"Neither. Have some saplings cut and make a litter between two ponies. We must get him to the fort immediately before it is too late. No one would ever believe we had killed the world's greatest bandit unless we had something better to show for it than our mere word. It is not that they would doubt our word, but the rub is they know Jesse James," he grinned. "And so do we," he added grimly.
"Make haste now. We'll surely have the redskins down on us after all this racket, and we've made a lot of it, I reckon."
"I'll attend to it at once, sir," responded the Lieutenant.
"Throw out pickets!" ordered the commander. "We are in a dangerous strategical position here."
"But what about the rest of the gang—do we go after them?" asked the Lieutenant after executing his superior officer's commands.
"Yes, we might as well clean house thoroughly while we are about it. Let two men ride in with the body. They should reach the fort by daybreak. We will remain here with the rest of the troop and finish up the job. It should be easy to at least disperse the gang, now that their leader has turned up his toes for the last time. It has been a good job, Lieutenant, eh?"
The young officer nodded and smiled, for his share in the great achievement had been no small one and in all probability would bring him much nearer to having a command of his own at no distant day.
With the others, the army officer's words were accepted as final. Meantime the troopers had constructed a litter and were now engaged in dragging it to the spot where Jesse lay face up on the rocks, the moonbeams lighting up his face with a ghastly pallor, to the strained imagination of the soldiers.
At a motion from the Lieutenant, the two mounted men rode their ponies to the scene and sprang from their saddles to lift the inanimate form of the fallen desperado to the litter to be conveyed to the fort some thirty miles away.
The men's Winchesters reposed safely in their saddle holsters, and the ponies, unmindful of the tragic scene before them, calmly began browsing on the tender underbrush.