CHAPTER XI.
DICK'S ONLY DEFENSE.
"Surrender!" called out Captain Joaquin.
"We'll consider that point a bit first," responded Dick.
He had drawn back out of range with considerable alacrity, for thebullets had come uncomfortably close.
"You will surrender, and that unconditionally, or we will riddle youwith bullets!" was the threat. "You have now cancelled any obligation Imay have been under."
"If I surrender at all, it will be under conditions," rejoined Dick."We will make terms, or I will fight it out to the death."
"It will be to your death, then, not mine."
"Don't be too sure of that."
"You are not armed."
"No?"
"No, you are not."
"Do you want me to show you? You present a fine target there where youstand."
There were five men in the company, four besides the captain, and thosefour sprang to cover instantly, lest a shot might find them.
Captain Joaquin laughed.
"Don't be alarmed, boys," he said. "I tell you he is not armed. I tookhis guns away from him, and he has had no chance to get others. We musthave him down from there!"
"There is only one way to get me," said Dick.
"And we will take that way."
"At your peril."
Captain Joaquin was no coward. He started forward at once, calling onhis men to follow.
The men responded, reassured by the word of their leader, as well asby his own intrepid example, and followed the Red Rover up the steepascent with their torches.
"Hold!"
Deadwood Dick so ordered.
They stopped and looked up, as men in their position naturally would do.
"You will advance another step at your peril," Dick warned them. "I amsafe from your bullets, but you are in plain open sight there, and itseems a pity to pick you off."
"That be hanged!" cried Captain Joaquin. "You are talking to gain time,that is all. Come on, boys!"
"Do you want this boulder rolled down upon you?" cried Dick.
It was useless for him to pretend that he was armed, when he was notarmed. A shot would have been the only proof of that.
"Ha! ha!" laughed the captain. "Four men like you could not roll thatboulder out of the cavity in which it lies. I tell you we have got you,and you can't escape us."
There was not a doubt of it.
It was all true, what was said of the boulder. It weighed a ton if itweighed a pound.
The reason that one man was enabled to move it at all was because itwas partly balanced in the little basin in which it rested, and couldbe tilted to another bearing in one direction.
"Hold!"
Dick's voice rang out again, more forceful than at first.
Again his foes stopped, for they were in no position to disregard sucha command from a desperate man.
"Well, what now?" demanded the Red Rover.
"I told you that we would make terms, or I would fight it to the death."
"Bah! what care I for your threats? What position are you in to talk ofterms? You are as good as in my hands already. Come on, boys!"
"One moment," cried Dick. "It is true that I have no guns at hand, asyou well know, and it is also true that I cannot roll the boulder, butI have a weapon nevertheless."
"What is it?"
"This bag of money."
"Ha! ha! ha! What is that?"
"I will tell you what it is. It is a fortune in compact form. If I seta match to its contents it will go up in smoke."
There was a howl instantly.
"And I can do it before you can get up to a level where you can get ashot at me," said Dick. "All you will find will be a little heap ofashes for your trouble."
"You do not dare!" howled the Red Rover. "You would not have the nerveto destroy such a fortune!"
"No?"
"No! I defy you!"
"All right, come on and see. It will take you several minutes to gethere, and by that time I can have destroyed it."
"But, what of you? By heavens, I would put pitch on you and burn you atthe stake, Deadwood Dick! You do not know the tiger of my nature yet,or you would not rouse it."
"I am seeking rather to tame it," said Dick.
"And I swear that I will do just as I say, if you destroy that moneybefore I can get hold of it."
"I would prefer a leap off this peak to the depths below, rather thanthat," said Dick, "and I could carry with me what of the money I mightnot have time to burn."
"You would not do that."
"There is one way for you to prove it, come and see."
"You have no matches there."
"Here is proof of that."
Dick struck a match as he spoke, and set fire to a piece of paper hehappened to have in his pocket.
Captain Joaquin was dismayed.
Dick could hear him consulting in low tones with his men.
"What are you going to do about it?" Dick inquired, after a pause. "Iam ready to offer my terms."
He had a potent weapon to use against them, and that was the possessionof the fortune they had risked so much to get possession of that day.
"Ready to offer terms," sneered the Red Rover. "You mean that you areready to accept such terms as you can get, I guess. We will be the onesto offer, if any terms are made at all. We hold the winning hand."
"And I hold the stuff. Don't make any mistake."
"Well, what would you call terms?"
"If I surrender to you, with this bag of money intact, will you allowme to go free?"
"Yes, we'll do that," was the prompt answer. And every one of themvoiced approval. They were prompt and liberal with their promises, ifhe would surrender at once.
Deadwood Dick laughed at them.
"It is too plain a case," he said. "That is not the kind of a bargain Iam going to make with you, however."
"You won't trust us?"
"Not a bit."
"You will have to, or we will starve you out. And at the first sight weget of you we'll pick you off."
"Try that, my friends, and every hour I remain here I will burn tenthousand dollars of this money. I have got money to burn, not onlyfiguratively, but actually."
"Curse you! What terms do you want?"
"Ha! I thought you would presently recognize that I hold the betterhand," said Dick.
"I recognize nothing of the kind," was the return, "but I don't wantyou to be fool enough to destroy that money--my hard earnings."
"That is precisely the little joker I hold," said Dick.
"Well, what do you want to do?"
"I want you to return my revolvers to me, in good order--"
"Say, do you take us for fools altogether? We have got the advantage,now, and, we mean to keep it. Forward, men, and at him!"
"Hold!" cried Dick yet once again. "You evidently forget the fate ofthis money if you advance another step. And more than that, if you keepme here one hour the pile will be ten thousand dollars less."
It was a peculiar situation.
Deadwood Dick Jr. Branded; or, Red Rover at Powder Pocket. Page 11