“Let me shoot him, the scoundrel!” begged Clayton. “I can’t stand it any longer.”
Instead, Buffalo Bill lifted his voice. “Hello, there!” he called.
Black John wheeled as if on a pivot. He looked about, and saw no one.
“We’ve got you covered with our revolvers,” were the next words he heard. “If you don’t throw up your hands and surrender, down you go.”
Black John did not surrender; he gave a jump for the cave, pulling the girl backward by the hair, so that she fell in the very entrance, and was pulled in by him, out of sight.
CHAPTER XLVII.
AT BAY—AT PEACE.
Silence reigned after that until Buffalo Bill spoke again, announcing to Black John that he was cornered, and demanding his surrender.
“Come and git me!” yelled the desperate man. “But recklect when you do I’ll shoot the girl.”
“We want to have a talk with you,” said Buffalo Bill. “We’ve got a proposition to make to you. Surrender the girl unharmed, and we’ll spare your life.”
When there was no answer to this, they began to crawl up the slope, taking Toby Sam with them.