Dick smiled.
"I was not wrong, then, in my estimate of your earnestness when you made it, even if I did give you the benefit of the doubt," he said.
"That is a past question," said the Red Rover. "You have since assured me that nothing could tempt you to join me, but on the other hand that you intend to crush me."
"Let it pass," Dick waived.
Feeling by this time able to do so, he got upon his feet, but he had to lean against a boulder for support.
His head ached and was dizzy, and the shot had given him an indescribable numb feeling throughout his entire body. It had been about as close a call as he had ever experienced.
"You are now my prisoner," said the outlaw. "Susana, you secure his weapons—there they lie on the ground—and I will handcuff him again. I will put on that other pair, I think, seeing that you had the choice of selection before," to Dick.
"You have it all your own way, just now," said Dick. "I am not in it, so to say."
"You are right in it," the outlaw disputed.
"Well, no matter. If you are going to handcuff me, though, I hope you will dress the wound I have received."