heir nervousness, and if the
persuasive Colonel Judson had not been at their elbows, reminding them
that he, also, was to take part in the play, it is more than likely
they would have slipped quietly out at the stage door and bought railway
passage to the West.

Presently the curtain rolled up, and the audience applauded
encouragingly as three quaking six-footers, clad in buckskin, made their
first bow before the footlights.

I have said that Will did not know a line of his part, nor did he when
the time to make his opening speech arrived. It had been faithfully
memorized, but oozed from his mind like the courage from Bob Acres's
finger-tips. "Evidently," thought Buntline, who was on the stage with
him, "he needs time to recover." So he asked carelessly:

"What have you been about lately, Bill?"

This gave "The Scout of the Plains" an inspiration. In glancing over
the audience, he had recognized in one of the boxes a wealthy gentleman
named Milligan, whom he had once guided on a big hunt near McPherson.
The expedition had been written up by the Chicago papers, and the
incidents of it were well known.

"I've been out on a hunt with Milligan," replied Will, and the house
came down. Milligan was quite popular, but had been the butt of
innumerable jokes because of his alleged scare over the Indians. The
applause and laughter that greeted the sally stocked the scout with
confidence, but confidence is of no use if one has forgotten his part.
It became manifest to the playwright-actor that he would have to prepare
another play in place of the one he had expected to perform, and that he
must prepare it on the spot.

"Tell us about it, Bill," said he, and the prompter groaned.

One of the pleasures of frontier life consists in telling stories around
the camp-fire. A man who ranks as a good frontiersman is pretty sure
to be a good raconteur. Will was at ease immediately, and proceeded
to relate the story of Milligan's hunt in his own words. That it was
amusing was attested by the frequent rounds of applause. The prompter,
with a commendable desire to get things running smoothly, tried again
and again to give Will his cue, but even cues had been forgotten.

The dialogue of that performance must have been delightfully absurd.
Neither Texas Jack nor Wild Bill was able to utter a line of his part
during the entire evening. In the Indian scenes, however, they scored
a great success; here was work that did not need to be painf