There the horses had an advantage over the Terror, as they could pick their way over the rough ground.
A fearful jolting and rattling of the stage ensued, and Jack was forced to slacken speed.
That gave the fugitives an advantage.
They quickly gained a long lead, for Jack had to zigzag the Terror in and out among the stones.
She kept falling farther and still further behind.
Some distance beyond the rocky place Jack caught view of a prairie covered with brush and long dry gra.s.s.
It renewed his hope, and he remarked confidentially:
"Once we reach that place we"ll soon catch up to them."
"I don"t tink so," answered Fritz, who was watching the bandits.
"Why don"t you?"
"See vot dey vos doin"!"
A chill of dismay pa.s.sed over the inventor, for he now saw the bandits setting fire to the long gra.s.s.
The wind was blowing toward the Terror.
That kept the fire burning in her direction, while the bandits galloped away from it, setting fire to it as they proceeded.
In a short s.p.a.ce of time there was a roaring wall of flame and smoke opposed to the Terror.
In order to prevent Jack from coming in on a flank, the outlaws, spread out like a fan, and kept dropping lighted matches into the combustible gra.s.s.
It did not take long to thus create such a wide barrier that the Terror could not hope to get around it in time to overtake the miscreants.
Jack stopped her short.
Clouds of spark-laden smoke were being swept into their faces by the wind, and an intense heat was generated.
"Fritz, we are thwarted."
"Donner vetter! Dey cover deir redreat vell!"
"We can"t remain here; those flames will roast us."
"Make a large circle vunct."
"That"s the only way," said Jack, starting the Terror.
She now ran off at an angle, and the flames swept to the rocky section and burned out.
There was not enough gra.s.s there to keep tha fire going, but behind the first avalanche of flame came another.
It was, therefore, impossible to chase the bandits further.
The fire rendered the air stifling.
Timberlake and Tim were disgusted at this turn of affairs, for both had been confidant of capturing the outlaws.
"If it hadn"t ben for ther escape of Wood Hite," growled the old sailor, "we"d aheerd yer signal in ther town, an" reached yer wi" ther Terror afore them lubbers got away."
"Regrets are useless now, Tim."
"O" course. But it allers makes a feller mad ter think he didn"t do sich an" sich a thing at ther time he wuz doin" anything wot don"t pan out jist as he"d like it ter."
"Perhaps we can head them off yet."
"If thar"s a livin" show, Jack"ll get it, When I wuz in ther navy we was once asallin" up ther Red Sea, when an Arabian dhow collided with us, an" busted a hole in ther side o" ther Wabash below ther water line; then ther willain coolly sailed away without ever excusin" himself.
"We could astood ther damage, but his indifference about ther injury he done ter us riled us all up. Seein" as he didn"t care a blame, our skipper sent ther friggte aflyin" arter him. Waal, sir, ther cuss cracked on sail an" fled. Arter him we tacked, detarmined ter punish ther swab fer his imperdence. It wuz a long stern chase wot lasted ten hours. But we finally overhauled him---"
"Why didn"t your frigate sink if she had a hole stove into her below the water liner."
Tim gave a slight start.
He had entirely overlooked this point.
Pondering a moment, he took a chew of tobacco, and replied:
"I guess ther hole wuzn"t smashed all ther way through."
"Don"t you know whether it was or not?"
"No; how could I go below ter look at sich a time?"
"You ought to know best."
"Waal, let it pa.s.s an" I"ll go on."
"No, you won"t go on."
"Why not, sir?"
"Because I won"t stay here and listen to you."
"Say, sheriff d"yer mean ter insinuate as I"m a liar?"
"Oh, no. I"m too frank to insinuate what I know to be a fact, I say it right out, openly and plainly," laughed Timberlake.
Tim eyed him with a mystified look.