"No boys. This is my kettle of fish. And I'm going to fry them alone. If I should fail to get back in an hour and you don't hear anything doing, send Bill up to the Indian village to size things up. You will know what to do after he gets back."
"Put the little one in a hole in the rocks some where hereabouts and block it up with stone so she can rest easy. We don't want any buzzards nosing around her tender little body," was the great desperado's parting injunction as he passed out from the circle of light and strode away on his mission of death.
Very tenderly they bore the body of Dew Drop, deeper into the cave. Finding a suitable place they laid her away, blocking the opening as directed by their chief. Then these hardy men--these men to whom murder was merely an incident in following their vocation of rapine and plunder, with one accord clutched their hats from their heads and stood bowed before the shrine of the child who had given her life to save them.
"I reckon she war no less'n twenty-four carat fine," opined Tony, turning away slowly.
"She war that," chorused the others solemnly, nervously crushing their sombreros in their awkward hands, and following slowly after him.
Just within the entrance they paused and with one accord squatted down on the hard rocks where they lighted their pipes.
Few words, were spoken, for the thought that was in the minds of all was not one to be lightly discussed, nor could they form the sentences to frame the thought itself.
"I reckon it's about time we heard something from Jess," suggested Tony after a long silence.
The men relapsed into silence again. But somehow the deadly stillness seemed to get on their nerves and one by one they rose and began pacing back and forth on the narrow platform of rock that hung over the great canyon.
Suddenly the earth began to tremble beneath their feet.
They grasped the projecting rocks fearful that they would be thrown over the precipice.
A great sheet of flame lighted up the sky. And a report that seemed as if earth and sky had suddenly been rent asunder crashed on their expectant ears, and went thundering off from mountain peak to mountain peak.
They obeyed the summons in the nick of time, for in a few seconds more a rain of rocks and debris began to shower down on the ledge in front of them.