“Maybe you will,” composedly responded the other, “but you’ll get through with your business with me before you really try to kill me. I’m on to you, Mister Man, and if I hadn’t guessed that you are not yet ready to extinguish my light, I would never have invited you to cut loose.”
The murderer lowered his pistol. His expression of hate gave way to one of admiration. “You are the limit, Cody,” he grudgingly remarked. “You are sharp, all right, but you’ll need all your wits, and a cartload besides, to get out of the fix you are now in.”
“Think so?” said Buffalo Bill calmly.
“I do. I have you where I want you. Your partner is dead, and we are hundreds of miles from a human habitation. When our little séance is over, one man will be the only living thing in these solitudes.”
“How about the girl? Isn’t she near by?”
The masked man scowled. “Yes, she is not far away,” he admitted, “and much good may the information do you.”
“You have left her up the ravine somewhere, I suppose?” insinuated the scout.
“No matter where I have left her. You’ll never see her. But a truce to this profitless chin music. I am going to ask you a few questions, and I have an idea that you will answer them promptly, for as long as you continue on that line I’ll hold back the bullet meant for your brain.”
“I am in the humor for frankness,” said Buffalo Bill easily. “Fire away.”
The masked murderer showed surprise, but he quickly repressed the emotion.