"Charge 'em! Rush 'em!" shouted excited men. "They haven't any guns! We can beat 'em down!"
To the townsfolk who had always thought of the terrible James gang as shooting and howling fiends, the abstinence of the three men from returning the shots sent at them suggested but one thing, that the desperadoes were unarmed. Even Higgins, Dillaby and their men were unable to understand the silence of the trio's guns.
But Jesse had not drawn his weapons for the best of reasons—the crowd of would-be capturers was out of range of his "Colts."
With the loss of Clell's horse, he suddenly awoke to the extreme danger of his position.
"Keep your eye on Rozier," he snapped to Cole, even as he spoke, leaning from his saddle and dragging his wounded pal from the prostrate beast.
"Here come some more men with Winchesters," gasped the eldest of the Younger brothers as he descried several coatless and hatless farmers line up at the fence beside the banker and rest the muzzles of their rifles on the railing.
"Get on the other side of me, so your body'll be covered by your horse, grab mine by the bits and ride. I can't guide him and hold Clell too. Make for the woods!"
Convinced that the men whom they had believed wealthy miners were in reality the terrible bandits, the men and women who had gathered to condone with the Priors had experienced a change of feeling and were yelling and shouting for the capture of the men who had defied the law so many times and with such success.
As they heard the angry cries, Susie and the Prior girls trembled with fear.