“We must go to their aid!” Denton panted, his eyes shining.
“Jes’ what I was thinkin’ o’ doin’! But don’t holler ’bout it and give ’em warning. See this here?” He held up the “rain bomb.” “And ye see them men down there?”
Denton nodded.
“Well, now you’ll see some fun, fer this ain’t ezactly ther same kind as I fired into the crowd in the town. This will wake ’em up.”
He lifted himself and hurled the bomb, with such true aim and force that it struck right in the midst of the hidden riflemen. There was a flash and a deafening roar, and a blinding cloud of white smoke covered everything.
Out of that white smoke men leaped, some of them tumbling and falling, all thoroughly frightened.
When the smoke lifted, three of them were seen dead on the ground, for the bomb this time had been a genuine one.
“Ho, ho!” chuckled Deland. “When I chip into a fight of this kind something’s happenin’ right off.”
The outlaws did not tarry there for their remaining reënforcements; they fled, vanishing into the hills.
Buffalo Bill and his companions were relieved thus quickly of their enemies, and the big battle they had anticipated was not fought.