“Then he can fall into the water and welcome. But there’s no danger of that. Bad as he is, he isn’t tired of life.”
“What shall we do with him when we get him up here?”
“We’ll jump on him, and tie him hand and foot—that’s what we’ll do with him. I guess we five fellows are a match for him.”
Duke’s plan was the best that could have been adopted under the circumstances, and we agreed to it without a word of comment.
In a few moments we had removed our halters from our bridles, and tied them together, thus forming a rope about thirty feet in length. When this had been done, we once more stretched ourselves out on the ground, and looked over the cliff to watch the movements of the robber.
He was struggling desperately to gain a foothold on the bluff; but the soft earth always gave way beneath him, and when at last he became exhausted with his efforts, he hung down at arms’ length to recover his breath, glaring up into our faces with an expression as savage as that of a caged hyena.
We saw with no little excitement and horror that a few more attempts of this kind would seal his fate, for the bushes had been loosened by his frantic struggles, and their roots were slowly but surely giving way.
“Now I’ll jest tell you what’s the matter with you,” shouted Sandy. “The fust thing you know, you won’t know nothing. If you want any help, sing out.”
Luke Redman looked up at the bushes, then down at the angry waves which were dashing wildly against the base of the cliff, and being fully convinced that there was no other way of escape for him, said, in a hoarse whisper:
“Lend a hand here!”