"That was a signal," hissed one of them. "Be careful about opening the door; our men may be ambushing us."
The idea of an ambuscade inside a house was novel, yet the suggestion appealed to the man-hunters and their leader determined to take no risks.
"Some of you, who know the way, go first," commanded Jones.
"Don't you do it," retorted Mrs. Prior. "It's an outrage to search this house, anyway, but if these men insist, let 'em go where they please and then they can't say we didn't give 'em a free hand."
Realizing the woman was a Tartar, the man in charge of the searching party turned to his fellows.
"Have your guns ready. These people evidently intend to do all they can to block us, but we'll show 'em we can find Jesse James without their help and in spite of them.
"If you hear any suspicious noise, shoot. The cut-throats won't hesitate to kill us in their efforts to escape!"
The bitterness with which Jones snapped out his words was apparently lost on the friends of the outlaws, for they made no response, but in their hearts they made silent vows that if they could do anything to prevent the discovery of the world-famous desperadoes they would. And with sullen, defiant looks they watched the four men.
In evident fear that his appearance in the doorway would be greeted with a rain of bullets, Jones lifted the latch and pulled open the door, jumping back as he did so.