"Findin' we ain't on top, they'll start down into the canyon.
"Then, if we has _any_ luck at all, the sojers ull jump 'em and they'll have a fine old set-to while we're doin' the sneak act."
"Good boy, Tony. You've got the right dope. Come on, boys! It's time for us to be lighting out," cried the world-famous desperado.
"Can you walk, Sam, or do you want us to make a sling for you?"
"I cal'late I can walk, for awhile anyhow."
"All right. If we stay here too long the soldiers may find the trail and climb up here.
"They heard the shooting, of course, and I reckon they'll be curious to find out what it was about.
"If they only do, and Tony has it right about the bucks going for re-enforcements, when they see the redskins coming from the brush, they'll start shooting. So we'll win out, which ever way it happens."
Quickly and silently the outlaws entered the fringe of bushes along the top at the opposite side of the cliff, descending by the trail which Wild Bill and Texas Jack had found while the bandit-chieftain had been talking.
With every sense alert, the outlaws proceeded, increasing their caution as they approached nearer and nearer to the bottom.
To their delight, they beheld a heavy patch of fir trees at the foot.
But just as they were within a rod of it, they were startled to hear a voice cry, faintly:
In consternation, the desperadoes looked at one another.
Whether the calling of the name was a lure of the Indians, who, returning, had seen the men filing down the cliff and planned another ambush or what it betoken they could not tell.
"We're in for it now, for fair," growled Frank.
And as though to give emphasis to his words, a shout of triumph sounded from above them, and looking up, they beheld the forms of a score of cavalrymen silhouetted against the sky.
"Quick! Into the woods, boys!" snapped the world-famous desperado.
Desperately the men sought to gain their cover.
But less than half the distance had they traversed when from above there rang out in stentorian command:
R-r-rip! crashed the sharp, staccato volley of carbines.
With shrieks of pain, three of the outlaws threw up their hands and pitched forward.
Convulsively their bodies twitched for a few moments and then lay still, while their life blood oozed from wounds in their backs, saturating their clothes and making soggy the ground on which they lay.