Chapter VIII: Captain Joaquin's Retreat

Dick was dazed.

It was a moment before he could recall what had passed.

When he did so, he realized that the situation had greatly changed, and could not tell whether minutes or hours had passed.

But his mind quickly cleared, as a magic drop will clear a glass of clouded water, and he took in the situation and the new-comer upon the ground, and guessed the rest.

He remembered that he and his foe had not counted up to the number that was to have been the signal for them to fire, and hence some one else had taken a hand in the game. That Captain Joaquin had not fired the treacherous shot he was well aware.

The Red Rover stood motionless the last Dick remembered of him.

All this passed through Dick's mind in the few brief seconds before he spoke.

"So, you are alive, are you?" said Captain Joaquin. "It was a close call for you, Deadwood Dick."

"Who shot me?" asked Dick, feeling of his hurt.

"No matter who," was the reply. "It was not I, nor was it done by any order or consent of mine. I had no thought or intention of giving you anything but a fair fight."

"I am willing to believe that. It must have been some friend of yours, some one who feared for your life. Well, such is the fortune of war, and it appears that the tables have been turned. You now hold the joker, and I am in your power."

"There is no denying that."

"And what am I to expect?"

"You will have to dance to my tune, now, seeing that the tables have turned, as you say, and I am now the fiddler. I gave you warning of that."

"And I remember that I reminded you that should this thing occur, you would be honor bound to deal as honorably with me as I dealt with you, which you promised you would do."

"And he will keep his promise, sir," spoke up the young woman.

She looked at Captain Joaquin.

"Yes, of course," Captain Joaquin snarled. "At the same time, you must admit that self-preservation is the first law of nature. I must treat you as I would a rattlesnake, which, if I let it go, would turn and bite me."

"Is your former proposition still open?" asked Dick.

"What was that?"

"To join you."

"No, that is closed."

Dick smiled.

"I was not wrong, then, in my estimate of your earnestness when you made it, even if I did give you the benefit of the doubt," he said.

"That is a past question," said the Red Rover. "You have since assured me that nothing could tempt you to join me, but on the other hand that you intend to crush me."

"Let it pass," Dick waived.

Feeling by this time able to do so, he got upon his feet, but he had to lean against a boulder for support.

His head ached and was dizzy, and the shot had given him an indescribable numb feeling throughout his entire body. It had been about as close a call as he had ever experienced.

"You are now my prisoner," said the outlaw. "Susana, you secure his weapons--there they lie on the ground--and I will handcuff him again. I will put on that other pair, I think, seeing that you had the choice of selection before," to Dick.

"You have it all your own way, just now," said Dick. "I am not in it, so to say."

"You are right in it," the outlaw disputed.

"Well, no matter. If you are going to handcuff me, though, I hope you will dress the wound I have received."

The young woman opened her lips to say something, but withheld her words and looked to Captain Joaquin for the response. Dick believed that he had a friend in her.

His first thought had been that it was she who had fired at him. He was now in doubt on that point.

"Yes, we'll tie it up," the outlaw snapped.

Revolver in hand, he stepped forward and felt in Dick's jacket pocket for the remaining pair of handcuffs.

They were there ready to his hand, and he brought them forth and snapped them upon Dick's wrists. Resistance would have been useless, so Dick submitted.

"You have got me safe enough this time," Dick observed.

"Yes, I guess I have," was the response. "And I intend to keep you so, too."

"I do not blame you; I give you fair warning that if I escape it will be to open the warfare without quarter given or asked."

"I am well aware of that."

"Dealing more than fairly with you before, I am fair with you still, even with the tide against me, so you may know what to expect."

"You are a brave man, Deadwood Dick, no gainsaying that. What you have just said would be sufficient warrant for me to put you to the death at once, for my own protection."

"You have it in your power to do that, but you are honor bound to give me a chance for my life."

"Shall we carry out our duel?"

"I am not your match in condition, after this wound."

"Well, you may be in a day or two. Tie up his head for him, Susana, and we'll go home."

The young woman tore a handkerchief and made a temporary bandage, which she wound around Dick's head, covering the wound, and secured with pins.

"There, that will do until we get to the cabin," she said. "When we get there I will tie it up better and make it more comfortable for you. While we are foes, yet I can do that for you in mercy."

"You have not told me who shot me," said Dick.

The young woman flushed.

"Nor do we intend to," said Captain Joaquin. "Be satisfied that you are alive, and ask no questions."

"I am satisfied that my first guess was correct," said Dick. "What that guess was, you no doubt rightly conjecture, so we will say no more about it. I am, as you said, glad I'm alive."

"Shall we go to the house?" asked the young woman.

"I suppose we'll have to, with this prisoner on our hands, though I ought to return and look after that boodle--"

"Ah! I had forgotten that."

"Still, it is safely cached, and is safer, perhaps, than it would be at the cabin. Come, we'll go to the cabin."

"No one saw you cache it?" asked Susana.

"No one but this fellow."

"And you have got him secure enough. Better leave it where it is."

Captain Joaquin still had his revolver in hand, and having slung his rifle across his back he ordered Deadwood Dick to precede him along the gulch bottom.

Half an hour's walk and several turnings brought them at last into a glade where a cabin stood under the shade of some trees.

It was like an oasis in the rocky wilds.

A fertile little pocket in the midst of wildest surroundings, it was an ideal spot for such a retreat as Captain Joaquin required when too hotly pressed by the officers of the law.

Deadwood Dick had at last the secret of his rendezvous.

But at what a cost? He fully believed that it was the intention of the Red Rover that he should never leave the place alive.

At the same time Dick was determined that he would make his escape if given half an opportunity, and that he would eventually bring the infamous outlaw to justice.

The young woman opened the door of the cabin, and the outlaw ordered Dick to enter, which he did. He had no choice but to obey, for the present, though he had yet another card in reserve for future use as soon as the time was ripe for it.

Just what that card was will presently be shown.