"Once we reach that place we'll soon catch up to them."
"I don't tink so," answered Fritz, who was watching the bandits.
"Why don't you?"
"See vot dey vos doin'!"
A chill of dismay passed over the inventor, for he now saw the bandits setting fire to the long grass.
The wind was blowing toward the Terror.
That kept the fire burning in her direction, while the bandits galloped away from it, setting fire to it as they proceeded.
In a short space of time there was a roaring wall of flame and smoke opposed to the Terror.
In order to prevent Jack from coming in on a flank, the outlaws, spread out like a fan, and kept dropping lighted matches into the combustible grass.
It did not take long to thus create such a wide barrier that the Terror could not hope to get around it in time to overtake the miscreants.