“Gentlemen, we’ve got to get over to the Mesquite as quick as the Lord’ll let us. The railroad is blocked, and it’s an auto or nothing. Maxwell says we can’t do it. I say we’ve got to do it. What do you say?”
“I reckon we can do it,” drawled Starbuck, speaking for all. Then he turned to Smith, who was in the tonneau. “How about the tanks, Monty?”
“I filled them to-night, before we left the ranch,” said the High Line treasurer. “Also, there is an extra gallon of oil aboard—we always carry it.”
“How about it, colonel?” Sprague demanded of the erect, white-mustached old man in the back seat.
“Sure!” was the quick reply. “You haven’t told us yet whether it’s a fight or a frolic, but we’re all with you, either way, Mr. Sprague. Hop in, and we’ll be jogging along.”
It was at this moment that Maxwell, followed by a couple of yard men, came up. The men were carrying the picks and shovels, which were hastily stowed in the car, and the superintendent handed over a small arsenal of weapons, three of them being sawed-off Winchesters.
“I had to raid the express office,” he explained, “and I took what I could find.” Then to Sprague, who had mounted to the seat beside Starbuck. “Don’t you want me along?”
“No; you can do a great deal more good right here. Listen, now, and follow my directions to the letter. Go upstairs to the wire and get in touch with your man at Angels. It will be your job to keep him in doubt as to what is on the road between his station and the lower end of the canyon. Lie to him if you have to; tell him a part of the wrecked freight is on its way up the canyon, or something of that sort, and keep him believing it as long as you possibly can. Don’t fall down on it! Everything depends now upon the length of time you can keep some such story as that going over the wires.”
Starbuck had adjusted a pair of goggles to his eyes, and had his foot on the clutch-pedal. “All set?” he asked.
“Go!” said Sprague; and at the word the big car shot away from the platform, rounded the end of the plaza, and bore away through a cross street to the eastward, gathering headway until, when the city limits were passed, its cutout exhausts were blending in a deafening roar.