"Kaw-Kaw call um Great Bear an' um braves," gasped Dew Drop, excitedly, close to Jesse's ear. "Paleface dogs must fight for coming Kaw-Kaw cave."
So unexpected and so startling had been the intervention of the old witch that Jesse forgot his own peril in his interest to learn the effect of the awful curses on the soldiers.
But the words of the Indian maiden recalled him to himself.
Whoops and yells resounded in the outer cave in answer to Kaw-Kaw's appeal to her tribesmen.
Suddenly a flare of light shone through the hole leading into the cavern in which the outlaws were.
"The bucks have thrown in lighted faggots," grunted Comanche Tony. "There'll be suthin' doin', now."
Ere he had more than spoken, the barks of pistols rang out, like the explosion of gigantic fire-crackers.
The deeper toned army revolvers answered.
In a trice the din was deafening.