Yet he was quickly recalled to his surroundings by feeling his feet set on a rock.
Accustomed by this time to the darkness, Comanche Tony was able to make out that he and his captors were on a ledge in the cliff along the edge of which was a black, irregular mass.
Forgetting, in his eagerness to discover what this was, that he was a prisoner, the intrepid bandit stepped forward.
Uttering vicious grunts, two bucks grabbed him and threw him roughly against the wall of rock behind them.
"Paleface heap fool," snarled one of his guards. "Get too fresh, fall over ledge, spoil Injun's fun!"
"By my scalp, but I must have suthin' pleasant ahead of me if fallin' to my death will spoil these devil's fun!" thought Comanche Tony.
But again the contemplation of the perilousness of his own plight was forgotten in the realization that his reckless attempt to warn his pals had been of no avail.
For, in the brief interval that he had gazed on the edge of the ledge, he had seen several bucks frantically beating out the two fires with their blankets, and he knew that whatever their game, the world-famous desperado and his men would be in grave danger, forced, as they would be, to advance in the darkness.
Yet had he been an instant later, he would have seen the same braves hurriedly scoop handfuls of dirt onto the glowing coals, after which they covered the piles with their blankets and bounded up the path to the ledge.