The passing of the men, with their candles, was filled with considerable danger for Wild Bill. If the two ruffians saw him, there was bound to be a fight, for it would not do to let Wild Bill get away with the information he had discovered.
Wild Bill drew his revolvers and made himself as small as possible. Had there been time, he would have hastened back to the shaft, along the level, and climbed the rope. But he knew he could not have gotten half-way up before Tex and Andy would have located him. It was better for Wild Bill to stay right where he was, and hope for the best.
The whole affair, as Wild Bill had planned it, was reckless in the extreme; but he was daring by nature, and rarely counted the cost before making a leap in the dark.
This must have been his evil day, and the beginning of a series of evil days, as will soon appear. Tex and Andy were stumbling past him, when the former, tripping on a stone that lay on the bottom of the level, fell sideways, dropping his candle and falling full on the man from Laramie.
The candle was extinguished, but Tex, encountering the intruder, gave vent to a wild yell of alarm. Wild Bill’s fist shot out, and Tex crumpled flat along the floor of the level; the blow was followed by another, which landed on the point of Andy’s jaw, and threw him against the hanging wall. His candle also dropped, and Wild Bill set his foot on the sputtering flame.
By then Clancy and the other three had started at a run to see what was the trouble. Wild Bill, berating his hard luck, rushed toward the shaft, but he was running in the dark—a circumstance which brought him many a bruise and bump. Behind him came three men with two candles, but Tex and Andy were temporarily out of the race.
From time to time, as he stumbled onward, Wild Bill looked backward over his shoulder. Suddenly he saw Clancy halt, lift the shotgun, and shoot along the level.
Quick as a flash, Wild Bill dropped flat. He had no desire to stop a charge from a brass shell, even though it was of gold.
The fine yellow metal whistled over his head. As the echo of the shot clamored in the level, Wild Bill sprang up and forged onward with a reckless laugh.
“They can’t salt me,” he muttered, “but I may be able to salt one of them with lead.”