Down went one of the horsemen like a bolt.
“Crack!”
The steed of the other horseman was wounded, and as the rider fell to the ground, he fired upon the boy.
A scream of pain from the gallant mustang told that he was hit; but still he bounded onward and dashed fleetly away for a mile.
Then his strength began to fail, for his life blood was oozing forth from a cruel wound in his shoulder.
With his eyes blazing, he essayed to leap onward; but he stumbled and fell, and, like a rocket, Pedro shot over him, and landed stunned and bruised on the level plain.
Was his terrible ride to be in vain? Was the bandit going to kill his mother and father on the coming nightfall? Were his noble efforts to save them to go for nought? We shall see.
[CHAPTER XXVII.]
BARNEY SHEA IN HIS ELEMENT.
Slap-dash into the midst of the excited and half-crazed dancers rushed the Steam Man and his four-footed friend, the Steam Horse.