ard the distant tooting of a locomotive
whistle, momentarily drawing nearer.

"Here comes the express now!" he exclaimed.

"Kin yer git her ready in time?"

"No. It will take an hour to fix this."

_"Donner und blitzen!_ Dey holt her ub!"

"No doubt of it."

"We must do somethin', my lad."

"Arm yourselves, if you're anxious. Don your metal suits. We'll follow
the train. She must be nearing the curve to whistle like that. Hurry up,
and we'll leave the Terror here."

They all put on suits of aluminum mail and armed themselves.

Then they ran at full speed along the track in the direction from whence
the whistle sounded.

The moon was then flooding the scene.

Far ahead the polished rails described a curve in a wide, deep cut,
filled with trees and shrubbery.

In the middle of the north-bound track stood Jesse James waving a red
lantern to an oncoming train, the headlight of which was blazing upon
the bandit king with a silvery glow.

Jesse had a black mask on, and clutched a revolver in his hand.

None of the men were visible.

The train had slackened speed to round the curve, and as soon as the
engineer saw the danger signal he stopped the cars.

"Hello!" he cried, "What's the matter?"

"Rail broken!" replied Jesse, approaching the cab.

"Here comes the conductor."

"I'll speak to him about it. Come down."

"Can't. It's against the rules for me to leave the caboose."

The conductor and several brakemen had alighted and now came running
toward the outlaw to learn the news.

As they drew near Jesse dropped his lantern.

That was the signal for his men to emerge, and to the alarm and
astonishment of the train crew, the gang of masked men rushed from the
shrubbery toward them.

Jim Cummins and Wood Hite clambered into the cab.

There the plucky engineer and fireman had armed themselves with a monkey
wrench and a crowbar.

They attacked the two bandits as they climbed into the cab, dealing them
such terrible blows that they were knocked down.

Just as the engineer seized the throttle valve to start the cars, Dick
Little and Hobbs Kerry rushed up, and aiming their revolvers at the
driver and stoker, the former yelled:

"Throw up your hands!"

"All right!" gasped the engineer.

He knew he had to do it or get shot.

The fireman wanted to resist.

A word from the engineer sufficed to change his mind.

While Dick held them up Hobbs climbed into the cab and pitched the two
men out, so t