"I have promised him his life if he will come down here with that money," the Red Rover explained.
"You had better accept it, sir," the young woman called out. "You are at a disadvantage, and cannot possibly hold out there a great while. That is your only chance."
"But I have only the word of an outlaw that my life will be spared."
"That word will be kept, will it not, Joaquin?"
"Of course it will be kept. But I told you not to meddle in this matter. Keep out of it, now, or return to the house at once!"
The young woman gave him a sharp glance, and leaned back against a boulder that lay behind the stone on which she had sat down. Dick believed that he caught a look of pain on her face as the torches lighted it up.
"It is all one-sided," said Deadwood Dick. "Arm me, and make me an equal, and I will leave the bag of money here and come down and go away. Refuse, and I will carry out the threats I have made. There need be no further parley about it."
"Well, I'll do it, but I have not got your weapons here."
"Send for them."
"It will take time to get them."