And it was to what they should do, in such event, that each man devoted his thoughts.
"Can't we block up the hole?" hazarded Texas Jack, grasping at the most obvious expedient.
"No," returned Dew Drop. "Kaw-Kaw see, Kaw-Kaw get wise. Hole always open for Wa-Wa.
"Dew Drop no see why Kaw-Kaw let sojers come um cave."
"Probably they didn't ask her permission," returned the bandit-chieftain.
But the explanation did not satisfy the Indian maiden.
From her earliest memory, she had been taught reverence for the aged sorceress and she knew the fear her fellow-tribesmen held of the terrible curse that would be visited upon any Indian who dared penetrate the recesses of the cave.
Indeed, not unless she had been invited to enter, as an honour that would influence her to accept Dog Face as her brave, would she ever have had the temerity to enter and as she thought of being discovered in the "holy of holies" with the men she was trying to save, she trembled like a leaf, silently rocking too and fro as she wrung her hands in an agony of despair.
Plainly the outlaws heard the troopers draw nearer and nearer as they proceeded with their fruitless hunt.
"I reckon there's nothing for it but to stab the first trooper who pokes his head through the opening," whispered the world-famous desperado.