Without any weapons, the Yager, still accompanied by the generous boys, advanced up to the resistants till near enough to pull hair. At the wall of dead men they stopped.
Kidd was binding up a wound; Dagard was the ostensible leader.
"What do you want?" he asked, lowering his rifle and pistol, both hands being thus occupied.
"We come to offer you life. Injins like 'sand' in a man, and your grit is first brand."
"We asked no quarter," was the proud reply. "We would have given none, I daresay. We are not plumb played out, and we mean to die pulling trigger."
"Yes, we are 'on' that," chorused the others.
"Now, don't be silly. I grant you are not used up, and our spoiling your hopes must 'stubborn' ye. But, by the Great Star! You have mighty little to go on with. Look at the slope, full of Injins as a book of letters; not the kind loud on a whoop and singing small when they have revolvers and scalpers to meet. You had better hear my offers, for I am 'white' on this thing, and I am about the only man who can snatch ye out of the burning."
"I'm thankful, old hunter, but your words now are like wheels of the thistledown—they sail away on the wind. You have cut too deep for balsam. You have allied yourself with those reds agin' your colour, and all we want is revenge for your slaughtering our mates."
"Vengeance!" cried his men, and Kidd's.
"But, let me straighten out things," persisted Ridge, "in Heaven's name! I offer you life and freedom too."