While these orders were being carried out, the prisoners, who were stirrup to stirrup with each other, were exchanging low-spoken words.
When the cavalcade was ready to start, Cayuse was riding with his face to the rear, a six-shooter in his left hand, and Dell was behind the prisoners. Thus watched from front and rear, and bound and helpless, such a thing as escape was an impossibility.
“I tell ye ter wait,” cried Hendricks, “afore ye go on any further with this here pufformance. Takin’ us ter the Phœnix calaboose ain’t goin’ ter help ye none in locatin’ Annie McGowan.”
“We’ll find her,” said the scout confidently, “and we’ll find Bascomb and Bernritter, too.”
“Ye’ll never find ’em if ye don’t listen ter Banks an’ me.”
“It’s my opinion,” said the scout, “that Banks and you can lie faster than a dog can trot.”
“We’ll make a deal with ye,” proceeded Hendricks, anxious and desperate.
“What sort of a deal?” asked the scout casually. “It takes two to make a bargain.”
“Right ye are, Buffalo Bill. If ye’ll make a bargain with us, we’ll keep our side of it.”
“What sort of a bargain have you to propose?”
Even yet the scout was not showing much interest, although he was throbbing with it.
“Well, Bascomb an’ Bernritter ain’t nothin’ ter Banks an’ me,” went on Hendricks. “They promised us money if we’d help ’em pull off this here deal; but they said it was a safe deal, an’ that nothin’ would happen to us.” Hendricks laughed sardonically. “An’ here,” he added, “is what happens ter us, fust crack out o’ the box. All in one day we pull off a penitentiary offense an’ git snagged fer it.”
“What’s your proposition?” asked the scout impatiently.
“It’s this: We’ll tell ye where Bascomb and Bernritter are hangin’ out with the gal, purvidin’ ye turns us loose with our hosses an’ our hardware an’ gives us time to git out of the kentry.”
“And maybe you’ll tell the truth and maybe you won’t. I wouldn’t trust you two as far as I could throw a steer by the tail.”
“We’ll tell ye the truth,” insisted Banks. “Why, man, ye kin prove we’ve told ye the truth afore ye let us go.”
“Probably you want to run us into some trap or other,” reflected the scout.
“Nary a trap,” went on Hendricks. “Bein’ with ye, we’d be gittin’ inter a trap ourselves.”