He stopped and looked hard at the girls.
“Josephine, when the proper time comes, you are going to write a letter for me,” he said threateningly.
Josephine faced him with flashing eyes.
“I’ll write no letters for you, you swine,” she said defiantly, “and when Mason comes he will kill you.”
“Not so fast, my little spitfire,” he purred, “but I am telling you straight. If you value Mason’s life, or any lives at the Bar X ranch, you will write this letter which I will dictate to you. If any of your friends come within two hundred yards of this place it will be sure death to them. Just look around and see for yourself how foolish it would be for any one to try to rescue you.”
With this warning he turned and left them.
Josephine took a general survey of the place. At last she turned a pale face to Ethel, for she had noticed the natural barriers of rock all about them.
“This place is twice as hard to get at as the one where I was held a prisoner before,” she said sadly.
It was beginning to get dark and the girls were completely tired out. They went over to the little cabin on the flat table rock and throwing themselves down tried to sleep. Percy was to make his quarters with the men in another cabin a hundred yards across the flat rock from the girls’ cabin, and they were surprised to see how well he seemed to bear up under his present troubles. Josephine arranged to have one of them keep watch while the other slept, and in this way they passed the long night.
When morning came they were full of aches and pains as neither had slept well during the night and the bunks were hard. Both girls had finally agreed that it would be best to grant Ricker’s demands, and write the warning letter to Mason.