About an hour after sunset they started, riding slowly and scouting carefully to see that none of the Cave Dwellers was on the watch. It was two days after full moon, and they had therefore as many hours to reach the foot of the cliff before it rose.  
An hour was more than sufficient to travel the distance. They therefore rested for a time, after darkness set in, before they started. Then they swam the river on horseback, and made their way noiselessly along, keeping at some distance from the river bank, until they reached the place where the cliff rose perpendicularly.
 
They pressed on, keeping close to the base of the rocks, until they arrived at the place which Buffalo Bill had decided upon as the easiest at which to make the ascent. Then they lay down among the bowlders at the foot of the wall of rock, and remained there until the moon rose, for it was impossible to attempt such a difficult and dangerous climb in the darkness.
 
While they waited they discussed the best way of getting the lariat rope up, for it was obvious that whether it was carried in a coil over the shoulder or wound around the body it would hamper the movements of the climber.
 
At last Buffalo Bill solved the problem by putting a ball of twine in his pocket and saying that he would throw it down from the ledge when he got up, so that the lariat could be tied to it and then pulled up.
 
“Good luck, pard!” said Wild Bill, as the border king prepared to start, and both he and Nick Wharton gripped their friend by the hand, while Eagle Eye laid his hand on his shoulder, saying: “Ugh, heap brave!”
 
The ascent was comparatively easy for a short distance. Then Buffalo Bill came to the first of the ledges he had noticed.
 
It was only about ten inches wide, but, keeping his face to the rocky wall, and using his hands to grip the most trifling irregularities in the smooth surface, or to get a hold in small crevices, he managed to make his way along until he arrived at a bulge in the wall which seemed to effectually bar further progress.
 
Buffalo Bill drew his bowie knife, bent forward, and cut a hole in the rock just large enough to rest his feet in. Thus, gaining a step forward, he cut another foothold, and so went on until he had got round the projecting rock at a frightful risk, and gained a secure footing on the next ledge.
 
But this ledge narrowed rapidly as he passed around it. He was now at one of the points which had appeared to him to be the most difficult, for, as he had looked up from the ground in the afternoon, the ledge seemed almost to cease, while the next one above it was also so narrow that he doubted whether he could obtain standing room upon it.
 
The scout now made his way along on tiptoe, in imminent peril of falling down the face of the cliff with every step.
 
In some places the ledge was not more than three inches wide.
 
After he had gone about thirty feet it widened, and the next forty or fifty feet upward were comparatively easy, for the rock sloped to some extent inward, and there were many fissures in which he could get a tight grip with his strong fingers.
 
 
Then came several difficult places, but he was now thoroughly confident, and he attacked the rocky wall with the utmost daring. At last he reached his goal and drew himself up on to the broad ledge that led to the caves.
 
None of the Cave Dwellers were in sight, and he flung himself down on the ground and rested for a few minutes, for he was utterly exhausted by his difficult climb, which not one man in a hundred thousand could have accomplished safely.
 
As soon as he felt refreshed by his brief rest he took the ball of twine from his pocket and flung one end, weighted by a bullet, over the side of the cliff. He knew that he had allowed ample length, and he drew it in until he felt a slight strain, followed by three jerks—the prearranged signal.
 
His friends below had hold of the string. Two more jerks told him that they had fastened the lariat rope to it, and in a couple of minutes he had the rope in his hands.
 
The scout found a big rock jutting out of the ground in the path, and he tied the rope firmly around it, and then shook the rope to show that he was ready for the first Indian to ascend.
 
Two pulls upon the lariat told him that the man had been tied on, and he began at once to haul. He found the weight much less than he expected. Not only was the Navaho a short and wiry man, but he used his hands and feet with such good effect that in about five minutes he stood beside Buffalo Bill.
 
“You can haul up the next man, while I go forward and reconnoiter the cave,” said the border king.
 
The Indian nodded, and immediately signaled with the rope for the next man to be tied on.
 
Buffalo Bill meanwhile stepped forward cautiously along the ledge until he came to the wide entrance of the principal cave. As he approached it, a short figure rose up from behind a rock. It was one of the Cave Dwellers keeping vigilant watch.
 
Before the man could utter a yell, Buffalo Bill had gripped him tightly by the throat, so that he could only gurgle feebly. Yet he managed to draw his tomahawk and raise it above his head to dash out ............