Jesse strode over to them and handed each a keen-edged bowie.
The horror of it sent a shiver down the spine of every man in the room.
The men were friends, and the hands bearing the knives settled slowly to their sides as they looked into each other's eyes.
Two guns in the notorious outlaw's hands barked viciously at the same instant and each of the unwilling combatants lost a portion of one ear.
"By Judas that was a shot," exulted the rancher. "Mine ain't in it with that. Fight, you measly spalpeens!" he roared and Jesse smiled as he noted that the blood lust had taken supreme possession of the man.
"Yes, fight," added Jesse, notching the ends of the arses of both men with another of his wonderful shots as if to emphasize his command.
In blind despair the unhappy wretches raised their knives and with tightly closed eyes struck blindly out into the air.
"Close in," commanded Jesse sternly, sending a bullet ploughing through the upper lip of either man.
And now in blind consuming rage the victims began to strike. Their eyes were wide and in the desperateness of the moment, friendship turned to un-dying hate.
Each proved an expert with the knife. Their blades flashed in the sunlight whose rays slanted down through window and door.
It was thrust and parry as they leaped from side to side, forgetful of the wounds that the bandits had inflicted on them in the earlier battle.
Now and then a bowie would come away stained half way to its hilt.
The labored breathing of the combatants and the chilling clash of blades, were the only sounds that broke in upon the sweet-scented stillness of the mountain morning.
The scene held the spectators breathless. Even the great outlaw found himself interested in the desperate battle.
Blood was over everything, but the desperadoes heeded it not. The rancher's eyes were strained and the eyelids, drawn far up against the forehead, never once closed in a wink.
The blade of one antagonist went through the other's scalp, and a crimson stream spurted half way across the room. The faces of each were scarred with crimson rivulets that were constantly fed from the blood springs above.
The blade of the other sheathed itself in the shoulder of his antagonist, and in the next second each was tugging at the hilt of a knife in his opponent's shoulder.