"No-o," replied the maiden, doubtfully. "But Dew Drop know Wa-Wa. Um play, Dew Drop an' Wa-Wa. "Dew Drop come cave any day. Kaw-Kaw deaf no hear. "Wa-Wa know Dew Drop. No hurt." "That may be all right for you," snarled Frank, "but Wa-Wa may not take so kindly to our coming." The series of growls, growing in intensity and volume with each successive outburst, that came from the monster, lent a force to the outlaw's words that even the Indian maiden could not disregard. "Wa-Wa!" she called, soothingly, adding something in her native tongue. But the pet of the witch, Kaw-Kaw, as though he recognized among the strangers, whose presence he scented, the man who had grievously wronged his mistress by killing her son, refused to be pacified. Each moment, his growls announced that he was getting nearer and nearer to the bandits. Of a sudden, two little balls of seeming phosphorous glowered at them, as the brute came from behind a boulder. "You can stand there like dummies, if you want to," snapped the elder of the James boys. "_I'm going to shoot him!_" "No! No! No shoot!" protested Dew Drop, in alarm. "Why not?" "Kaw-Kaw smell powder when um came back. Know some one in um cave. Make heap cuss. Fin' um paleface. Call um Injun. Devil to pay!" "I reckon the girl's right, Frank," declared his brother, smiling at the words of his saviour. "It wouldn't take long for the old hag to notice the odour of the saltpetre and when she called the bucks it would be all over but the shouting. "And I've no intention of adorning an Indian triumph." "All right," grudgingly acquiesced the elder of the James boys. "I won't shoot, but something's got to be done. "I don't propose to stay in here with a bear walking round loose, if it hasn't any teeth or claws." This announcement expressed the feelings of the rest of the bandits, yet what to do, they did not know. And as they stood, in helpless perplexity, the brute itself solved their dilemma. As its wicked little eyes beheld the figures of the intruders in its retreat, the monster reared on its hind legs, and with a roar, deafening because of the narrow confines of the cave, charged at them, laying about it viciously with its herculean paws. In panic, the outlaws fled before it. But the rock side of the den checked them. Came a mighty swish and Comanche Tony fell, dropped by the clawless paws of the monster. And, in a trice, the bear stood over its unconscious victim, snarling ominously. The peril of their pal broke the spell of terror in which the outlaws stood. "Stab the brute! Tackle him, boys!" snapped Jesse, leaping toward the monster as he spoke. Instantly his comrades obeyed. Drawing their keen-edged bowie-knives, they buried them to the hilts in any part of the bear's body they could reach. Stung by the sharp pains, the monster reared on its hind legs again, lashing about viciously with its paws, emitting savage growls, awful in their fury. But its raising up was the beast's doom.