CHAPTER V.

A DESPERATE CHARGE.

In dismay, the bandits gazed at one another, as they heard the portentous words of the Indian maiden.

And in a moment more their own ears confirmed their truth.

No mistaking the identity of the men in the outer cave was there, as a sharp command, in plain English, rang out:

"Search every nook and cranny in the den, men. It's just the place for Jesse James and his pack of cutthroats to hide."

"That pet name'll cost the life of many a soldier, young fellow, if I ever get out of here!" hissed Comanche Tony in a low, harsh voice.

But his pals were too taken up with the peril of their position to make any comment on the blood-thirsty announcement.

No need was there to tell them it was one thing to have the Indians search the cave and quite another to have the cavalrymen.

The superstitious reverence and fear of the bent and bowed sorceress would not sway the troopers or cause them to consider the intrusion of the abode of the witch a sacrilege.

Rather would their contempt for the customs and beliefs of the redmen incite them to unusual effort.

Should they chance to espy the hole leading into the second cave, every one of the six men knew that they would lose no time in exploring it.

And it was to what they should do, in such event, that each man devoted his thoughts.

"Can't we block up the hole?" hazarded Texas Jack, grasping at the most obvious expedient.

"No," returned Dew Drop. "Kaw-Kaw see, Kaw-Kaw get wise. Hole always open for Wa-Wa.

"Dew Drop no see why Kaw-Kaw let sojers come um cave."

"Probably they didn't ask her permission," returned the bandit-chieftain.

But the explanation did not satisfy the Indian maiden.

From her earliest memory, she had been taught reverence for the aged sorceress and she knew the fear her fellow-tribesmen held of the terrible curse that would be visited upon any Indian who dared penetrate the recesses of the cave.

Indeed, not unless she had been invited to enter, as an honour that would influence her to accept Dog Face as her brave, would she ever have had the temerity to enter and as she thought of being discovered in the "holy of holies" with the men she was trying to save, she trembled like a leaf, silently rocking too and fro as she wrung her hands in an agony of despair.

Plainly the outlaws heard the troopers draw nearer and nearer as they proceeded with their fruitless hunt.

"I reckon there's nothing for it but to stab the first trooper who pokes his head through the opening," whispered the world-famous desperado.

"I'll take that job for mine. The rest of you line up about me. As soon as I've knifed the first, some of you pull him out of the way and the others be ready for the next.

"If we can kill 'em without an outcry, we may be able to get em all."

The fiendish plan of slaying one man after another as fast as they appeared showed clearly how desperate Jesse believed their position to be.

It proved that in order to save his own life he had no hesitancy in killing any number of men.

And, as they heard the shocking proposition, even his pals, steeped in the gore of innocent men as their hands were, recoiled at the task imposed on them.

Yet they dared not disobey and silently took their places, kneeling, at the entrance to the cave, opposite their inhuman chief who waited, with bowie-knife upraised to plunge it into the heart of the first soldier that appeared.

But before the awful scheme could be put to the test, the old witch herself took a hand in the proceedings.

As the bandits kneeled, the beats of their hearts alone breaking the silence of the den in which they were, their ears strained for the first sound that should announce the discovery of the hole, they suddenly heard a shrill snarl in good English:

"Dogs of palefaces! What are you doing in my cave? How dare you profane the temple of a Navajo medicine? Curses on your palefaced heads! May you perish on the plains, riddled with wounds, mad for water! May the coyotes feed on your carcasses! May no grave hold your bones and may they be scattered to the winds! Curse you! Curse you! Curse you!"

So furious, so terrible was the wrath of the aged sorceress that the troopers stopped in their search, staring at the wizened, bent figure, abashed.

Not slow was the shrewd old hag to note the impression her bitter invective had made upon the cavalrymen and, without delay, she followed it up.

"If the dogs of palefaces have wives, may they rot with child; if they have sweethearts, may they play with them and jilt them; if they have children, may they grow up deformed and idiotic! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

And she croaked in diabolical glee.

Of a sudden her manner changed.

"What do the palefaces want, more curses? Haven't they had enough?" she shrieked, angered that, though the soldiers trembled beneath her imprecations, they made no move to leave the cave.

"May--"

But before another word could leave her lips, the lieutenant commanding the troopers, having recovered from the first shock of surprise, bellowed:

"Seize her! Bind her! Gag the old vixen!"

Eagerly the cavalrymen sprang forward, their faces bespeaking with what relish they would obey the commands.

Yet before they could lay hands on her, Kaw-Kaw began to back away, swinging her crooked staff in front of her to hold off the troopers, while she screamed in the language of her tribe.

"Kaw-Kaw call um Great Bear an' um braves," gasped Dew Drop, excitedly, close to Jesse's ear. "Paleface dogs must fight for coming Kaw-Kaw cave."

So unexpected and so startling had been the intervention of the old witch that Jesse forgot his own peril in his interest to learn the effect of the awful curses on the soldiers.

But the words of the Indian maiden recalled him to himself.

Whoops and yells resounded in the outer cave in answer to Kaw-Kaw's appeal to her tribesmen.

Suddenly a flare of light shone through the hole leading into the cavern in which the outlaws were.

"The bucks have thrown in lighted faggots," grunted Comanche Tony. "There'll be suthin' doin', now."

Ere he had more than spoken, the barks of pistols rang out, like the explosion of gigantic fire-crackers.

The deeper toned army revolvers answered.

In a trice the din was deafening.

"Here's our chance!" declared the world-famous desperado. "We'll crawl into the other cave and attack the troopers from the rear.

"Judging by their guns, there are only a dozen or so.

"Our charge'll rattle 'em so we can rush through 'em and get outside.

"The Indians won't stop us.

"When we get clear, we'll strike for the place the bucks are grazing their ponies, Dew Drop'll tell us where it is."

"Jus' other side trees, straight from cave," responded the red-skinned maiden.

"Good. All ready, boys! I'll go first. Don't begin shooting till we're all in the other cave.

"Dew Drop, you stay here."

Desperate was the scheme.

If the braves or troopers recognized Jesse, they might forget their fight in the desire to capture their common enemy.

And then the outlaws' shrift would be short.

But no word of protest did the others offer.

In deciding upon the sortie, the bandit-chieftain had counted on the cavalrymen mistaking him and his pals for Indians while he hoped the savages would think them troopers.

Furiously was the battle raging as Jesse finished the announcement of his plans.

From the yells and shouts, he decided that the soldiers were driving back the redskins.

And, with hope high, he began to crawl through the hole onto the field of strife.

Rapidly his five pals followed.

As they gained the larger cave, they saw that the troopers had, indeed, forced the braves back.

"Don't shoot till we get on top of 'em," breathed Jesse. "I'll give the word. Ready! Charge!"

Like deers the outlaws sped toward the cavalrymen, their presence unsuspected.

But as they got within twenty feet of them, a voice suddenly shrilled:

"There he is! There's Jesse James!"

In their reckoning, the desperadoes had forgotten the old witch whose son they had killed.

The cause of the fight between soldiers and Indians, Kaw-Kaw, had ducked into a niche out of range of the bullets, from which she watched the conflict.

And as the bandits rushed past, she recognized them.

Yet before her warning had rung out, the bandit-chieftain thundered:

"Fire! Rake 'em, boys! Drop 'em!"

But while his men poured their murderous fire into the troopers, Jesse turned and sent a shot crashing into the brain of the old hag and she toppled from her hiding place, a blood-curdling shriek coming from her lips as she fell.

Amazed at the warning which was followed on the instant by the fusilade from behind, the cavalrymen whirled to face their foes from the new quarter.

But the rain of lead from the outlaws' guns was terrible.

One after another, the troopers fell, mowed down like grass before the scythe.

"We've cleaned 'em out! Come on! Charge the Injuns! We've got to shoot our way through!" bellowed the world-famous desperado.

Howling, yelling, leaping like Dervishes, the six desperadoes dashed from the mouth of the cave.

An instant the braves stood and faced them.

But the fire from the outlaws' pistols was too galling and they gave way.

Intoxicated by the smell of powder, wild with the sight of carnage on all sides of him, Jesse led his men through the evergreens, coming upon the Indians' ponies where Dew Drop had said they were.

Quickly the desperadoes cut out six, leaped on their backs and dashed southward.

Behind them, having recovered their nerve, swarmed every buck who could find a mount, rending the air with fiendish whoops of fury and chagrin.

"We can get away from them, all right," declared the world-famous desperado. "What worries me is where the troopers are who signalled from the south."

And scarcely had the words left his lips before he caught sight of a body of horsemen rising from a ravine less than a quarter of a mile in front of him.