“And what do you think he’d do to the girl if the crowd of you started up there?” Roddy inquired. “If he’s what you think he is, he’d fix her.”
“Let all of you stay back,” Kent cried, elbowing his way to Gallup’s side. “The two of us will go up. I want my girl, and I’ll git her unharmed. What Roddy says is so. You’re only makin’ a damned nuisance out of yourself with this talk of hangin’. Come on, Gallup!”
For a moment Kent was master. He was again the tyrant of bygone days.
Madeiras was keenly alive to his danger. He had sent Charlie Paul on his way; Molly was heaping coals of fire upon the Basque’s head, but the thing which held Tony’s attention was that angry murmur from below. He recognized the sounds. He had seen men hanged!
With a sigh of relief he saw Gallup and Kent break from the crowd and start toward him. When they reached the upper side of the little flat the Basque called to them:
“You drop those gun before you come any closer!”
“I want my daughter!” Kent answered.
“Thass always right wit’ me, señor; but those gun—they stay behin’.”
“Humor the fool,” Gallup cried, throwing his rifle into the sage. “We want the girl, and I want to see Dice’s body.”
Unarmed, therefore, they climbed to the entrance of the mine. Madeiras met them with a surly laugh.