As they watched fearfully, one of the men was pushed from the car. He rolled over and over down a steep embankment toward the creek bed.
The other man, poised in the doorway an instant, then just before the car reached the trestle, leaped.
CHAPTER
23
ESCAPE BY NIGHT
Fearful for Salt, Penny and her father ran down the tracks toward the railroad trestle. Scrambling and sliding down the slippery embankment, they saw Salt lying in a heap near the edge of the creek.
Webb, his ankle injured, was trying to hobble toward a corn field just beyond the railroad right of way.
“Get him! Don’t let him escape!” Salt cried, raising himself to his knees.
Although alarmed for the photographer who appeared to have been injured by his leap, Penny and her father pursued Webb. Handicapped as he was with an injured ankle, they overtook him by the barbed wire fence.
Already badly battered from the fight, and bruised as a result of his fall from the train, the man put up only a brief struggle as Mr. Parker pinned him to the ground.
“Quick!” the publisher directed Penny. “See what you can do for Salt. He may be badly injured.”
The photographer, however, had struggled to his feet. He stood unsteadily, staring down at his torn clothing.