The two friends were not alone in the affray.
No sooner had Catamount Cass and his gang of "toughs" showed fight, than a company of miners sprung to Harris' side, and showed their willingness to fight it out on the square line.
Therefore, once the first shot was fired, it needed not a word to pitch the battle.
Fiercely waged the contest—now hand to hand—loud rose the savage yells on the still night air.
One by one men fell on either side, their life-blood crimsoning the floor, their dying groans unheeded in the fearful melee.
Still unharmed, and fighting among the first, we see Ned Harris and his remarkable companion, Calamity Jane; both are black, and scarcely recognizable in the cloud of smoke that fills the bar-room. Harris is wounded in a dozen places and weak from loss of blood; yet he stands up bravely and fights mechanically.
Calamity Jane if she is wounded shows it not, but faces the music with as little apparent fear as any of those around her.
On wages the battle, even as furiously as in its beginning; the last shot has been fired; it is now knife to knife, and face to face.
Full as many of one side as the other have fallen, and lay strewn about under foot, unthought of, uncared for in the excitement of the desperate moment. Gallons of blood have made the floor slippery and reeking, so that it is difficult to retain one's footing.
At the head of the ruffians the Diamond brothers[[C]] still hold sway, fighting like madmen in their endeavors to win a victory. They cannot do less, for to back off in this critical moment means sure death to the weakening party.