"Stop that!" and Jet ran forward with the stick uplifted. "Don't you dare to bring your friends here."
"You spoke a leetle too late, sonny, for they're coming."
Jet glanced quickly down the track, where could be seen two others of the same sort as his adversary, running at full speed.
"I reckon we won't have any trouble about huntin' for your license now," the fellow said with a grin as he retreated to a safe distance.
Jet hesitated an instant.
He knew that it would be useless to make a stand-up fight against all three, but yet at the same time flight was impossible, because of his exhaustion, caused by the struggle with the tramp.
Looking quickly around, he observed that the door of the shanty was open, hanging by one hinge.
The hut might serve as a place of refuge until some of the section hands should come that way and he leaped into the building.
Wrenching the door from its fastening, he pulled it inside, and set it up lengthwise as a sort of a barrier.
"They'll have to come within reach of this cane before getting at me, an' it'll be hard luck if I don't give a good account of myself for a little while," he said, as with compressed lips, he waited for the battle which he knew must soon begin.