Johnny’s heart gave a bound of hope. What was beyond the brow of that plateau?
All this time his mind was wandering back to Pant. Sitting there silently in the back seat, his eyes glued upon the road, he seemed oblivious to all else. There had been a time when Johnny would have considered him equal to the task of stopping the pursuers by some magic power. By the flash of a crimson light, which appeared to come from his very eyes, he had seen him stop a hungry tiger stalking its prey. But those were the days in which Pant wore a cap pulled well down and a pair of immense black goggles. There had been mystery behind this cap and those goggles. Pant without them seemed shorn of his magic power, like Samson when shorn of his hair.
Down the smooth, straight stretch of road they sped, and for one mile at least the red demon gained not one single yard.
But as they reached the end of that plateau, grim despair gripped the boy’s heart. Far and away lay only the uneven volcanic ash and the sagebrush. Not a house, not an automobile, not a cattleman’s pony dotted the landscape, and from this promontory one might see miles.
“Might as well wreck her.” Johnny ground his teeth. “We’re stuck here. If they catch us they’ll strip her, and you can’t run a car without connecting-rods. Old boat,” he groaned, “we’ll stick to the trail till we crash or they run us down.”
The car gave a lurch, all but turned over, righted itself and shot down the ridge.
“Hey!” Johnny caught Pant’s voice at his elbow. “Guess you can ease up a bit now. No use takin’ too many chances. I think by the looks of it, their car’s on fire!”
Johnny slowed down, then looked back. He could not believe Pant. He looked again. It was true; above the dull brown cloud of dust was a white and black cloud of smoke.
“Couldn’t be the sagebrush?” said Johnny, rubbing his eyes.
“Don’t think so,” said Pant, climbing back into the front seat. “Sagebrush wouldn’t make that kind of smoke; besides, it’s green and wouldn’t burn.” The car bumped along at a milder pace. The red demon, now unmistakably ablaze, reached the crest of the plateau and stopped. Men swarmed out of her.