Several weeks after Bill had taken leave of his friends of Fort Larned, he stood one day   
upon the of a little hotel in the frontier settlement of Danger Divide, when a young man 
 
came up, and, taking him by the arm, led him to the other end of the veranda.
 
“Mr. Doyle, let me introduce to you Colonel Cody, the chief of of the Department of the 
 
Platte.”
 
The speaker was a tall, handsome sun-tanned young man, whose frank, honest look and , 
 
smiling eyes would at once have prepossessed any one in his favor.
 
The man to whom he was old enough to have been his grandfather. His appearance was 
 
, but his face bore deep lines that spoke of some great sorrow which had clouded his 
 
life.
 
The old gentleman rose from the chair in which he was sitting and bowed courteously to the man 
 
who was being introduced to him.
 
“Any friend of yours, Mr. Mainwaring, honors me by his acquaintance,” he said. “But it gives 
 
me especial pleasure to meet Colonel Cody. I have heard much about his great deeds out here in 
 
the West, and now that I see him I am sure that nothing I have heard has been exaggerated.”
 
“I am delighted to meet you, sir,” replied the .
 
“I heard you make a speech in the Senate two years ago, when I was in Washington on some 
 
business with the War Department,” he added cordially.
 
 
“Ah, they say that you never forget a face, Colonel Cody, and it appears to be true. But I have 
 
resigned from the Senate and left Washington forever.”
 
Buffalo Bill’s face expressed polite interest, but he made no remark. He could not help 
 
wondering, however, how it had come about that one of the most distinguished statesmen at that 
 
time in America should have abandoned his great career, and instead of being in his proper place 
 
at Washington should be found at a wretched little frontier shanty—which was all that the best 
 
“hotel” in Danger Divide could really be called.
 
“Yes, I have turned my back on Washington,” Mr. Doyle went on, “and I am now on my way to 
 
California, with my two daughters. I am going to buy a there and make it my home for the 
 
small balance of my days. I want to leave all the old associations of my life behind. They have 
 
become painful to me.
 
“My boy died three months ago in Washington. He was the last of my three sons. My wife 
 
died years ago, and now I have only my two girls left—May and Gertrude. Like myself, they wish 
 
to live in a new country, among fresh scenes and people who will not remind us of the past.”
 
It was a strangely frank speech to make to a new acquaintance, but Buffalo Bill was a man who 
 
inspired confidence at first sight, and Mr. Doyle found it natural to talk to him of his most 
 
sacred and private affairs as he could not have done to another man.
 
A smiling, honest-looking negro came out onto the veranda and said to the old man:
 
“Lunch done got ready, massa. Missie Gertrude and Missie May waiting for you. I ’clar’ to 
 
goodness, suh, I cooked de best lunch I could, but you can’t get nuthin’ more in this place 
 
than down in ole Virginny at de end ob de wah.”
 
 
“All right, Norfolk Ben,” replied Mr. Doyle, smiling kindly at the man. “I’ve no doubt that 
 
you have done the best you can, and probably you have done wonders, under the circumstances.”
 
The honest fellow, grinning his of these words, vanished through the door.
 
“That is my servant, Norfolk Ben,” said Mr. Doyle, turning to Cody and Mainwaring. “I don
 
’t think any one ever had a more faithful one. He has been with us for many years, and is 
 
to my daughters. He comes from Norfolk, in Virginia—hence his name.”
 
“A good Virginian servant of the old stock is indeed a treasure,” remarked Mainwaring.
 
“Will you join us at lunch, Colonel Cody, and you, too, Mr. Mainwaring? I want to hear some more 
 
about that ranch of yours in Texas, and my girls will be delighted to meet you, Colonel Cody, and 
 
listen to some stories about your adventures.”
 
“I don’t think it will be easy to induce Cody to tell them,” said Jack Mainwaring, smiling. “
 
Somebody else is always the hero of the stories he tells. I have known him for three weeks, but 
 
all that I have heard about his adventures has been from other people.”
 
Both men accepted Mr. Doyle’s invitation and went into the small, dining room of the 
 
hotel with him.
 
They found there two girls, of about twenty and eighteen years of age respectively, whom they 
 
were introduced to by Mr. Doyle. The elder was his daughter May and the younger was Gertrude.
 
Both were pretty, but the elder was by far the prettier, and Buffalo Bill, wise in such matters, 
 
could see at a glance that young Mainwaring was powerfully attracted by her. It was the first 
 
time they had me............