Jack Wright and His Electric Stage - Noname (most life changing books .txt) 📗
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Jack saw through her scheme.
"Get away from there! he cried, sternly.
"You can't leave this house!" she shrieked.
"I see through your plan."
"Stand back, or I'll brain you with this!"
She had been holding her hand behind her back.
As she now brought it into view, they saw that she held a hatchet with a keen, glittering edge.
"This way, Mr. Wright!" cried Timberlake.
And he dove headfirst through a window.
Jack started to follow him, when the woman rushed after him with the hatchet upraised.
There was no such emotion as fear in the mother of the Missouri bandits, and she had bred her ferocity and evil will into her two detestable children.
Jack's life was in danger, for she could have dealt him a death blow with the weapon before he could get out the window after the sheriff.
He therefore turned upon her.
The young inventor was noted for his enormous strength.
Avoiding an ugly blow she aimed at his head by nimbly leaping aside, he seized the hatchet before she could raise it again and made an effort to take it away from her.
She was wonderfully strong in her single arm.
In fact, the strength she lost with the arm which had been blown off seemed to have concentrated in this remaining arm.
Jack found it no easy matter to get the weapon, for she held on to it with great persistence, and exerted every device to delay him as long as possible.
"You shall not have it!" she raved as she struggled.
"Let up!" cried Jack, losing patience. "I don't want to use you roughly on account of your sex and crippled condition. But I'll have to do it."
He thereupon tore the hatchet from her hand.
Flinging it into the next room, he saw her spring toward him, and make an effort to grapple him.
Struggling with women was very distasteful to Jack.
He therefore avoided her and rushed out the door.
She ran after him screaming and threatening, but he kept out of her reach and got upon the stage.
The sheriff was already aboard.
Jack sent the Terror flying along the road.
In a few moments she was out of reach of the woman.
There was a door in the forward part of the vehicle beside Jack, and Tim and Fritz now opened it.
"Gee whiz," chuckled the old sailor. "She wuz ther most piratical craft in petticoats wot I ever seen!"
"I don't blame her for trying to protect her sons."
"Yah; but she vos delay us!" growled Fritz.
"Only a few moments."
"There they go now!" cried Timberlake.
He pointed up the road at two flying horsemen.
They were so far away that their figures could hardly be distinguished, and their steeds were going like the wind.
"What a magnificent black horse," commented Jack.
"That's Siroc," informed the sheriff, "Jesse's horse."
"We'll overhaul them though."
"Let her fly if you wish to succeed."
"Are you sure they were the James Boys?"
"Certain. I did not get very near them, but noticed that one wore a heavy beard and the other a mustache. They had on riding boots, with the legs of their pants tucked in the tops, flannel shirts and soft felt hats, while around their waists were buckled cartridge belts into which were thrust a knife and brace of revolvers a piece."
"Does that description tally with the general appearance of the James Boys?" asked Jack.
"Yes. I am sure it was them."
The young inventor put on full voltage.
It caused the motor to fairly buzz, and the Terror shot ahead along the road with the velocity of an express train.
She rapidly bore down upon the fugitives.
It was a long and exciting chase, though, for Siroc and Jim Malone were wonderfully fleet horses.
Several miles were thus covered.
Finally, though, the machine drew close to the two riders.
"Halt!" shouted Jack.
Casting a quick glance back the riders obeyed.
So suddenly did they pull up their steeds, that they rose on their haunches and pawed the air.
The four inmates of the Terror had them covered with their rifles, and when the horses came down and wheeled around, a shout of chagrin escaped Timberlake.
"Duped!"
"What do you mean?" asked Jack, in surprise.
"They ain't the James Boys."
"Sure enough. But the horses belong to the bandits."
"Yes; that's how I was deceived. Now I see through it. I've been tricked. I really chased Jesse and Frank from the tunnel. They put these men on their horses and hid, while their two men rode off to decoy us from the spot so they could escape."
Such was really the way it happened.
Jack had stopped the Terror, and now shouted to the two men, who were part of the James Boys' gang.
"Throw your hands up!"
Both men obeyed.
"Don't fire!" pleaded one of them.
"That depends on how you answer me."
"What do you want to know, sir?"
"You just heard our version of how the James Boys eluded us?"
"We did, sir."
"Is it correct?"
"Yes."
"Are you members of their gang?"
"We are."
"Where have they gone!"
"I refuse to tell you!"
"Your life depends upon it."
"I don't care. I won't betray them."
"Fool! I will count three. If you don't answer, we'll fire!"
"Go ahead!" was the defiant reply.
"One!" exclaimed Jack.
The two bandits did not flinch.
"Two!" sternly cried the inventor.
Still the men stubbornly refused to speak.
"Three!"
A deathly silence ensued for a moment.
Then the weapons in the hands of our friends were discharged.
SHADOWING A LONE HORSEMAN.
Although there was a tacit understanding among the crew of the Terror to fire over the heads of the two bandits to frighten them they imagined that they were to be shot down in cold blood.
It electrified them.
An instant before Jack gave the order to fire they plunged their spurs into the flanks of the horses.
One animal sprang to the right and the other to the left.
It was done like lightning.
Both steeds were well trained.
Siroc cleared a hedge and wheeling to the right went flying back in the direction he came from, while Jim Malone went thundering in among some rocks and vanished.
Both bandits imagined they had a narrow escape from death, although the fact was they had been in no danger at all of being shot from their horses.
Our friends burst out laughing.
"Badly scared," said Jack.
"Oh, Lord, wot cowards!" Tim chuckled.
"Ain't they likely to return to the James Boys?" asked the sheriff.
"Dot vas more as likely," agreed Fritz. "If dem vas der Chames Poys' horses vunct, dey vill back by deir owners go, don't it?"
Jack peered around.
At some distance off to the south was a forest.
He caught view of both horses plunging into it.
"That settles our pursuit of them!" he exclaimed, in disgust. "We can't follow them among those trees, and as they seem to realize it, they've taken advantage of the timberland."
"We might keep a watch upon the woods anyway," suggested Timberlake. "They are bound to come out somewhere sooner or later. If we can get upon their track we may yet force them to lead us to the bandits' rendezvous."
"It won't hurt to follow the plan," assented Jack; "for we haven't the remotest idea where to look for the villains."
He thereupon steered the Terror toward the trees, and as Fritz was a good cook and had charge of the culinary arrangements, he set about getting their supper ready.
It was a waste of time to guard the forest.
Several days passed by and nothing was seen of the two men.
They had gone straight through the timberland at a gallop, and emerging on the other side, rode rapidly away.
Jack and his friends had therefore been watching and hunting for a mere phantom, as it were.
The young inventor quickly arrived at this conclusion, and on the evening of the third day he said to Tim:
"It's my opinion that there isn't anyone at all in the woods, and I'm going to give up the watch and move on."
"Ay, ay, that's ther bes' plan. I quite agree wi' yer, lad."
"Those fellows would not be foolish enough to remain in that forest all this time for nothing."
"If they wuz thar, I'm mighty sure as we'd a sighted somethin' o' them long afore this, my hearty. I recollect when I wuz in ther navy how I wuz once fooled this way. Yer see we'd been chasin' one o' ther enemy's ships, an' drove her into a lagoon. Thar we pounded her with our guns, an' ther crew desarted her, an' went ashore. We sunk ther ship, an' mannin' ther boats, we pulled ashore arter ther crew. We found ther shore lined with cliffs a thousand feet high. Thar wus no coast, that water beatin' up again ther base o' ther cliffs on all but ther seaward side o' ther lagoon. There wuz one indentation in the cliffs, covered wi' trees an' bushes, inter which ther hull crew went an' hid. Waal, sir, we landed thar, an' beat about lookin' fer 'em. Thar wuzn't no possible way fer 'em ter git away unseen, with ther water in front, them high cliffs surroundin' 'em on three sides, an' only a small plot o' ground filled wi' trees an' bushes fer 'em to hide in. So yer see we wuz sure o' catchin' 'em. Yet, when we'd sarched ther hull place not a sign o' them wuz ter be found! They'd wanished as complete as if ther arth had swallered 'em up. Now wuzn't that a worry mysterious perceedin'?"
As Tim asked this, he refreshed himself with a chew of tobacco.
Jack did not reply.
He had his glance fixed upon the woods.
Taking it for granted that he had aroused the curiosity of the young inventor to fever heat, Tim continued:
"Waal, sir, everybody wuz puzzled cept me. Wot had become o' them lubbers wasn't werry plain. Howsome ever, when they gave up huntin' I made up my mind as I'd locate ther fugitives. Goin' over ter ther cliff I examined ther face of it, an' found a trap door. Openin' it, I entered a cave. Thar they was, armed wi' rifles, pistols, cutlasses and knives, an' ten o' them sprung ter thar door astarn o' me ter cut off my retreat while ther rest aimed thar weapings at me. Did I run? No, sir. Wot did I do? Stood. Wot happened then? Pointin' my finger at 'em I ses, surrender yer swabs, or I'll blow yer brains out! All o' them wuz so skeerd o' my threat they begged fer mercy. An' ther joke of it wuz, I didn't hev no pistol neither. It wuz so dark in ther cave yer couldn't see ther smellin' tackle on yer figger head, an in that gloom they mistook my finger fer a gun. Waal, sir, in less'n two minutes I made prisoners o' ther fifty men, an' marched them out ter my messmates in triumph. Now how wuz that fer a bloodless wictory?"
And with a triumphant grin Tim turned to Jack.
The young inventor made no answer.
"He must be struck dumb with astonishment!" thought Tim.
Then he seized Jack by the arm and shook him.
"Say, my lad, how wuz that fer a wictory?" he asked.
"What victory?" asked Jack, rousing from a deep reverie.
"That one I jist told yer about, o' course."
"Did you tell us about something?"
"Of course I did. Didn't yer like ther yarn?"
"I didn't hear a word of it. I've been thinking."
Tim groaned.
Jack's answer crushed him.
"Oh, gee!" he gasped. "I've been a-talkin' ter myself!"
Jack burst out laughing at him, when he realized into what a ridiculous position Tim had placed himself.
Unable to bear it, the old sailor retreated into the stage.
Jack then turned the Terror away from the forest, and sent her flying across the rolling country.
He had come to the conclusion to make inquiries at the nearest town for information about where the James Boys had last been seen terrorizing the community.
It was his hope to thus get on their trail.
The gloom of night fell.
Heavy, dark banks of clouds covered the sky.
The electric stage finally reached an alluvial bottom, through which wound a broad deep creek.
Here she went among a dense growth of bushes, and Fritz served an excellent supper.
While the rest were partaking of the meal Jack remained on duty, and suddenly caught view of a lone horseman moving slowly along the bank of the creek like
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