Tim Benson was not slow in perceiving the desperate character of the situation. Bottled up in the hole by that deadly air rifle, what was to hinder the pretended woman from keeping them there until Buffalo Bill’s party could come up? That would mean Benson’s capture, as well as Gorilla Jake’s. He drew back his head and studied the stones at the rear of the hole. Then he looked at the long arms of the man-ape, and his powerful shoulders. Benson himself was a small man; but this giant at his side might do the thing he could not. He could furnish the brains which Gorilla Jake lacked, and the man-ape could furnish the muscle which he lacked. It was, it seemed, a fortunate combination. “If you’ve got the courage, Jake,” he said, “there’s no reason why, with your strength, you can’t push those two stones out of the way back there. It would furnish us a means to get out of this hole.” Gorilla Jake stared at the stones, licking his hairy lips. “If she didn’t pot me while I was doin’ it!” he objected. Benson looked round again. “Here, we can up-end this stone,” he said, “and it will screen you from her bullets while you turn the trick. But we’ve got to be quick about it.” “Quick’s the word! Cody’s crowd is comin’; I know it by the way she jest sets down thar behind that umbreller.” They up-ended the stone, a thing easy to do when the man-ape applied his immense strength to the task. Believing that this would screen him, Gorilla Jake now attacked the stones at the rear of the nest, which Benson pointed out. It was a wonderful exhibition of brute strength; the muscles on his arms and shoulders corded themselves up like knotted ropes, his breast heaved up and down convulsively, sweat rained from his face; but he moved the heaviest of the stones, and with a great surge of his writhing body threw it to one side. The next, which had lain under it, was not so difficult, and a hole had been opened. Through it they pulled themselves; then slid their bodies down the slope on the other side. They now had the rocky hill between themselves and the terrible “woman” with the umbrella. Gorilla Jake bounded to his feet like a huge ball of live rubber. “Now fer the tall hills!” he panted. “Yes; this is our chance. Poke your nose at that peak over there, and keep going. I’ll try to hold you in sight. I guess we can give that crowd the slip even yet.” Then they began to run, with the peak as their first objective point, being careful to keep to rocky and hard ground. CHAPTER XXV. THE BETTS BROTHERS. Tim Benson was right in saying that the rocky slopes crossed by him and Gorilla Jake would not detain Buffalo Bill, or throw him off the scent. But the difficult character of the work slowed his progress, even though he had with him such wonderful trailers as Nick Nomad and Wild Bill Hickok.