He must be taken--alive and well, if possible--but in the last resort, dead or alive." "Come, that's more like sense," said the colonel approvingly.
The signorina sighed, but opposed us no longer.
Returning to ways and means, we arranged for communication in case of need during the next three days without the necessity of meeting.

My position, as the center of financial business in Whittingham, made this easy; the passage of bank messengers to and fro would excite little remark, and the messages could easily be so expressed as to reveal nothing to an uninstructed eye.

It was further agreed that on the smallest hint of danger reaching any one of us, the word should at once be passed to the others, and we should _rendezvous_ at the colonel's "ranch," which lay some seven miles from the town.

Thence, in this lamentable case, escape would be more possible.
"And now," said the colonel, "if Martin will hand over the dollars, I think that's about all." I had brought the ten thousand dollars with me.

I produced them and put them on the table, keeping a loving hand on them.
"You fully understand my position, colonel ?" I said.