lage
to-night. Help you out? Surest thing you know. Turn them broncs
loose, and you and yer friends pile in. Tell me ther rest as we go
along."

The party of adventurers, as may be imagined, lost no time in accepting
the Wild West Show man's hearty invitation, the professor being helped
into the tonneau by Coyote Pete, who lifted the bony scientist as if he
were nothing but a featherweight.

"Back her up, and turn around, bo," Buck ordered his chauffeur. "I'm
out in my guess if we've got much time to lose."

Rapidly the car was turned, and was soon speeding in the direction they
wished to go. The stolen insurrecto horses galloped off into the
hills, snorting with terror, as the car began to move.

"Say, Pete, what-cher bin doin'?" began Buck, as the vehicle gathered
way, "shootin' up ther town?"

"No, siree! I'm a law-abidin' citizen now," came from Pete, "and
actin' as chaperony to this yer party."

"You seem ter hev chaperoned them inter a heap of trouble," observed
Buck dryly, as the car gathered way.

"'Tain't all my fault. Listen," rejoined Pete, and straightaway
launched into a detailed account of their adventures.

"Waal," observed Buck, at the conclusion, "you sure are the number one
chop feller fer gettin' inter trouble, but you bet yer life I ain't
a-goin' ter fergit ther time yer stood up with me and held off a bunch
of crazy cattle-thieves, down on the Rio Grande. So, gents, give yer
orders, and Buck Bradley 'ull carry 'em out."

But, alas! as the redoubtable owner of Buck Bradley's Unparalleled,
etc., Wild West uttered these words, there came a sudden loud report.

_Bang_!

"Christopher! They're firing from ambush!" yelled Pete, jumping two
feet up from his seat in the tonneau.

"Worse than that, consarn the luck!" growled Bradley, "thet rear tire's
busted agin."

"Can't you run on a flat wheel?" asked Ralph anxiously.

"Not over these roads, son. We wouldn't last ten minutes. Hey you,
chaffer! Get out an' fix it, willyer?"

"I'll try, sir," said the man, bringing the bumping, jolting car to a
stop.

"Try, sir?" echoed Buck indignantly. "Didn't you tell me, when I hired
you, thet you was a first-class, A number one chaffer?"

"Sure I did," was the indignant reply, as the driver knelt in the dust
and began examining the tire carefully. "But you can't fix a puncture
in a jiffy."

"This one is a-goin' ter be fixed in a jiffy," rejoined Buck ominously,
"or there'll be a p