But Rosie was not to be caught napping.
Dodging the blow cleverly, she levelled her guns at the scout's head.
"Don't try that again," she exclaimed, quietly. "It's lucky for you, Red didn't see your move, or he'd make me drop you in your tracks. I suppose I'm a fool for not doing it, but you seem so young," she added, whimsically.
But bitterly was Red destined to repent the girl's soft-heartedness.
Pedro, however, noticed the changed position of the scout as he got to his feet after putting the last knot in Shaw's bonds and with an oath he was upon him.
"I'll fix you so you can't do any damage," he grunted, as he slipped a noose over Scotty's right hand, passed the rawhide lariat behind his back, took a turn about the left wrist and jerked both arms behind his back. "Rosie, you ought to have dropped him. He might have got you, and then things wouldn't have been so easy for Red and me."
"Well, he didn't," smiled the girl, "so there's no harm done. Besides, he's worth more to us alive than dead."
This remark, audible to all three of the captives, set them to wondering to what purpose the outlaw intended to put them, and it did not improve the tempers of the veterans to think that members of the Mounted Scouts should be made to serve Red Rogers' ends.
The task of binding Jennings was finally accomplished, and, exhausted by their efforts, the bandits squatted near the edge of the plateau to rest.
Pedro's method of binding the prisoners had been thorough. Tying the hands of each behind his back, he had taken two turns of the lariat about the upper arms, made a knot and then run the rawhide down the prisoner's back to the ankles, which he bound with a half dozen turns.