“I’ll do it,” said Frank, diving down into the wonderful trunk, “and here’s the article that will do the business.”
He hauled forth a curious wire work.
When stretched out it was about twelve feet long and four or five wide, made of very strong crossed wires, and looking capable of holding considerable weight.
They watched Frank closely while the genius tied the sides of the wire work to the insides of the wagons as they then stood, and made them fast.
“Now drive up close, pull the slack of the wire into your wagon, and then travel. Put on thirty pounds of steam, and we’ll run steadily together.”
His orders were obeyed, and in two minutes they were rattling across the plains at a smashing pace, close together, and rapidly nearing the mixed band of cutthroats.
These latter suddenly spied them, and tried hard to escape in a compact body, and then Frank cried:
“Forty pounds of steam! Hurrah!”
And like two immense bolts the Steam Horse and the Steam Man shot down upon the flying band, and as they neared them, Frank cried:
“Spread!”