imbued with his recklesscarelessness, and got over the sadden fright which had for a momentshocked them.
Jesse then questioned the hotel keeper about the departure of trainsfrom there, and learned that they could not leave Wrightstown in lessthan an hour.
He told his companions the news.
Before the train came in which, they intended to depart, another onearrived from the opposite direction.
Sheriff Timberlake was aboard.
His locomotive had caught up with the express train, and he boarded her,and learned that a passenger had seen five men spring aground at theWrightstown curve.
As Jesse James and his men were not aboard, he at once presumed it wasthey who had thus eluded him.
He, therefore, alighted at the next station, and boarded the first trainback for Wrightstown.
By dint of inquiring, he discovered that five men who answered to thedescription of his prey, were at the Sea Spider Hotel, and made his waythere.
When he reached the hotel, he learned that the men were there, and hadretired to one of the rooms.
Timberlake was a man who never wasted words.
When he spoke or acted, it was to the point.
He therefore made no remark, but quickly made his way up-stairs, surethat he had his prey cornered.
By moving quietly, and listening at the different doors, he finallylocated the sound of several voices coming from the room occupied by theJames Boys.
He recognized them at once as the voices of the gang whom he had trackedto New York.
"It's time to get ready, boys," he heard Jesse say.
"We've got ten minutes yet," replied Cummins.
"Just time enough to reach the depot," added Frank.
The sheriff smiled, and produced a brace of revolvers.
Flinging open the door he saw the five men in the bedroom, sittingaround a table upon which stood an empty whisky bottle and a deck ofcards with which they had been amusing themselves.
Leveling his pistols at the outlaws he cried:
"Hands up!"
"Timberlake!" roared Jesse.
"Quick, obey or I'll fire!"
"Caught!" muttered Frank.
"I've got the drop on you!"
They saw that resistance was simply madness, so up went their hands andthe keen glance of the sheriff swept over the party and he counted fourmen.
Miller was missing.
For a moment there was deep silence.
The bandits had time to recover from their panic.
"Let up, Timberlake, and I'll give you $5,000," said Jesse.
"Not for ten times that amount," replied the sheriff.
"You can't take all of us."
"Two will do--you and Frank."
"Will nothing bribe you?"
"Absolutely nothing." Jesse uttered a sharp signal whistle.
It echoed piercingly through the hotel, and the sheriff started anddemanded with a frown:
"What did you do that for?"
"To summon assistance," coolly replied Jesse.
"You won't get any here."
"Oh, yes, we will. You'll see."
"I am going---"
He never finished that sentence.
Miller had heard the danger signal, came up in the hall, saw how thesituation stood, and stealing up quietly behind Timberlake, he dealt theplucky officer a stunning blow with the butt of his pistol.
It knocked the sheriff down.
He was hardly prostrate before the whole gang was upon him, and whileone took the pistols away from him, the rest bound and gagged him.
He thus was rendered perfectly helpless.
When he recovered from the effect of the blow, he found himself at themercy of the gang, unable to move or speak, and tied up to theold-fashioned bed post.
"Fool," said Jesse, standing before him, and bending a burning glanceupon him of mingled hate and rage. "Are you soft enough to imagine youcan get away with all of us single handed?"
Timberlake did not reply of course.
But the look of intense fury he bestowed upon Jesse, amply evinced allthat was passing in his mind.
"We are going to leave you here," preceded the king of the bandits, "andwe are going back to Clay County. I'd like to blow your head off beforewe go, but that would run my bead in the hangman's noose. If you areunlucky enough to stumble across my path again, though, I shall be lessmerciful. I'd wipe you out as I would a viper."
Gagged as he was, Timberlake remained silent.
"Come, boys, let us begone," said Jesse turning to his companions. "Webarely have time to catch the train."
They filed out of the room, and Jesse locked the door, carried the keyaway, and they left the hotel.
Making speed, they quickly reached the railroad depot.
A train was just leaving.
They quickly boarded it.
Away they were whirled to Missouri.
And that was the last Wrightstown ever saw of them.
CHAPTER III.THE ELECTRIC STAGE.
Toward evening a chambermaid in the Sea Spider House went up to the roomwhich had been occupied by the James Boys and discovered SheriffTimberlake bound and gagged.
She was very much frightened at first, and ran screaming from the room,for she thought the apartment was vacant and had gone up to put it inorder.
The landlord heard her shrieks, learned what frightened her, andhastening up to the room liberated the sheriff.
"Another victim of these villains!" he exclaimed.
"Have they got the best of some one else?" asked Timberlake.
"Yes; the evening paper contains an account of a clever check swindlethey played on the Wrightstown Bank, by duping Jack Wright, the mostrespected young citizen in this town."
"How long have they been gone?"
"They departed a few minutes after you went up here at noon."
"Do you know which way they went?"
"The paper says they boarded a westbound train."
"In that case they've given me the slip again."
"Why did they treat you this way?"
"I am the sheriff of Clay County, Missouri, and they were Jesse andFrank James, the notorious bandits, and three of their gang."
"Good heavens! and I harbored them here!"
"Of course you did not know who they were."
"Certainly not, if I had I would have handed them over to the police."
"Let me read the newspaper account."
The landlord handed him the paper.
He read the article, which gave an account of how Jack Wright had beencheated, and added, in conclusion, that after the inventor entered thebank he discovered the swindle.
The police were notified.
They traced the James Boys to the hotel.
But when they got there the birds had flown.
Hastening to the railroad depot, they discovered that the bandits hadmade their escape on the cars.
They telegraphed to the authorities ahead of the train at its firststopping place to arrest the bandits.
But the reply finally came back that the cars did not stop there, as thebandits had taken possession of the engine, and were seen forcing theengineer to keep the train going by menacing him with their pistols.
Timberlake was not surprised at this.
He knew that there were no more desperate men than the James Boys, andwas aware that they would resort to any means to escape.
"I can't do anything farther," he sighed. "At least, not until I getback to Missouri. I think I'll call on Jack Wright, and get all thefacts from him of the bank swindle."
He thereupon left the hotel.
Going to Jack's house, he found the inventor in.
Introducing himself, and showing his credentials, the sheriff had a longtalk about the matter with the inventor.
In conclusion, he said:
"For a long time I have tried every means to capture those bandits. Butthey slip away from me with the most remarkable ease every time I feelsurest I've got them. There'
s a reward of $5,000 offered by the governorof the State for their capture, and I and a Pinkerton detective namedCarl Greene have been making the most desperate efforts to capture theJames Boys, and break up their gang. We have thus far failed to do so."
"Why has it been such a difficult task?" asked Jack.
"In the first place, Jesse James owns a horse named Siroc which isunequaled in speed and intelligence by any horse in the world that Iknow of, and he can easily outfoot the fleetest animal that ever chasedhim."
"Well," asked Jack, "suppose an electric overland engine were to chasethat remarkable quadruped, don't you think he might be overtaken? Theengine I refer to can run at the rate of fifty miles an hour over roughground."
"Any engine could last longer than a horse, and such a machine as youmention could outspeed that horse. But, of course, such an engine is anutter impossibility."
"You are mistaken,"