This tickled Uncle Henry's bump of humor. He chuckled, and cried, "Ho, ho!
Serves you both gol darn good and right!" He seemed to go into a spasm of
laughter.
Pell's chief concern now was to get out of the mess--to get away; to have
everything settled. Lopez could probably be dealt with, man to man.
"Look here," he suggested, in a direct attack, "can't we settle things some
way?"
"Yes," the bandit replied. "From my headquarters in Chihuahua I will give
you pen, ink, messenger-boy--everysing!"
"But I--" Pell started to say.
But Lopez broke in: "You will please listen more and speak less. I 'ave
decide. You I shall 'old for ransom. And," turning to Hardy, "you; and
you," pointing to Uncle Henry, "you who 'ave nossing, I shall leave
be'ind."
Pell and Hardy felt that the game was over.
Uncle Henry, on the contrary, was jubilant. "Gee!" he sang out, "and I get
the oil, after all!"
No one heeded him. Things were too serious still.
"You wouldn't do this?" Hardy asked of Lopez.
"No?" the bandit asked.
Hardy took Angela in his arms. "But what about her--my daughter? You
wouldn't take her, would you?"
"Not for a million dollars!" Lopez smiled.
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