Apparently the liberty they had achieved by such ruthless slaughter of soldiers and redmen in the cave of the old witch was to count for naught. And as this thought came to them, the companions of the notorious outlaw groaned inwardly. Not so the notorious Jesse, however. Save for the deepening of the lines about his mouth and the compression of his lips, he sat erect and rigid. But his mind was working as it never had worked before. Through many a desperate situation had he passed unscathed. Yet none of the ruses which had stood him in such good stead on those occasions could he use in his present predicament. The brilliancy of the moonlight, the presence of foes in front and back, the treeless waste all about him prevented. Should he make any move, it would be clearly discernable to troopers and Indians alike. And, aware of his seeming helplessness, the bucks were already yelling in anticipation of his capture. Their attention attracted by the howls of the savages, the cavalrymen quickly discovered the group of horsemen in the bracken. Hoarse commands, the sounds of which alone reached the bandits, were spoken and, in a twinkling, those of the troopers who had mounted the level from the ravine, set their horses toward them. Turning his head, the world-famous desperado looked toward the Indians. All of half a mile away were they, though each minute lessened the distance. "Its a chance, but we've got to take it," snapped Jesse, thinking aloud. "Quick, boys! Whirl your ponies. We'll ride back a way then make a dash for the ravine! Come on!" Even as the words fell from their leader's lips, his men had turned their mounts and, as he gave the word, buried the rowels of their spurs in the flanks of the fleet footed Indian ponies. Startled by the unwonted pain, the animals leaped away like stones from catapults. The race for life was on. Scarcely a minute had it been from the time the outlaws had caught sight of the cavalrymen till they were in full flight. Yet to them each second their chief had sat inactive had seemed an hour. In amazement, the savages beheld the men they had been pursuing rush toward them. "Kaw-Kaw's bewitched them! They've lost their minds! Her curses live to destroy the men who killed her!" shouted Great Bear in his native tongue, transported with joy. "At them! At them! Jesse James is the Navajos' prey. The paleface dogs must not get him first!" Goaded to frenzy by the words of their chief, the bucks fell to lashing their ponies, riding like fiends in their effort to prevent the troopers from snatching their quarry from their very grasp. But the cavalrymen viewed the course of the desperately pressed little band with different feelings. "Jesse's in the bunch, all right. That move shows it," growled one of them, the stars and chevrons on whose uniform proclaimed him a captain. "No one but that murdering daredevil would have chosen to ride back toward that pack of howling savages rather than toward us.