unctured chaffer 'round here."

As he spoke, the proprietor of the Wild West Show moved his great bulk
in the forward seat, and produced a heavy-calibred revolver, that
glistened in the starlight.

"Get busy!" he ordered.

"Y-y-y-y-yes, sir," stuttered the chauffeur, who had been hired in San
Antonio, before the show crossed the border, and found itself in the
country of the insurrectos.

"Maybe I can give him a hand--I know something about cars," volunteered
Ralph.

"Then help him out, will yer son?" puffed the red-faced Buck Bradley.
"It's my private opinion," he went on, in a voice intended to be
confidential, but which was merely a subdued bellow, "that that chaffer
of mine couldn't chaff a chafing dish."

Ralph took one of the oil headlights out of its socket, and, taking it
to the back of the car, found the chauffeur scratching his head over
the tire.

"What's the trouble?" asked Ralph.

"Why, you see, sir," stammered the chauffeur, "I don't just exactly
know. I think it's a puncture, but----"

"Say, aren't you supposed to be a chauffeur?" inquired Ralph
disgustedly.

"Waal, I run a taxicab onct," was the reply, in a low tone, however,
"but that's all the chauffering I ever done. You see, I went broke in
San Antone, and----"

"All right; all right," snapped Ralph impatiently. "Say, you people,
you'd better get out of the car, while I tinker this up."

"Is it a bad bust-up?" puffed Buck Bradley, clambering out. "I only
bought ther car a week ago, and I've spent more time under it than in
it, ever since."

"It's not very bad--just a little blow-out," announced Ralph, who had
been examining the wheel. "Got a jack and an emergency kit?"

"Sure!" snorted Buck Bradley. "Here, you excuse for a chaffer, git
ther hospital outfit, and hurry up."

"Please, sir, I--I forgot the emergency kit," stuttered the new
chauffeur.

"You forgot! Great Moses!" howled Buck. "Have you got the jack, then?"

"Yes, sir."

"Get it, please," said Ralph, pulling off one of his gloves. The boy
rapidly slashed it with his pocket-knife, while the others watched him
interestedly. In the meantime, the chauffeur had tremblingly "jacked
up" the car.

Binding his handkerchief about the puncture, and placing the leather
from his glove about that, Ralph rapidly wound some strips of raw-hide
from Pete's pockets about the bandage. This done he proceeded to blow
up the tire. To his great joy the extemporized "plug" hel