"Suppose they will show fight?" several asked.
"Fight! Yes!" cried old Hewey, who had now hobbled up. "They'll fight wuss than any wild critters!"
One of the older boys, Ransom Frost, declared that he was not afraid to take a club and go into the cave.
"Don't you think of such a thing!" exclaimed old Hewey. "Tham's desperate dogs! They'd pitch onto you like tigers! Tham dogs know there's no hope for them, and they're going to fight—if they get the chance!"
It was a difficult place to approach, and several different plans of attack were proposed. When the two hounds and three dogs which had come up with us barked and scratched at the heavy, flat stones which Rufus and Emerson had piled in the mouth of the cave, old Bender and Tige would rush forward on their side of the obstruction, with savage growls. Yet when Rufus or any of the others attempted to steal up with their guns, to shoot through the chinks, the outlaws drew back out of sight, in the gloom. There was a fierceness in their growling such as I never have heard from other dogs.
The owner of Watch, the collie, now crept up close and called to his former pet. "I think I can call my dog out," said he.
He called long and endearingly, "Come, Watch! Come, good fellow! You know me, Watch! Come out! Come, Watch, come!"
But the outlawed Watch gave not a sign of recognition or affection; he stood with the band.
Tige's former master then tried the same thing, but elicited only a deep growl of hostility.
"Oh, you can whistle and call, but you won't get tham dogs to go back on one another!" chuckled old Hewey. "Tham dogs have taken an oath together. They won't trust ye and I swan I wouldn't either, if I was in their places! They know you are Judases!"