uicksand, and they paused upon the shore.

"Throw them in!" ordered Jesse.

His men complied.

As the prisoners were bound, they could not help themselves.

One after another they were tossed into the treacherous lake.

No sooner were their bodies upon the sand when they began to slowly sink
into it.

The bandits gathered along the shore to watch their unlucky victims
perish in the quicksand bed.

CHAPTER XV.
RESCUED FROM DEATH.

Having gained his freedom, Jack had raced away with the Terror in order
to keep out of danger until he was prepared to defend himself.

He did not stop the stage until she was at a considerable distance from
the rendezvous of the bandits.

Then he critically examined her.

She proved to be in first-class order.

Jack then went inside and put on a suit of armor.

Thrusting two pistols in his belt, he procured a small basket, and
opening a box, he withdrew from it a dozen steel balls to each of which
a small metal handle was attached.

These he put very carefully into the basket.

They were hand grenades.

Loaded with the same terrible explosive compound that he put in the
bullets he used, they possessed ten times the power that ordinary
dynamite shells have.

Armed with these awful missiles, he was ready to go back and
single-handed engage in a fight with the whole gang.

Jack's courage and perseverance were of a high order.

He deposited the basket in a metal, bullet-proof box on the front
platform, and seating himself, seized the wheel.

"I've got explosives enough here to blow the whole crew to fragments,"
he muttered. "And what is more, I'll do it too, in order to wrest my
friends from their clutches!"

Back along the road rolled the Terror.

The moon now rose in the sky.

In a few minutes Jack neared the hut.

Stopping the electric stage within fifty yards of it, he picked up one
or the bombs and shouted:

"Jesse James, come out here, or I'll blow that hut up!"

Receiving no reply, Jack hurled the grenade.

It struck an end of the hut.

A horrible glare of light flashed out.

It was followed by a report like thunder.

Half of the hut was blown to fragments, and the ground shook.

Jack saw at a glance that the hut was deserted.

He heard the distant voices of men among the trees, and realizing that
the bandits had gone into the woods, he drove the stage along a road
that wound among the trees.

In a few moments he neared the quicksand lake.

T