"You lie!" grunted the young Apache. "Slade send you down to git his noose on me. I haul up pony lift--hit out Hell Canon--take you and white fool. Heap fun with you and him!" "What then?" queried Carmena. "You know you'll have Slade on your trail--Slade and a posse and the soldiers. Slade will have to wipe you out to cover up what we've been doing here. He'll lay it all on you and your bunch--all the stealing. Can't you see? If he can't wipe you out himself, he'll set the soldiers on your trail." Lennon looked up and saw before his clearing eyes the dark evilly handsome face of the Apache leader. It was as stolid as the faces of his incomprehending followers. But his black eyes were fierce with hate. "You lie!" he repeated. "You say, kill Slade. You say you no care what become of you." "Because I know you, Cochise," cajoled the girl, her voice soft and confiding. "Weren't we friends before Slade came? Weren't we good to you? Remember how we kept you hid in the Hole and never told the Indian Agent? You'll not forget that. You'll treat me and Jack, my new pard, all right when I've helped you kill Slade." "Dam' friend--you," jeered the Indian. "You kept my woman." "What if I did? How about now? Do you want Slade to have her? You know he has been scheming all along to take her from you. Are you going to let him do it? Think about her--and about the tizwin--that tizwin hidden from you by Slade--barrels of tizwin! All yours if only you have the nerve to go up after Slade!" Cochise looked up the cliff, with a sudden ferocious scowl. Lennon was gasping for breath against the frightfulness of what he had heard. To save herself, Carmena was betraying her foster-sister to the fiendish savage. Elsie's fate in the hands of Slade was fearful enough without the added horror of what she would suffer in the hands of Cochise. "Carmena!" he cried. "Carmena, are you mad? Think of Blossom! What does it matter if we are tortured? Surely you can't intend----" "Why not?" cried back the girl, her face aflame with vengeful anger. "That big beast first ruined my father; now he has murdered him. Cochise, you'll have to choose quickly. Run off with us and have your fun, and have Slade trail you down; or kill him and get your woman and the tizwin--barrels of tizwin!" The young Apache plucked out his knife and sprang at the girl. A stroke slashed through the thongs that bound her wrists. Her ankles had already been freed. Cochise made a sharp upward gesture. Carmena shook her head and pointed to Lennon. "Let him lead the way up--unarmed," she suggested. The advantage of the plan was instantly grasped by the crafty Apache. At his command, two of his men cut loose Lennon's bonds and jerked him to his feet. "Wait, Carmena! Wait!" begged Lennon. "Think of Elsie!"