the front yard were several lilac
bushes, and all the way from its fences to the town many farm houses
lined the road.

Sheriff Timberlake sat on the steerer's seat of the electric stage
beside Jack, and the moment the old fashioned Western home referred to
came in view he pointed at it and said:

"There is the home of the James Boys."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Jack, eying the house intently.

"Yes; it is the residence of Dr. Reuben Samuels, their step-father, and
the mother of the two villains. She's a Tartar about her boys--a regular
she-fiend in temper, although a woman of fifty-five. Ah--see! There she
is now!"

He pointed at the house.

The woman, in a gingham dress, stood at the door.

She was shading her eyes with her hand.

A look of surprise crossed Jack's face as he glanced at her.

"Why," said he, "she has only got one arm."

"Yes; the other was blown off by the explosion of a hand grenade which a
Pinkerton detective threw into the house some years ago in an attack
upon her sons. There was a younger son of hers killed by the same bomb."

Mrs. Samuels was suspiciously and curiously eying the Terror as it
rolled toward her.

Then she suddenly disappeared in the house.

Her action struck Jack as being very significant.

"Did you see that!" he asked the sheriff.

"Yes. She's a queer, violent tempered woman,"

"Perhaps she has gone in to warn her sons of our coming."

"By thunder, you may be right."

"We'd better search that house, Timberlake."

"I intend to do so."

"The woman is acquainted with you, ain't she?"

"Well, I should say so," laughed the officer. "I've been here often
enough to be pretty well known. My posse has shot bullets into nearly
every square inch of that house and the fence, in our past efforts to
get at the two bandits."

"The woman can't have much affection for you."

"She would gladly kill me, I believe, if she had the chance."

By this time the Terror reached the house.

Jack cut out the current and alighted with his companion.

They knocked at the door, and a moment later it was opened by Mrs.
Samuels, who glared at her callers and demanded:

"Well--what do you want, Timberlake?"

"Your sons, madam," blandly replied the officer.

"They ain't here."

"I am not sure of that."

"Search the house if you like."

"Thank you. I shall."

He swiftly passed inside and went through the rooms, but saw nothing of
the James Boys.

Jack remained at the door with