liday, who sat in the seat behind Mead and the
sheriff, had walked to the front end of the car and was drinking at
the ice-water tank when the train came to a sudden stop. He went to
the front platform and looked up the track to see what was the matter.
Seeing nothing there he turned to face the rear. By that time Tom
Tuttle was on the back platform and nothing was to be seen in that
direction. So he turned to the other side of the platform and looked
diligently up and down the road. Sheriff Daniels and his prisoner were
sitting on the opposite side of the train from that on which Tuttle
was entering. The sheriff stepped into the next seat and put his head
out of the window. Mead's faculties were on the alert, and when he
heard a quick, heavy step leaping up the back steps of the car he
knew, without turning his head, that it was either Tuttle or Ellhorn.
He leaned over the back of the seat in front of him and jerked the
sheriff's pistol from its holster just as Tuttle stood beside him.
Daniels jumped back, as he felt his gun drawn out, and found himself,
unarmed, confronted by cocked revolvers in the hands of two of the
best shots in the territory. He yelled for Halliday, and Mead and
Tuttle backed quickly toward the rear door. The train was moving again
as Halliday came rushing in, and Tuttle, disappearing through the back
door, transferred his aim from the sheriff to the deputy. Halliday
knew well that if he fired he would shoot to his own death, and he
paused midway of the car, with his gun half raised, as the two men
leaped from the moving train.

"Much obliged!" yelled Nick Ellhorn, jumping to the ground from
his perch on the coal box. Daniels and Halliday stood on the rear
platform as the three men leaped on the horses which Missouri Bill had
ready beside the track. Daniels shook his fist at them in rage, and
Halliday emptied the chambers of his six-shooter, but the bullets did
no more damage than to cut some hairs from the tail of Mead's horse.
Ellhorn waved his sombrero and shouted his loudest and longest
"Whoo-oo-oo-ee!" Tuttle yelled "Buffaloed!" and Mead kissed his hand
to the two angry men on the rear platform of the departing train. Then
they put spurs to their horses and rode away over the plains and the
mountains. They stopped over night at Muletown, and reached Mead's
ranch about noon the next day.

CHAPTER XIV

Wellesly waited in silence and apparent resignation until his captors
disappeare