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It toppled the bandit from the animal's back, his pistol was discharged, the ball flew up in the air, and the horse was impaled and killed.
As the Terror pushed ahead, the two front wheels ran over the bandit's neck, almost putting an end to him.
Back recoiled the stage, the ram was withdrawn from the horse, and then she dashed ahead again in hot pursuit of the gang who all rode like fury now, to escape.
As they plunged ahead, the inmates of the stage kept up a pitiless fusillade of shots against the flying outlaws.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE STRANDED COUNTRYMAN.
"We can't run any further!"
"Gee whiz, lad, then ther bandits'll escape!"
"I can't help that, Tim; there's something the matter."
The Terror had scarcely emerged from the canyon, when the lights suddenly went out, the machinery ceased to work, and the electric stage came to an abrupt pause.
All the bandits had been seen bunched far ahead, going down the slope at a breakneck pace.
When the light went out they vanished.
That was the last our friends saw of them that night, and every one began to bombard Jack with questions.
"What's the matter?"
"Can't you go ahead?"
"Do you want them to escape?"
"What are you stopping for?"
These and similar questions a.s.sailed the inventor.
He almost lost patience with them, as he cried:
The machinery for some reason has broken down.
"Vat vos pusted--dot trifin' rod!" asked Fritz.
"I don't know yet, but I'll find out."
"Here," said Timberlake, "take one of the stage coach lanterns."
Jack alighted with Fritz, and they made a critical examination of the machinery situated on the outside of the Terror.
But they failed to find the cause of the mishap there.
Then they went inside to look.
Nor was anything broken here.
Jack was intensely puzzled.
"What does this mean anyway?" he muttered. "I can't find a solitary thing the matter with her."
"Dot peat me!" replied Fritz, scratching his head.
"With electrical machinery, which is one of the simplest things in the world, one ought to see at a glance any derangement," said Jack, "But I can't understand where the trouble is now."
"Let's look ofer it agin," suggested the Dutchman.
It was done.
The second examination was as fruitless as the first, and they were left as much in the dark as they had been before. Half an hour was thus lost.
Some of the stage pa.s.sengers in the meantime went back into the canyon with a spade and the other lamp.
They found Sandy Ellis' body.
He was dead.
They buried him.
When they returned Jack said:
"I wonder if the dynamo spring can be broken?"
"See," suggested Fritz.
Jack opened the box.
One glance was enough.
"Well, if we haven't been fools!" he exclaimed.
"Vos iss now?" asked the Dutchman.
"The spring has only run down and needs winding."
Every one burst out laughing now that the threatened gravity of the situation resolved itself into a comedy of error.
Jack wound up the spring.
Everyone got aboard and the lights blazed up under Jack's management, the machinery began to work, and the Terror ran ahead again without any trouble.
The delay had given the bandits a chance to escape.
