“We’ve got a friend of yours here,” called Buffalo Bill. “We’ll release him, and let him come in and tell you the conditions here, so that you’ll know how foolish it is for you to try to hold out against us.”
“No—no!” Toby Sam gurgled; “he’ll shoot me! He’ll think I’ve turned ag’inst him; he’ll think I took the emeralds; he’ll think——”
He twisted out of the way of Buffalo Bill, whose intention of sending him to the cave he feared, and leaping up, he tried to run.
It was a foolish and fatal movement.
Black John’s revolver cracked, and Toby Sam fell with its bullet in his head, being dead as he struck the ground.
Now at bay, Black John was desperate and murderous. He had thought the man he shot at was one of Buffalo Bill’s force.
Silence followed the fall of Toby Sam’s body, and it lay on the rocks, the face, ghastly in death, turned skyward.
There was a movement in the cave; the next moment Lena Forest appeared.
Her hands and feet were bound, but she stood erect, while behind her, using her as a shield, Black John crouched, like a desperate villain and craven.
“Remember that I’m keepin’ her in front of me here in the mouth of this cave,” he shouted, “and if you shoot at me the chances aire you’ll hit her. Recklect it!”