truction on the track, about
two hundred yards distant, and applied the air brakes instantly. He had
been on the watch for just this thing, and noted that there was plenty
of cover where the express was halted wherein the desperadoes could
hide.

Slowly the panting engine came to a stop with its nose almost against
the stone obstruction and there were flashes from a half dozen rifles on
either side of "The General Denver." A simultaneous attack was made at
the rear of the train.

It was hardly a fair duel but Jim and Bob Ketchel were competent hands
at this game and keeping under cover they managed to get in some telling
shots. A near bullet sent a splinter from the cab into Jim's cheek, but
he paid no attention to it at the time. When he caught a sudden glimpse
of two men skulking behind a clump of bushes trying to get a bead on
him, he sent two shots straight at them and then ducked into the cab in
time to escape a side shot from behind a rock.

He could hear Bob's fusillade from the other side of the cab and the
return volleys from the enemy, but he did not worry about his friend,
the engineer, for he knew full well that he could take care of himself.
It was the other fellows who would have to look out. But Jim saw a
figure leap in behind a rock, near the side of the express car, where he
would have the drop on Bob.

There was but one thing to do and James did it. He leaped into the
tender which made an excellent fort, and there for a few minutes he kept
the bandits at bay. He would have laughed heartily at the fireman, Bill
Sheehan, if he could have spared the time, for that worthy had taken up
the battle in his own way. Having quickly discarded his revolver with
which he was not an expert, he began hurling chunks of coal, wherever he
saw the flash of the enemy's fire, and filled with fighting fury he
exposed himself most recklessly, but with no apparent harm. Whether
Bill's novel form of attack made the attacking party helpless with
laughter or because he was in such constant motion that it was hard to
get a bead on him, be the reason what it may, at least Sheehan came
through unscathed.

For a brief time, the battle was even, in fact the engineer and Jim
probably had the best of it, and then there came a change in the
situation. The party in the rear, saw that their brethren were meeting
with a sharp resistance from the engine, so two of them swiftly and
stealthily ran along by the side of the train until th