"I guess it's fight after all," snarled Jesse. "Be ready to halt and fire when I give the word."
But the next moment he was roused to fresh fury by the command bellowed at him:
"Surrender! We've got you at our mercy!"
Reining in his mount, the great outlaw sneered:
"Turn 'round and go home before you're hurt. Come a rod nearer and we'll shoot! Take aim, boys!"
Throwing their Winchesters to their shoulders, Cole, John and Jim waited.
This determination to resist any attempt to capture them abashed the posse and they halted to hold a conference.
"Once more, we call upon you to surrender," yelled the spokesman at its conclusion.
Realizing that men who temporized when they outnumbered them three to one would make no desperate attempt to kill them, Jesse exclaimed to his men:
"Give them a volley just over their heads."