"Hi! leave my brother alone!" cried Tom, coming to the spot.
As Tom spoke Larry stooped and picked up a handful of dust. This he hurled straight into the cowboy"s face.
"Good!" shouted Tom and did likewise.
The dust caused the cowboy to sneeze, and some bystanders commenced to laugh.
"He"s got the best of you, Megget," observed another cowboy.
"I"ll eat him!" yelled Megget and rushed at Larry with blood in his eyes.
But before he reached the boy a voice rang out:
"Keep on your horse, Gus Megget!"
Though Larry did not dare take his eyes from the bully, Tom and the cowboys looked to see who was taking a hand in the affair. They beheld a quiet-looking little man pointing a finger at the leader of the ruffians.
"I can"t arrest you for driving off Jim Larson"s cattle because we"re in Oklahoma," continued the determined stranger. "But if I ever get my hand on you in Texas it"ll go hard with you! Now vamoose before you try my patience too far! Come on back, boys.
Gus Megget won"t bother you any more."
"p.r.i.c.kly cactus! but it"s "Shorty," the sheriff from p.a.w.nee County!" gasped one of the band or cow-punchers. "Come on, Gus; we must dig out of here! Shorty may pa.s.s the word he"s seen us."
Fear of the law caused the bully and his companions to wheel their ponies.
At this move the three boys turned and ran back toward the train, while the excited pa.s.sengers hooted and yelled at the discomfited cowboys.
The shouts of derision were more than Megget could stand. He shook his fist at the crowd in general and then at Tom and Larry in particular, Then he whirled around and disappeared from view in a cloud of dust.
Quickly the pa.s.sengers all trooped to the cars and five minutes later the train was again in motion.
All the pa.s.sengers wanted to shake hands with Tom and Larry, and for several minutes the boys were at the mercy of their well-meaning admirers. Again the sheriff came to their rescue.
"Go back to your own cars," he commanded. "The boys want to be left alone."
But the people gave no sign of heeding his words.
"Well, if you won"t go at the asking, I"ll make you go," he continued, and seizing the person nearest him, the sheriff turned him round and gave him a shove along the aisle of the car.
After three or four of the pa.s.sengers had been pushed none too gently away, the others began to leave of their own accord, and the two brothers were able to make their escape.
"If it keeps on the way it has started, we"re likely to have a lively summer," remarked Larry when he was again back in his seat.
"I hope they don"t come so quick for me," exclaimed Hans. And his tone was so plaintive that the others could not help but laugh.
"You"ll either have to get some nerve or else stick mighty close to your friends here," declared the sheriff, who had remained to talk with the boys who had shown such pluck.
"Maybe I"ll go back to Germany," sighed Hans.
"Oh, you"ll get used to this part of the world after a while.
Where are you going?"
"Tolopah."
"Well, that ain"t the most refined place in the world," chuckled the man of the law, "but I don"t believe you"ll get as bad as what you got."
Pondering over this none too rea.s.suring remark, Hans lapsed into silence, while Tom and Larry plied the sheriff with questions about life on the ranches and the antics of the cowboys.
As evening came on the boys grew restive. Their train was due at Tolopah at nine the next morning, and despite the fact that it was rushing along at the rate of forty miles an hour, it seemed to them to be scarcely moving. They had already pa.s.sed two nights and two days on the train and the thought of putting another night in the berth, especially as it was very hot, seemed impossible, making them fretful and cross.
"Who is he?" asked Larry of the conductor, after the sheriff had left the train.
"What, you never heard of Sam Jenks, sheriff of p.a.w.nee County?"
"We come from Ohio," said Tom, as though apologizing for their ignorance.
"That accounts for it. If you lived between the Mississippi and El Paso you wouldn"t ask such a question.
"Sam Jenks, known to every cowboy as "Shorty," is the nerviest man I know. There isn"t a cattle thief or a bad man in this part of the country that won"t run when he sees him--if he has the chance.
"You saw how Gus Megget and his gang got scared. It was just the sight of Shorty that scared him. He"s got a record of sending more cattle thieves and crooked gamblers to jail than any three other sheriffs in the country. There never was anything he"s afraid of, and he"s just as tender-hearted as a kitten. Why, I know one time, after he"d sent a train robber to prison, he took the money out of his own pocket to support the rascal"s wife and baby till he could get her folks to take her home. You sure made a friend that"s worth having."
On Hans" account, Larry and Tom kept up a lively chatter during the evening, and it was not until the brothers were in their berths that they broached the subject of what to do should the sheriff"s suspicions prove true.
Hans" unfitness for holding his own among the rough men of the plains made them sorry for him, and they discussed various plans, without arriving at any conclusion, till well into the night.
"What"s the use of worrying?" said Tom finally. "Chris will probably show up all right. Let"s wait and see." And with this understanding the boys dropped the matter.
Despite the fact that the day was to see the end of their journey, the boys slept late.
"You ge"mmen better hurry if you all wants yo" breakfas" befoh yo"
gits to Tolopah," interrupted the porter. "We"ll be thar in half an hour."
It was not a hearty meal the brothers and Hans ate, and soon they were back in their seats, looking to see that they had forgotten nothing before they closed their suit-cases.
Bringing two big valises of the extending kind the German sat with Larry and Tom. But their high spirits found no response in him, and as they neared their destination he could with difficulty keep back the tears, so worried was he.
"Here we are!" exclaimed Larry as he caught sight of some houses and barns.
And his words were verified by the porter, who came through the car calling:
"All out for Tolopah!"
Picking up their luggage, the boys hastened to the car steps.
"h.e.l.lo, Bill! h.e.l.lo, Horace!" cried the brothers eagerly as they caught sight of their friends on the station platform.
At the greetings the Wilder boys hurried toward the car.
In the pleasure of the meeting Tom and Larry forgot Hans.