Grace waited a few moments, then, springing up, ran to the scene, and began piling rocks on the entrance slab, some being so heavy that she was obliged to roll them. This she continued until her hands were blistered and her back was aching desperately.
“There! I’d like to see a bandit get out now,” emphasized the Overland Rider, drawing off a little way, and sitting down with rifle at ready in her lap.
Not a sound was heard from the tunnel entrance for nearly an hour, then a faint tapping there indicated to her that the bandits were trying to break their way out, the prisoner’s escape, no doubt, having been discovered.
Grace fired her rifle into the pile of rocks, whereupon the tapping ceased, but her vigil became an anxious one from that moment on. Shortly after midnight the Overton girl discovered a shadowy figure creeping toward her over the rocks. Grace eyed it keenly, then levelled her rifle at it.
“Hands up!” she commanded sharply.
Joe Smoky Face rose and waved a hand.
“All right! I know you,” called Grace in a relieved tone of voice. “Where is the sheriff?”
“Him come.” Joe uttered a whistle, whereupon Jim Collins, with his deputy, Wheaton, and a posse of ten men, including General Gordon and Lieutenant Wingate, clambered up the rocks.
“Your men are over there, Sheriff. I have blocked the entrance, and believe they are near it now,” Grace informed the sheriff as he came up to her.
“Is there no other way by which they can get out, Miss?” he asked.