As the report of the broadside rang out over the plains, the cavalrymen urged their mounts forward, eager to be in at the death. In the stress of their emotions, they had not noticed that no shots had been fired at them. Had they been more calm, this fact alone would have told them the outlaws were not by the ponies. And it was not till they had reached the bodies of the beasts, dismounted and searched the nearby bushes that they found that Jesse and his band had again outwitted them. But when the fact dawned on them, loud and forceful were their curses. "Beat up and down the gorge!" shouted the lieutenant, believing that the mistake of his superior gave him a license to issue commands. "Shut up, you dunderhead!" roared the captain, his face livid with rage. "I was chasing men when you were in swaddling clothes. I know how they act. "_The bandits have crossed the ravine and struck into the brush beyond! After them!_" In a wild scramble, the troopers mounted the farther side of the ravine, gained the edge and were soon lost to view. And as the world-famous desperado, peering cautiously from the brushwood, saw they had vanished, he heaved a mighty sigh of relief. Terrible, indeed, had been the suspense of the six men crawling on hands and knees under cover of the bushes. On their ears alone had they been obliged to rely to tell them what was transpiring about them, for they dared not raise their heads to look, lest the eyes of the troopers decry them. When they had heard the crash of the volley, Jesse had turned toward the very bank from which it was fired. And as the soldiers descended to learn the result of their shots, the outlaws had crept up the steep incline. Of necessity, their progress was slow and not more than half way to the top were they when the words of the captain, expressing his belief that his quarry was on the farther plain, had reached them. Still crawling, the bandit-chieftain had waited till he thought sufficient time had elapsed for all to have gained the plains before he ventured to look to make sure. And when he found that the cavalrymen had, indeed, disappeared over the opposite bank, he quickly apprised his companions. "I'll bet my hair's turned white," ejaculated Wild Bill. "I ain't never been through no such tryout before an' I don't want to agin." "Don't crow too soon," admonished Comanche Tony. "We ain't clear yet--by a long shot." "Right you are, pard," declared Jesse, "And it doesn't look as though we'd get clear," he added. "Duck, boys, duck! Here comes the Injuns! Skirt the edge of the bank!" Luckily for themselves, none of the outlaws had risen from the brushwood so that their chief's exhortation was unnecessary and, with agility born of desperation, they struck westward along the crest of the gorge.