Jack Wright and His Electric Stage Part 31

None of them dared go too near the stage.

Nor was it of any use to fire at the Terror.

Bullets made no impression upon it.

Jesse understood this very well.

He, therefore, retreated to the interior of the hut with his men.

Jack kept his eyes and ears wide open, and soon saw the gang follow a motion of Jesse, and group themselves in one corner of the hut, and hold a whispered, conversation.

The inventor did not hear a word they uttered.

But he saw by their actions that they were scheming some mischief against them, and the result was soon manifested.

Jesse left the crowd and approached the prisoners.

"We've settled your fate!" he announced abruptly.

"Indeed," replied Jack. "What new villainy is brewing?"

"That you will find out in a few minutes. You wounded me and I know you are authorized to hunt me down, break up the gang and put us in jail.

Consequently I am going to have revenge. In quarter of an hour you will be dead and buried."

"I doubt it," quietly answered Jack. "And as for your debt of vengeance, let me recall to your mind that it was you who aroused the enmity between us. You began it by robbing or rather swindling the Wrightstown Bank out of $5,000."

"Oh, yes," grinned the bandit, pulling a big roll of bills out of his pocket. "This is the money only a couple of hundred of it gone. That was quite a clever game."

"It did not hit me as hard as it might," said Jack. "The bank loses the money of course, but as I am the president of it, and a large stockholder, fully half the amount comes out of my pocket. I'll get that money away from you now."

"Now?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"This way."

And up jumped Jack.

He had got Fritz to loosen his bonds with his teeth.

Once free from the wrist las.h.i.+ngs, he liberated his ankles.

The bandit recoiled with a startled yell, and the rest arose.

Jack sprung forward, s.n.a.t.c.hed the roll of bills from Jesse's hand, shoved it in his pocket and seized the outlaw.

The young inventor was a veritable Hercules in strength.

As the gang made a rush for him, he suddenly lifted Jesse James up in the air and hurled him at the crowd.

The bandit's body struck Bob Ford and Cole Younger, knocked them back against the crowd, and ere they all recovered from their astonishment, Jack sprang out the door and rushed to the stage.

Several pistol shots were fired after him, but as the outlaws were excited, they aimed poorly and missed their mark.

Reaching the Terror, Jack jumped aboard, and she sped away.

As soon as the outlaws recovered, and saw him escaping, Jesse yelled:

"Grab the rest, and hustle them out before they escape too!"

The gang pounced on Tim, Fritz and Timberlake.

Carrying them out of the hut by a back door, they pa.s.sed through the woods until they came to a glen.

In the middle of it was a small, shallow lake, covering a bed of quicksand, and they paused upon the sh.o.r.e.

"Throw them in!" ordered Jesse.

His men complied.

As the prisoners were bound, they could not help themselves.

One after another they were tossed into the treacherous lake.

No sooner were their bodies upon the sand when they began to slowly sink into it.

The bandits gathered along the sh.o.r.e to watch their unlucky victims perish in the quicksand bed.

CHAPTER XV.

RESCUED FROM DEATH.

Having gained his freedom, Jack had raced away with the Terror in order to keep out of danger until he was prepared to defend himself.

He did not stop the stage until she was at a considerable distance from the rendezvous of the bandits.

Then he critically examined her.

She proved to be in first-cla.s.s order.

Jack then went inside and put on a suit of armor.

Thrusting two pistols in his belt, he procured a small basket, and opening a box, he withdrew from it a dozen steel b.a.l.l.s to each of which a small metal handle was attached.

These he put very carefully into the basket.

They were hand grenades.