"Let "em howl," remarked Coyote Pete. "The lung exercise is all they"ll git. With this start, we ought to beat them out easy."
"Look! Look!" cried Ralph, suddenly pointing ahead. "What"s that?"
They all saw it at the same moment--two big lights, like eyes.
Seemingly, the astonishing apparition was coming toward them at a good speed. The shafts of light cast forward cut the darkness like fiery swords.
The fugitives paused, bewildered. What did this new circ.u.mstance betoken?
"What do you make her out to be, Pete?" asked Jack.
"Why, boy, if it warn"t thet we"re down in such a benighted part of ther country, I should say that yonder was a gasoline gig."
"An automobile!" exclaimed Walt. "It does look like one, for a fact."
"And, to my way of thinking, a naughtymobile is jes" about the ticket fer us, right now," grunted Pete. "Hark!"
There was no doubt now that the two shimmering bright lights ahead were the head lanterns of an auto. They could hear the sharp cough of her engines, as she took the hill.
"She"s a powerful one, too," commented Ralph, listening. The Eastern lad knew a good deal about motor cars. His face bore an interested expression.
"I don"t know who"d own one of them things down here but an American,"
went on Pete, as if he had been in a reverie all this time, "and if it is a Yankee, it means that maybe we are out of our difficulties."
"Well, what shall we do?" demanded Jack. "Meet it, or take to the woods?"
As he spoke, from far behind them came the sound of shots and shouts.
That settled it.
"We"ll take a chance, and meet them," declared Pete, riding forward.
Followed by the others, he deployed across the road, and an instant later the bright glare of the car"s headlights enveloped them. From the vehicle, there came a sharp hail as the driver ground down the brakes.
"Say, you fellows, can you direct us to the camp?"
"They"re nothing but a bunch of greasers," came another voice from behind the lights; "drive ahead, Jim."
"Hold on thar, Buck," hailed Coyote Pete. "I"d like ter hev a word with you."
"Say, are you chaps Americans?" demanded an astonished voice.
"Reckon so," hailed back Pete dryly, "that"s what my ma said. Who air you, anyhow?"
"I am Big Buck Bradley, manager, owner and sole proprietor of Buck Bradley"s Unparalleled Monst-er-ous and Unsurpa.s.sed Wild West Show and Congress of Cowboys," came back the answer. "Who are you?"
"Well, I reckon jes" at present we"re in danger of being made a Wild West Show of, ourselves," drawled Pete. "But are you really Buck Bradley himself?"
"I was, at dinner-time," was the response.
"Hoorah!" yelled Pete. "It ain"t possible, is it, Buck, thet you"ve forgot Mister Peter de Peyster?"
"What, Coyote Pete?"
"That"s me!"
"Waal, you thundering old coyote, what air you doin" here?"
"Gittin" chased by a bunch of the toughest insurrectos you ever clapped eyes on, and it"s up ter you ter help us out," responded Pete. He looked back, and motioned to the others, who had listened in astonishment to this dialogue. "Come on, boys, and git interduced; there ain"t much time fer ettiquette."
"Yee-ow-w-w-w-w!" came a yell behind them.
"What"s that?" exclaimed Buck, who, as the boys could now see, was a big, red-faced chap, clad in a linen auto-duster, combined with which his sombrero, with its beaded band, looked odd.
"Why, that"s an invitation ter us ter stop," rejoined Pete.
Rapidly he explained the case, and Buck began to roar and bellow angrily, as was his wont.
"Waal, what d"yer think uv that? The derned greasers! And I was on my way ter give "em some free tickets. We show down in the village to-night. Help you out? Surest thing you know. Turn them broncs loose, and you and yer friends pile in. Tell me ther rest as we go along."
The party of adventurers, as may be imagined, lost no time in accepting the Wild West Show man"s hearty invitation, the professor being helped into the tonneau by Coyote Pete, who lifted the bony scientist as if he were nothing but a featherweight.
"Back her up, and turn around, bo," Buck ordered his chauffeur. "I"m out in my guess if we"ve got much time to lose."
Rapidly the car was turned, and was soon speeding in the direction they wished to go. The stolen insurrecto horses galloped off into the hills, snorting with terror, as the car began to move.
"Say, Pete, what-cher bin doin"?" began Buck, as the vehicle gathered way, "shootin" up ther town?"
"No, siree! I"m a law-abidin" citizen now," came from Pete, "and actin" as chaperony to this yer party."
"You seem ter hev chaperoned them inter a heap of trouble," observed Buck dryly, as the car gathered way.
""Tain"t all my fault. Listen," rejoined Pete, and straightaway launched into a detailed account of their adventures.
"Waal," observed Buck, at the conclusion, "you sure are the number one chop feller fer gettin" inter trouble, but you bet yer life I ain"t a-goin" ter fergit ther time yer stood up with me and held off a bunch of crazy cattle-thieves, down on the Rio Grande. So, gents, give yer orders, and Buck Bradley "ull carry "em out."
But, alas! as the redoubtable owner of Buck Bradley"s Unparalleled, etc., Wild West uttered these words, there came a sudden loud report.
_Bang_!
"Christopher! They"re firing from ambush!" yelled Pete, jumping two feet up from his seat in the tonneau.
"Worse than that, consarn the luck!" growled Bradley, "thet rear tire"s busted agin."
"Can"t you run on a flat wheel?" asked Ralph anxiously.
"Not over these roads, son. We wouldn"t last ten minutes. Hey you, chaffer! Get out an" fix it, w.i.l.l.yer?"
"I"ll try, sir," said the man, bringing the b.u.mping, jolting car to a stop.
"Try, sir?" echoed Buck indignantly. "Didn"t you tell me, when I hired you, thet you was a first-cla.s.s, A number one chaffer?"