"If you ain't just like old Barney," mused the bandit, smiling at the girl good naturedly. "I've seen Barney ready to shoot a man down, then something would excite his curiosity, and he'd forget what he was holding his guns for. Many a time he——"
"Never mind about daddy. What did you say in your message?" interrupted Rose, impatiently.
"But it was about your daddy."
"About daddy? Oh, Red, tell me." Then a shrewd thought flashed into her mind and she added: "You're wasting valuable time teasing me."
The words produced the desired effect upon the bandit, recalling him, as they did, to the danger of his position.
"I guess it would be better for me if we stayed mad," he rejoined. "I forget everything when I'm talking to you, Rosie."
"Then I won't say another word to you, ever, unless you tell me what message you sent to the Fort," pouted the girl, aware that the breech between them had been healed.
"Oh, it was nothing much. I just told the colonel I'd come back to keep the pledge I made to Barney the night he was killed, adding that I had two more of his men beside the messenger, I was keeping so's he'd behave. Oh, yes, and I told him if he didn't get a safe conduct for you and leave it at old man Quint's before to-day week, I'd run down and burn up his old Fort."
In contemplation of the effect such a message from the man for whom his troops were scouring the "Bad Lands" would have upon their choleric colonel, the scouts forgot the precariousness of their position.
"But old turkey gobler won't do it," exclaimed Rose, with the evident wish of being contradicted.