"Two of 'em got away," Lanky replied.
"Ya-ho!" shouted Hopalong from the grove. "Don't none of you fools
shoot! I'm coming out. They plumb got away!"
"They near got _you_, Red," Skinny cried.
"Nears don't count," Red laughed.
"Did you ever notice Hopalong when he 's fighting mad?" asked Lanky,
grinning at the man who was leaving the woods. "He allus wears his
sombrero hanging on one ear. Look at it now!"
"Who touched off that cannon some time back?" asked Billy.
"I did. It was an anti-gravity cartridge what I found sizzling on a rod
under th' floor of th' express car," replied Red.
"Why did n't you pinch out th' fuse 'stead of blowing everything up, you
half-breed?" Lanky asked.
"I reckon I was some hasty," grinned Red.
"It blowed me under th' car an' my lid through a windy," cried Billy.
"An' Skinny, he went up in th' air like a shore-'nough grasshopper."
Hopalong joined them, grinning broadly: "Hey, reckon ridin' in th' cars
ain't so bad after all, is it?"
"Holy smoke!" cried Skinny. "What's that a-popping?"
Hopalong, Colt in hand, leaped to the side of the train and looked along
it, the others close behind him, and saw the fat man with his head and
arm out of the window, blazing away into the air, which increased the
panic in the coaches. Hopalong grinned and fired into the ground, and
the fat man nearly dislocated parts of his anatomy by his hasty
disappearance.
"Reckon he plumb forgot all about his fine, six-dollar gun till just
now," Skinny laughed.
"Oh, he 's making good," Red replied. "He said he 'd take a hand if
anything busted loose. It's a good thing he did n't come to life while
me an' Hoppy was under his windy looking for laigs."
"Reckon some of us better go in th' cars an' quiet th' stampede," Skinny
remarked, mounting the steps, followed by Hopalong. "They're shore
_loco_."
The uproar in the coach ceased abruptly when the two punchers stepped
through the door, the inmates shrinking into their seats, frightened
into silence. Skinny and his companion did not make a reassuring sight,
for they were grimy with burned powder and dust, and Hopalong's sleeve
was stained with Red's blood.
"Oh, my jewels, my pretty jewels," sobbed a woman, staring at Skinny and
wringing her hands.
"Ma'am, we shore don't want yore jewelry," replied Skinny, earnestly.
"Ca'm yoreself; we don't want nothin'."
"_I_ don't want that!" growled Hopalong, pushing a wallet from him.
"How many times do you want us to tell you we don't want nothin'? We
ain't robbers; we licked th' robbers."
Suddenly he stooped and, grasping a pair of legs which protruded into
the aisle obstructing the passage, straightened up and backed towards
Red, who had just entered the car, dragging into sight a portly
gentleman, who kicked and struggled and squealed, as he grabbed at the
stanchions of seats to stay his progress. Red stepped aside between two
seats and let his friend pass, and then leaned over and grasped the
portly gentleman's coat-collar. He tugged energetically and lifted the
frightened man clear of the aisle and deposited him across the back of a
seat, face down, where he hung balanced, yelling and kicking.
"Shut yore face, you cave-hunter!" cried Red in disgust. "Stop that
infernal noise! You fat fellers make all yore noise after th' fighting
is all over!"
The man on the seat, suddenly realizing what a sight he made, rolled off
his perch and sat up, now more angry than frightened. He glared at
Red's grinning face and sputtered:
"It's an outrage! It's an outrage! I'll have you hung for this day's
work, young man!"
"That's right," grinned Hopalong. "He shore deserves it. I told him
more 'n once that he 'd get strung up some day."
"Yes, and you, too!"
"Please don't," begged Hopalong. "I don't want t' die!"
Tense as the past quarter of an hour had been a titter ran along the car
and, fuming impotently, the portly gentleman fled into the smoker.
"I 'll bet he had a six-dollar gun, too," laughed Red.
"I 'll bet he 's calling hisself names right about now," Hopalong
replied. Then he turned to reply to a woman: "Yes, ma'am, we did. But
they was n't real badmen."
At this a young woman, who was about as pretty as any young woman could
be, arose and ran to Hopalong and, impulsively throwing her arms around
his neck, cried: "You brave man! You hero! You dear!"
"Skinny! Red! Help!" cried the frightened and embarrassed puncher,
struggling to get free.
She kissed him on the cheek, which flamed even more red as he made
frantic efforts to keep his head back.
"Ma'am!" he cried, desperately. "Leggo, ma'am! Leggo!"
"Oh! Ho! Ho!" roared Red, weak from his mirth and, not looking to see
what he was doing, he dropped into a seat beside another woman. He was
on his feet instantly; fearing that he would have to go through the
ordeal his friend was going through, he fled down the aisle, closely
followed by Hopalong, who by this time had managed to break away.
Skinny backed off suspiciously and kept close watch on Hopalong's
admirer.
Just then the brakeman entered the car, grinning, and Skinny asked about
the condition of the conductor.
"Oh, he 's all right now," the brakeman replied. "They shot him through
the arm, but he 's repaired and out bossin' the job of clearin' the
rocks off the track. He 's a little shaky yet, but he 'll come around
all right."
"That's good. I 'm shore glad to hear it."
"Won't you wear this pin as a small token of my gratitude?" asked a
voice at Skinny's shoulder.
He wheeled and raised his sombrero, a flush stealing over his face:
"Thank you, ma'am, but I don't want no pay. We was plumb glad to do it."
"But this is not pay! It's just a trifling token of my appreciation of
your courage, just something to remind you of it. I shall feel hurt if
you refuse."
Her quick fingers had pinned it to his shirt while she spoke and he
thanked her as well as his embarrassment would permit. Then there was a
rush toward him and, having visions of a shirt looking like a jeweler's
window, he turned and fled from the car, crying: "Pin 'em on th'
brakeman!"
He found the outfit working at a pile of rocks on the track, under the
supervision of the conductor, and Hopalong looked up apprehensively at
Skinny's approach.
"Lord!" he ejaculated, grinning sheepishly, "I was some scairt you was a
woman."
Red dropped the rock he was carrying and laughed derisively.
"Oh, yo're a brave man, you are! scared to death by a purty female girl!
If I 'd 'a' been you I would n't 'a' run, not a step!"
Hopalong looked at him witheringly: "Oh, no! You wouldn't 'a' run!
You'd dropped dead in your tracks, you would!"
"You was both of you a whole lot scared," Skinny laughed. Then, turning
to the conductor: "How do you feel, Simms?"
"Oh, I 'm all right: but it took the starch out of me for awhile."
"Well, I don't wonder, not a bit."
"You fellows certainly don't waste any time getting busy," Simms
laughed.
"That's the secret of gun-fightin'," replied Skinny.
"Well, you 're a fine crowd all right. Any time you want to go any
place when you 're broke, climb aboard my train and I 'll see't you get
there."
"Much obliged."
Simms turned to the express-car: "Hey, Jackson! You can open up now if
you want to."
But the express-messenger was suspicious, fearing that the conductor was
talking with a gun at his head: "You go to h--l!" he called back.
"Honest!" laughed Simms. "Some cowboy friends o' mine licked the gang.
Didn't you hear that dynamite go off? If they hadn't fished it out from
under your feet you 'd be communing with the angels 'bout now."
For a moment there was no response, and then Jackson could be heard
dragging things away from the door. When he was told of the cartridge
and Red had been pointed out to him as the man who had saved his life,
he leaped to the ground and ran to where that puncher was engaged in
carrying the ever-silenced robbers to the baggage-car. He shook hands
with Red, who laughed deprecatingly, and then turned and assisted him.
Hopalong came up and grinned: "Say, there 's some cayuses in that grove
up th' track; shall I go up an' get 'em?"
"Shore! I 'll go an' get 'em with you," replied Skinny.
In the grove they found seven horses picketed, two of them being
pack-animals, and they led them forth and reached the train as the
others came up.
"Well, here 's five saddled cayuses, an' two others," Skinny grinned.
"Then we can ride th' rest of th' way in th' saddle instead of in that
blamed train," Red eagerly suggested.
"That's just what we can do," replied Skinny. "Leather beats car-seats
any time. How far are we from Sandy Creek, Simms?"
"About twenty miles."
"An' we can ride along th' track, too," suggested Hopalong.
"We shore can," laughed Skinny, shaking hands with the train-crew: "We
're some glad we rode with you this trip: we 've had a fine time."
"And we're glad you did," Simms replied, "for that ain't no joke,
either."
Hopalong and the others had mounted and were busy waving their sombreros
and bowing to the heads and handkerchiefs which were decorating the
car-windows.
"All aboard!" shouted the conductor, and cheers and good wishes rang out
and were replied to by bows and waving of sombreros. Then Hopalong
jerked his gun loose and emptied it into the air, his companions doing
likewise. Suddenly five reports rang out from the smoker and they
cheered the fat man as he waved at them. They sat quietly and watched
the train until the last handkerchief became lost to sight around a
curve, but the screeching whistle could be heard for a long time.
"Gee!" laughed Hopalong as they rode on after the train, "won't th'
fellers home on th' ranch be a whole lot sore when they hears about the
good time what they missed!"