"But what's the game?" asked Texas. "I never see such a queer one in my time."
"We will find that out later. Mebby the answer won't please us and mebby it will," was Frank's enigmatic reply.
Suddenly Wild Bill held up his hand for silence, his head extended forward in front of his body in an intense listening attitude.
"To horse, all that have them!" roared the leader. "The rest jump on behind. Unsling your rifles as you go.
"Half go to the rear and the other half to the front. Smash the door in and shoot quick and fast."
By this time they were half way down the clearing. But those within were too busily engaged with their own affairs now to notice the bandits sweeping down upon them.
"You fellows in the rear duck and look out for our bullets if we get in first. If you break in before we do, we'll lay low!" was Frank's parting injunction to his men as they separated.
Leaping from their saddles the outlaws rushed on the door which went crashing in under their combined weight.
The room was so full of powder smoke that at first they were unable to distinguish a single object.
"Here I am over in this corner," roared Jesse. "Shoot the other way!"
A volley of rifle shots rang out from both sides, but the bandits had dropped to their knees and fired up at their adversaries, whose bullets had whistled over the newcomers' heads and buried themselves in the logs of the cabin.
Again the outlaws poured their deadly fire into the ranks of their enemy. And just then the door of the cabin at the rear crashed in and Wild Bill and the rest of the bandits rushed in.
With them came the sunshine and the gentle morning breeze that swept away the smoke.
Seven men lay dead and groaning on the floor.
"Jess, where are you?" cried Frank, peering over the ghastly array of faces.
"Here," answered Jesse. "Come and release me." And sure enough the notorious outlaw lay over in one corner. His hands were free, but his feet were securely bound, and in this condition he had been holding his desperate adversaries at bay, after surreptitiously freeing his hands.
Wild Bill's revolver cracked spitefully, and one of the fellows who had scrambled to his feet and sought to sneak away, went down with a bullet in his leg.