was a clerk, he did wreck my life, for I was accused of robbery, and worse still, of murdering the watchman, who caught me in the act.
"I would surely have been hanged but for the girl I spoke of, who forced me to fly for my life, aiding me to escape. I fled, to prove my innocence, and became a wanderer.
"Then I received a letter from the woman I loved, telling me that she had discovered that I really was a thief and a murderer, and that she abhorred where she had loved me.
"And more, when, in my despair I wrote to one who had been my friend to hear from home, I was told that Manton Mayhew had been the means of ruining my father financially, and the blow had driven him to suicide, while my poor mother, heart-broken, had died soon after my flight.
"Nor was this all, for Hugh Mayhew, the brother of Manton, had married the girl I had loved.
"Several years after other news came to me from my old home, and to the effect that Manton Mayhew had gone to the bad and in a drunken brawl had wounded a companion fatally as he had believed, and he had fled no one knew where.
"His brother Hugh had wrecked his father's bank, and in a drunken frenzy had shot his wife one night, and he, too, had become a fugitive. Well, to end the story quickly, for I hate to dwell upon it, Manton Mayhew had joined the army, and, a good soldier, had become a sergeant."
"Ordered to Fort Faraway he had met there Sergeant Weston, whom he recognized, and, fearing to be exposed in his crimes, he had at once attacked him, telling him he would kill him, and say that it was on account of his insubordination.
"But Wallace Weston was armed, having just been given a revolver by an officer to take to his quarters, and he killed Mayhew as he was about to drive a knife to his heart.
"Rather than bring out the old story, and, perhaps, be carried back East to be tried for the murder of the bank watchman, of which he was innocent, Sergeant Wallace Weston submitted in silence to his trial and accepted his fate, feeling that his life was one of despair."
"And do you know all this to be as you have stated?" asked Surgeon Powell, when the gold-hunter had finished his story.
"I do, sir."
"Knowing it, you did not come to the rescue of poor Weston?"
"I did not, sir."
"May I ask why?" and Frank Powell spoke sternly.
"I will tell you the reason, Surgeon Powell, if you will pledge me your word to receive it in sacred confidence."
"I will so pledge myself, Mr. Seldon."
"Because, sir,
I am Wallace Weston."
Frank Powell was always a calm, cool man, but now he sprang to his feet, dropping his pipe, and cried:
"Do you speak the truth?"
"I do, sir."
"Upon honor?"
"Yes."
"Now I recognize the look that has so haunted me since I met you this morning. Upon my soul, Weston, I am glad to see that you are not dead, that you can clear up the story of Mayhew's killing and announce yourself once more a guiltless man."
"But I cannot, sir, for you forget that I am accused of murdering the watchman and robbing the bank."
"Is there no way in which you can disprove that?"
"Only by the confession of the guilty ones."
"Who were they?"
"The Mayhews, and one other."
"They were guilty?"
"Yes, sir."
"And who was the other man?"
"A clerk in the bank and devoted friend of the Mayhews."
"Where is he?"
"I do not know, sir."
"And they are dead."
"Manton and Hugh Mayhew are dead, by my hand, but where proof of their crime can be found I cannot tell, and so I am forced to hide under an assumed name--yes, Doctor Powell, the name of a dead man, Andrew Seldon, the one whose body was found by the rock in the desert and buried for mine."
"You have had a remarkable escape, Weston----"
"Seldon now sir, for that is the name I have taken, and let me now tell you how that poor man, the real Andrew Seldon, was plotted against."
"I shall be glad to hear all that you are willing to tell me, Seldon."
"Well, sir, it was while escaping from the pursuing soldiers, that I came upon a stray horse. He led me back to where his dead master lay upon the desert, and upon the body I found papers telling who he was, that he had left home under a cloud, had left a wife and child and riches, and come West to hide himself and hunt for gold until he dared return.
"There was a map of gold finds he had discovered, and he had struck it rich and was on his way home. So I dressed him in my uniform, took his traps, and went my way, and he was buried as Wallace Weston.
"It was when I was returning to the gold find of Andrew Seldon that I came upon Black-heart Bill's camp, and, finding in him Hugh Mayhew, I killed him. My intention was to take Andrew Seldon's name, dig his gold, and, to ease my conscience, give half to his family.
"I imitated his writing and wrote to his lawyer and best friend, and little daughter, for his wife was dead, as letters told me which he had with him. In answer, at W---- I learned that I, as Andrew Seldon, dared not return home, that my daughter Celeste was dead, and my fortune gone.
"When Celeste Seldon was captured, from her own lips I learned as she told the outlaw lieutenant, that all had been a plot to keep her father away, and, discovering the plot, she had come out here to find him, after the messenger had failed to write home to her later than on his arrival in W----.
"Now, you know, Doctor Powell, why I was seeking Buffalo Bill, and it is my intention to seek that young girl, tell her all, and give her one-half of the fortune in gold I have found, through her father's maps and directions, in the Grand Canyon."
"And then?"
"I suppose I shall drift about the world, sir, unknown, leading an aimless life, or, perhaps, return to my gold-digging again."
"No, Weston, such must not be your fate, for I shall take your case in hand and prove your innocence of robbing that bank and killing the watchman, for I believe your story, and then with Sergeant Mayhew's character proven, you can readily secure pardon for taking his life as you did in self-defense."
"Heaven bless you, Surgeon Powell!"
"I only make one request, Weston."
"Yes, sir."
"That Buffalo Bill hears your story as I have, for he believes in your innocence most thoroughly, and will be most happy to welcome you back to life."
"I will be guided by you, sir, but some one is coming."
"It is Buffalo Bill," cried Frank Powell, and just then the scout rode into the camp. _