“Yes, or killed them.”
“And Silk Lasso Sam?” quickly asked the woman, her face showing intense anxiety as she asked the question.
“Was captured.”
“And where is he now?”
“A prisoner at Pioneer Post.”
“He will be hanged, of course?”
“Yes, for his crimes are many, as you know, and he was immediately sentenced, before I left the fort, to die upon the gallows, along with his men who had been captured.”
“Alas! my poor, sinful brother, he deserves the shameful fate that he is to meet, and from which I have in vain striven hard to save him.” The tears came into the beautiful eyes of Bonnie Belle, while Deadshot Dean said:
“You have been a most devoted sister, Bonnie Belle, to that man, and he has brought his fate upon his own head; but let me tell you all that has happened since I left here to track Silk Lasso Sam and his band to their lair.
“Bonnie Belle, for I must continue to call you by the name you are known by to the miners, and not by that of Ruth Leigh, as I knew you in the years gone by, when you were a little girl, I——”