“Are you folks going to get aboard?” demanded the conductor insistently.
“No. We’re not going to leave that man here by a long shot,” retorted Ford.
“All right. Stay if you want to. We’re going ahead,” snapped the conductor.
“Stop!” ordered the sheriff. “You hold this train until I give you leave to move it. I am an officer of the law, and in command here for the present. Captain Gray, what do you wish to do?”
“Find the lieutenant, Sheriff.”
“Then, would it not be a good idea to unload your ponies?” asked Ford. “We may have to be here until tomorrow, and perhaps make a long journey into the interior, which we cannot well do on foot.”
“Yes. We will unload enough animals to carry your party,” answered Tom.
“Pull your train up to the mouth of the ravine and stop,” commanded Ford, clambering aboard the locomotive. “Get aboard there, boys.”
The train promptly pulled ahead while the sheriff had his final argument with the conductor in the locomotive cab. The argument was brief, but heated, the sheriff laying down the law to the angry conductor, who, by the time his train had reached the mouth of the ravine, was wholly subdued.
The Overland Riders stepped off the train to watch the unloading of the ponies and to get instructions from Tom and Mr. Ford.