"Honest!" laughed Simms. "Some cowboy friends o' mine licked the gang. Didn't you hear that dynamite go off? If they hadn't fished it out from under your feet you 'd be communing with the angels 'bout now."
For a moment there was no response, and then Jackson could be heard dragging things away from the door. When he was told of the cartridge and Red had been pointed out to him as the man who had saved his life, he leaped to the ground and ran to where that puncher was engaged in carrying the ever-silenced robbers to the baggage-car. He shook hands with Red, who laughed deprecatingly, and then turned and assisted him.
Hopalong came up and grinned: "Say, there 's some cayuses in that grove up th' track; shall I go up an' get 'em?"
"Shore! I 'll go an' get 'em with you," replied Skinny.
In the grove they found seven horses picketed, two of them being pack-animals, and they led them forth and reached the train as the others came up.
"Well, here 's five saddled cayuses, an' two others," Skinny grinned.
"Then we can ride th' rest of th' way in th' saddle instead of in that blamed train," Red eagerly suggested.
"That's just what we can do," replied Skinny. "Leather beats car-seats any time. How far are we from Sandy Creek, Simms?"
"About twenty miles."
"An' we can ride along th' track, too," suggested Hopalong.