CHAPTER XXIV.
GORILLA JAKE.
Tim Benson, having by some clever and careful climbing, got out of the cañon gorge, and to the high ground beyond it, was hastening along, hurrying so rapidly to put distance between himself and the men he feared that he had not stopped even long enough to remove the woman’s dress he wore, when he was brought to a sudden and gasping halt by seeing a revolver poked at him over the top of a bush.
“Try ter draw a gun, and I’ll down ye!” came in warning from behind the bush.
Benson’s hands, going involuntarily to the revolver he carried, stopped on touching the dress, which at the moment he had forgotten he was wearing.
“Hands up!” repeated the fellow behind the bush.
Grumbling, and still ready to fight, Benson complied; he did not believe the man who spoke was one of Buffalo Bill’s followers, which increased the likelihood that the man was an outlaw, like himself.
“Come out of that, and let me see you!” he said. “Likely I know you, if you’ve been herding round here.”
The man came out, with his revolver leveled.