captured, andthey were bound hand and foot, and put aboard the car.
The conductor took charge of them.
He intended to put them in the hands of the law.
As soon as the passengers were back in the coaches, and the engineer andstoker in the cab, every one gave Jack and his friends a parting cheer.
The train then moved ahead.
"We didn't do so blamed bad arter all," chuckled Tim.
"Did yer see me drop forty o' them pirates vi' one shot?"
"Forty?" grinned Fritz.
"Ay--that's wot I see," Tim answered, haughtily.
"Nein! Yer vos misdooken."
"How so?" growled the old sailor.
"It vos eight hundert. But dere only vos dirty in ther gang."
"Come!" interposed Jack. "Quit your fooling, and let us get back to thestage. She's so disabled that we can't chase the bandits with her now.The sooner she's repaired the quicker we'll be able to get upon theirtrail and hunt them down."
They strode back to where they left the Terror.
Both the parrot and monkey were yelling furiously inside, and did notcease their clamor until their owners went in and pacified them.
It required several hours to repair the driving rod, and when it wasfinished, although not as strong as it was before, it was very firm.
They could not do anything further that night, so they divided the watchand turned in.
After breakfast on the following morning, Jack mounted the steersman'sseat, and sent the Terror rolling to the place where the bandits werelast seen.
There he saw a large plain trail they had left.
"I'll follow their tracks," said he to Tim, who had taken a seat besidehim. "It's an easy trail to follow, and if we have say sort of a chance,we are bound to run them down in a short time."
"I ain't so sure about that my lad."
"Why not?"
"Jesse James are mighty cunnin'."
"That's a fact. He may fool us yet,"
"Still thar ain't no harm in tryin'."
Jack sent the Terror flying off in pursuit of the bandits, and they ranout on the open plain.
It was a rolling, grassy country.
The trail led them on for a distance of about five miles when an oldblasted oak tree was met.
Here the cunning of the James Boys was shown.
Evidently fearing pursuit, they had ordered the gang to scatter in everydirection, each one going to a different point of the compass.
It was then utterly impossible to follow any particular one of the gang,and know which one it was.
Jack was rendered angry.
"See there how they've baffled us!" he cried with a frown, as he pointeddown at the scattered trails.
"Gee whiz!" groaned Tim, "they've throwed us off ther course entirelynow, Wot one'll we foller?"
"If you mean so that we can corral the James Boys, I cannot say--onetrail is the same as another."
"Blast thar lubberly hides!"
"I've got a plan though."
"An wot's that?"
"To pursue any one at random."
"But mebbe it won't be ther one we wants."
"Any one will do. Whoever the man is, we can perhaps catch him and forcehim to confess where the rest are to meet. By that means we can findthem again."
"Jist ther plan, by thunder!" cried Tim, pounding his good leg with hisfist. "Keel haul me if you ain't got as long a figgerhead as JesseJames, cute though he be."
Jack told Fritz and the sheriff what occurred, and what he now intendedto do.
They agreed with his plan.
In fact it was the only feasible thing to do.
Accordingly Jack selected the most likely trail.
He then sent the Terror flying off after it, and she sped along untilthe afternoon set in before they finally sighted the man they wereafter.
Then they saw that he was Frank James.
CHAPTER X.FRANK JAMES' ESCAPE.
Frank James was mounted upon his horse Jim Malone, and had paused on thecrest of a hill from whence he gazed back at the bottom traversed by theTerror.
He saw the stage, and realized at once that it had followed hisparticular trail to the exclusion of the rest of the band.
It was clear enough to him that he could not outstrip the Terror in arunning race, and would therefore be obliged to retain his liberty byresorting to strategy.
What course he could follow would depend entirely upon circumstances,but he turned over fifty plans in his mind.
Jack was a league from the man when he recognized him, but he had apowerful field glass, which plainly showed him every feature of FrankJames' face.
"The rascal sees us," he commented.
"Wot's he standin' thar for like a statoo?" asked Tim.
"Probably sizing up our intentions."
"Dot retskal vos a gone goose," said Fritz, decisively.
"Better wait till you get your paws on him before you feel so certainabout it," dryly remarked the sheriff. "If you knew the James Boys aswell as I do, you would realize that no slipperier men exist on the faceof the earth. Just when you are surest you have them is the time youhaven't got the scoundrels. Ha! There he goes!"
Frank had galloped away.
He went down the other side of the hill.
In a few moments he disappeared from view.
Jack increased the speed of the stage.
She ran ahead like a locomotive.
In less than ten minutes she reached the crest of the elevation wherethey had seen the bandit.
From this point a view was commanded of the country for many miles invarious directions.
Jack soon saw the outlaw.
He had gone down the valley, and was furiously galloping toward therocky, well wooded foothills on the other side of the depression, andJack exclaimed:
"He is well aware of our weakest point."
"Vot veak point?" growled Fritz unwilling to admit such a thing.
"Our inability to run among rocks and close setting trees and bushes.
"It looks mighty like as if he wuz atryin' ter git inter sich a spot."
"You an right, Tim. But he has lost a mile though."
Down the declivity shot the stage, and she swiftly reduced the distancethat separated her from the fugitive.
As the flying horseman went up the hill on the other side of the valley,he glanced back over his shoulder and saw that the Terror had arrivedwithin a mile.
Fast as Jim Malone was on a level stretch, he could not race up thesteep grade of a hill with anything like the speed at which the Terrorwent.
In consequence, long before the bandit reached the plateau he washeading for, the engine was close behind him.
Jack sat outside steering.
He did not have on his armor.
Frank suddenly paused.
Wheeling his horse around he raised his rifle.
Crack--bang!
It was a good shot.
The bullet struck the stage within an inch of Jack's head.
Frank dared not remain to attempt it again as every second was preciousnow.
He therefore dashed away again.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang! came three shots.
Tim, Fritz and the sheriff had fired.
Exploding around Frank the awful bullets tore up the ground, chipped therocks, trees and bushes and stung the horse, but failed to injure therider.
The bandit reached the shelter of the rocks and trees on the plateaubefore any of the bullets hit him.
He then disappeared.
Along thundered the electric stage.
She had a hard climb, but her dynamo and motor were very powerful, andcarried her up to the level ground.
There she got on Frank's trail again.
The plateau was a picturesque place, as it was covered with flowers,tumbled rocks, vine-clad trees, and dense shrubbery.
A plain track through it was seen.
"We'll reach him in a few moments!" mutt
ered Jack.
He cast his glance ahead, and as the ground gently sloped down fromthere, he saw the outlaw.
And he also saw a wide chasm.
It stretched straight across the horse's path.
Frank James was caught in a sort of natural trap, for he had goneplunging in between two steep rocky walls.
He could not turn to the left or right, and ahead of his sweating horsethere yawned the wide deep chasm.
If he wished to escape he would have to clear the gulf, and as it wasfully twenty-five feet wide, such a feat seemed to be entirely out ofthe question.
He glanced back again.
The Terror was swiftly coming along after him.
It rendered the fugitive desperate.
He headed his gallant steed straight for the chasm and plunged toward ita furious pace.
"By heavens, he is going to attempt to leap that split!" cried Jack,observing what the outlaw intended doing.
"He