"The right given by Almighty God to protect any one of your sex in
peril," he replied. "Before dawn those savage fiends will be upon us.
We are utterly helpless. There remains only one possible path for
escape, and I believe I have discovered it. Now, my girl, you either
climb those rocks with me, or I shall kill you where you are. It is
that, or the Sioux torture. I have two shots left in this gun,--one
for you, the other for myself. The time has come for deciding which of
these alternatives you prefer."
The gleam of a star glittered along the steel of his revolver, and she
realized that he meant what he threatened.
"If I select your bullet rather than the rocks, what then?"
"You will get it, but in that case you will die like a fool."
"You have believed me to be one, all this afternoon."
"Possibly," he admitted; "your words and actions certainly justified
some such conclusion, but the opportunity has arrived for causing me to
revise that suspicion."
"I don't care to have you, revise it, Mr. Bob Hampton. If I go, I
shall hate you just the same."
Hampton's teeth clicked like those of an angry dog. "Hate and be
damned," he exclaimed roughly. "All I care about now is to drag you
out of here alive."
His unaffected sincerity impressed her more than any amount of
pleading. She was long accustomed to straight talk; it always meant
business, and her untutored nature instantly responded with a throb of
confidence.
"Well, if you put it that way," she said, "I 'll go."
For one breathless moment neither stirred. Then a single wild yell
rang sharply forth from the rocks in their front, and a rifle barked
savagely, its red flame cleaving the darkness with tongue of fire. An
instant and the impenetrable gloom again surrounded them.
"Come on, then," he whispered, his fingers grasping her sleeve.
She shook off the restraining touch of his hand as if it were
contamination, and sank down upon her knees beside the inert body. He
could barely perceive the dim outlines of her bowed figure, yet never
moved, his breath perceptibly quickening, while he watched and waited.
Without word or moan she bent yet lower, and pressed her lips upon the
cold, white face. The man caught no more than the faintest echo of a
murmured "Good-bye, old dad; I wish I could take you with me." Then
she stood stiffly upright, facing him. "I'm ready now," she announced
calmly. "You can go on ahead."