“I been watchin’ Pool ever sence he refused to shoot that old duffer there when I ordered him to. That’s one p’int in the proof that he is ole Nomad’s friend and Cody’s friend; and that woman I know to be the pizenest rattlesnake in many ways that ever crawled on the earth.
“Jes’ the same, I ain’t goin’ to shoot ’em—not now! I want ’em put up in front of the barricades, where the troopers can see ’em; and then, if the soldiers want to shoot into the barricades, let ’em do it.”
It was a long speech, and its utterance cost him effort and pain; yet he felt savagely gratified by it. He had determined on the death of Pizen Jane, and of Pool Clayton and Nick Nomad.
If the troopers, in trying to take the barricades, killed the three, well and good; for a time he hoped their position there would hold the soldiers back. If the prisoners were not thus slain, he would have them shot as enemies after the coming fight was over. He still had confidence in his men and in the strength of his position, and was feverishly vengeful and defiant.
Pool Clayton wilted and cried out for mercy when he was dragged by the road agents out to one of the barricades, and was lifted over it and tied to the logs of which it was composed. His mother was tied by his side. They were on the outside of the barricade, and looked up the dark pass, where they half expected to see soon the flaming of the carbines of troopers.
Placed thus, where the rain of lead could not miss them, it seemed to Pool Clayton that his end was at hand. He cried out in bitterness and anguish of spirit, reproaching himself for the evil course which had led to this horrible fate.
“Pool,” said Pizen Jane, touched by his moaning outcries, “there aire things that aire a heap worse’n to die this way; and one of the things that aire worse is bein’ a successful road agent. Fer that is a thing that would shore destroy you, body and soul.”
“Oh, don’t talk that way!” he wailed. “Don’t talk that way! We must escape! We must get away!”
He threw himself to and fro in his agonies.
One of the outlaws came climbing over the barricade.