"Don't shoot till we get on top of 'em," breathed Jesse. "I'll give the word. Ready! Charge!" Like deers the outlaws sped toward the cavalrymen, their presence unsuspected. But as they got within twenty feet of them, a voice suddenly shrilled: "There he is! There's Jesse James!" In their reckoning, the desperadoes had forgotten the old witch whose son they had killed. The cause of the fight between soldiers and Indians, Kaw-Kaw, had ducked into a niche out of range of the bullets, from which she watched the conflict. And as the bandits rushed past, she recognized them. Yet before her warning had rung out, the bandit-chieftain thundered: "Fire! Rake 'em, boys! Drop 'em!" But while his men poured their murderous fire into the troopers, Jesse turned and sent a shot crashing into the brain of the old hag and she toppled from her hiding place, a blood-curdling shriek coming from her lips as she fell. Amazed at the warning which was followed on the instant by the fusilade from behind, the cavalrymen whirled to face their foes from the new quarter. But the rain of lead from the outlaws' guns was terrible. One after another, the troopers fell, mowed down like grass before the scythe. "We've cleaned 'em out! Come on! Charge the Injuns! We've got to shoot our way through!" bellowed the world-famous desperado. Howling, yelling, leaping like Dervishes, the six desperadoes dashed from the mouth of the cave. An instant the braves stood and faced them. But the fire from the outlaws' pistols was too galling and they gave way. Intoxicated by the smell of powder, wild with the sight of carnage on all sides of him, Jesse led his men through the evergreens, coming upon the Indians' ponies where Dew Drop had said they were. Quickly the desperadoes cut out six, leaped on their backs and dashed southward. Behind them, having recovered their nerve, swarmed every buck who could find a mount, rending the air with fiendish whoops of fury and chagrin. "We can get away from them, all right," declared the world-famous desperado. "What worries me is where the troopers are who signalled from the south." And scarcely had the words left his lips before he caught sight of a body of horsemen rising from a ravine less than a quarter of a mile in front of him. CHAPTER VI. THE RACE FOR LIFE. In the light from the moon, which bathed the brush-grown plain and towering cliff in a flood of silver sheen, the figures of the troopers stood out clearly. By common consent, without waiting for the command, the men with the world-famous desperado checked their ponies and watched the cavalrymen rise from the ravine. Whether or not, the soldiers had caught sight of them they did not know. But shouts of delirious glee from behind told them that the pursuing Indians had discovered the troopers. Of a verity, the little band of desperadoes were between two fires.