Hampton smiled slightly while he waited; he possessed some
knowledge of the nature feminine.
"Come, Kid," he ventured finally, yet with new assurance vibrating in
his low voice; "this is surely a poor time and place for any indulgence
in tantrums, and you 've got more sense. I 'm going to try to climb up
the face of that cliff yonder,--it's the only possible way out from
here,--and I propose to take you along with me."
She snatched her hand roughly away, yet remained facing him. "Who gave
you any right to decide what I should do?"
The man clasped his fingers tightly about her slender arm, advancing
his face until he could look squarely into hers. She read in the lines
of that determined countenance an inflexible resolve which overmastered
her.
"The right given by Almighty God to protect any one of your sex in
peril," he replied. "Before dawn those savage fiends will be upon us.
We are utterly helpless. There remains only one possible path for
escape, and I believe I have discovered it. Now, my girl, you either
climb those rocks with me, or I shall kill you where you are. It is
that, or the Sioux torture.
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