"I see they got away from you at the hollow."
"Yes; I was too confident of beating them."
"What were they doing with you?"
"They already had my death sentence pa.s.sed, and were going to put me out of the way as soon as they finished that train job. But you have baffled them nicely."
"Not only with you, but we stopped them getting into the express car. We arrived just in time."
"Where"s the Terror?"
"Up the road, crippled."
"That"s a pity!"
"Come back to the train till I see the amount of damage they"ve done,"
said Jack. "Are you hurt any?"
"Scratched and bruised a trifle."
Tim and Fritz went ahead of them, carrying their prisoner, and when they reached the cars they found two more of the bandits badly wounded in the train crew"s hands.
All had recovered from the panic by this time.
The conductor now rushed up to Jack, followed by the train crew and pa.s.sengers.
He gave the young inventor a hearty handshake, and cried:
"Let me thank you on behalf of all the people and myself for your gallant conduct, sir. If you had not come to our rescue, G.o.d only knows what would have become of us at the hands of the James Boys" gang."
"You exaggerate the case," quietly replied Jack.
"No, no, no! Gentlemen, three cheers for these n.o.ble fellows!"
"Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!" shouted the pa.s.sengers.
Some of them had been robbed.
But the majority escaped, owing to the timely arrival of Jack"s party upon the scene.
Moreover, the contents of the express car had been kept out of the clutches of the bandits.
True, the explosion had slightly injured the two men who had been in the car, but their condition might have been worse had Jack not interfered.
All the bandits had vanished except the three who had been captured, and they were bound hand and foot, and put aboard the car.
The conductor took charge of them.
He intended to put them in the hands of the law.
As soon as the pa.s.sengers were back in the coaches, and the engineer and stoker in the cab, every one gave Jack and his friends a parting cheer.
The train then moved ahead.
"We didn"t do so blamed bad arter all," chuckled Tim.
"Did yer see me drop forty o" them pirates vi" one shot?"
"Forty?" grinned Fritz.
"Ay--that"s wot I see," Tim answered, haughtily.
"Nein! Yer vos misdooken."
"How so?" growled the old sailor.
"It vos eight hundert. But dere only vos dirty in ther gang."
"Come!" interposed Jack. "Quit your fooling, and let us get back to the stage. She"s so disabled that we can"t chase the bandits with her now.
The sooner she"s repaired the quicker we"ll be able to get upon their trail and hunt them down."
They strode back to where they left the Terror.
Both the parrot and monkey were yelling furiously inside, and did not cease their clamor until their owners went in and pacified them.
It required several hours to repair the driving rod, and when it was finished, although not as strong as it was before, it was very firm.
They could not do anything further that night, so they divided the watch and turned in.
After breakfast on the following morning, Jack mounted the steersman"s seat, and sent the Terror rolling to the place where the bandits were last seen.
There he saw a large plain trail they had left.
"I"ll follow their tracks," said he to Tim, who had taken a seat beside him. "It"s an easy trail to follow, and if we have say sort of a chance, we are bound to run them down in a short time."
"I ain"t so sure about that my lad."
"Why not?"
"Jesse James are mighty cunnin"."
"That"s a fact. He may fool us yet,"
"Still thar ain"t no harm in tryin"."
Jack sent the Terror flying off in pursuit of the bandits, and they ran out on the open plain.
It was a rolling, gra.s.sy country.