He was knocked senseless, bound and gagged.
As soon as Jack found that the sheriff was not following him, he paused.
"I wonder if he"s in trouble?" he muttered. "I can"t go on this way. No!
I"ll return and see."
With this resolution he retraced his steps.
Reaching the spot where he had left Timberlake, he found that the sheriff had vanished.
Looking across the hollow, Jack saw the bandits mounting their horses.
He could just see them by the light of the camp-fire.
A moment afterward they went galloping out of the hollow, and he saw Timberlake a prisoner among them.
"They"ve captured him!" he muttered.
Jack"s dismay increased.
He could not do anything single handed to save his friend, so he hurried back to the electric stage.
"h.e.l.lo!" called Tim, seeing him alone. "Whar"s ther sheriff?"
"Caught by the James Boys," replied Jack.
_"Ach du lieber Gott!"_ gasped Fritz.
Jack hastily got aboard.
"We must chase them!" he exclaimed.
"Wuz them lubbers down in that "ere holler?" asked Tim.
"Yes--the whole gang," replied Jack.
"Den dot feller by horses back vos van ohf dem?"
"He was, Fritz, and a nice plot they have formed."
"Wot is it?" asked Tim.
The inventor briefly explained.
When he finished he sent the stage ahead.
Tim and Fritz armed themselves, to be prepared for trouble, and they sped along the course of the creek.
Nothing was seen of the bandits for some time.
They had gone several miles in this manner from the place where Timberlake was captured, when the moon suddenly burst from behind a cloud bank.
Just then Jack uttered a stifled cry.
"There they are!" he exclaimed.
"Whar?" eagerly asked Tim, peering out.
"Across the creek! See there!"
He pointed to the eastward and stopped the Terror.
A league away rode a large body of hors.e.m.e.n, and as Jack leveled a gla.s.s at them, he saw that there was no mistake about the matter--they were the James Boys" gang.
"How ve get across dot streams ter shase dem?" asked Fritz.
"That"s what worried me," replied Jack. "I can"t see a means anywhere.
It"s bound to delay us. Before we can do anything for Timberlake, they may kill him."
"Ay, ay, an" wot"s more," added Tim, "they may reach ther railroad an"
stop them cars afore we kin stop them."
"What a pity that I did not have a pair of air cylinders under this stage!" regretfully said Jack. "We could then have floated her across the stream."
He noted the direction the bandits were pursuing, and sent the Terror running along again.
Tim and Fritz maintained an anxious lookout in the meantime for an opportunity of getting over the creek.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOLDING UP A TRAIN.
"Midnight!"
"Dere vos der roat."
"Ay, but whar"s the bandits?"
The Inventor had been obliged to run the Terror to the headwaters of the creek ere they were able to pa.s.s the stream.
Considerable time had thus been lost.
Indeed, it was twelve o"clock before they reached the railroad track at a point between Polo and Cowgill.
"The question is, has the train pa.s.sed?" said Jack.
"Ve ditn"d seen nodding ohf her yet," replied Fritz.
"Ay, but that ain"t no sign as it didn"t pa.s.s," growled Tim, as he took a chew of tobacco. "I recollect when I wuz in the navy how we started fer ther rendezvous o" a enemy"s ship---"