University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XV.
IN THE NICK OF TIME.

JERRY headed the machine toward the foothills. Once among them the adventurers might escape. The auto was going almost at full speed, swaying from side to side on the rough road. Nestor, who was keeping watch of the herd, cried out:

"I'm afraid it's no use. They have turned and are right after us!"

The steers had changed their course to follow the red auto, which they probably took for an enemy. The thunder of their hoofs came nearer.

Fast as the auto was going, its speed was not enough to take it out of reach of the infuriated animals, for the rough prairie was retarding it, but it was just the kind of country the cattle loved.

Even Nestor, familiar as he was with danger, seemed much alarmed at the plight. The boys' hearts were well-nigh terror-stricken, but as for Professor Snodgrass, he did not appear at all frightened. He still kept on sorting his specimens.

The auto topped a little hill, having to slow up a bit at the grade. Down it went on the other side,

but still the steers came on. A long level stretch of country appeared.

"We ought to be able to get away from them here!" cried Jerry, turning on more gasolene and increasing the current from the batteries. The auto seemed to jump forward.

"Look out! Stop!" yelled Nestor, seizing Jerry by the arm.

"We can't! We'll be killed if we do!" shouted the boy, thinking the miner had lost his head through fear.

"And we'll be dashed to death if we keep on! We're running straight for a precipice three hundred feet high! Shut down the machine or we'll go over the cliff!"

With a yank at the levers, Jerry turned off the power and put on the brakes. And it was only just in time, for, not one hundred feet ahead, the prairie came to an abrupt end, terminating in a sheer bluff, over which the auto and those in it would have been dashed had not the miner's practiced eye told him what to expect. He recognized the conformation of the land and knew what was coming.

The adventurers were now between two dangers. They could not go on because of the precipice, and their escape to the rear was cut off by the maddened steers that now were but a quarter of a mile away, thundering on fiercely. To turn to the left or

right was impossible, as the line of cattle was a curving one, like a pair of horns, and to go to either side meant to run straight into the midst of the beasts.

"Let's get out of the machine and shoot as many as we can!" cried Ned, drawing his revolver. "Maybe we can scare them away!"

"Don't think of it!" exclaimed Nestor. "Cattle are used to seeing men only on horseback or in wagons. Once on the ground we'd be trampled under foot in an instant. Our only hope is to stay in the machine. It will protect us somewhat when they rush over us."

"Shall we shoot?" asked Jerry.

"Our only chance is to turn them to one side, and shooting at them may do it," replied the miner. "Get ready and we'll all fire at once."

Each one drew his revolver, even Professor Snodgrass taking an extra one Nestor had. The cattle were now about eight hundred feet away. "Fire!" cried Nestor.

The five revolvers spurted slivers of flame, smoke and bullets. In rapid succession every chamber was emptied, but the rush of the steers was not checked. In fact, none of the cattle seemed to have been killed, or, if any were, they fell down and were trampled under the hoofs of the others.

"I guess we're done for!" groaned Nestor. "Crouch down on the bottom of the car!"

The galloping animals were almost at the auto. Suddenly there sounded a fusillade of shots, mingled with wild yells. Jerry peered up over the edge of his seat. He saw a man on a horse, riding straight across in front of the line of cattle. In one hand the stranger held a big revolver, which he fired right into the faces of the steers. In the other he held his coat, which he was waving like a flag.

At the same time he was yelling like a man gone mad. The reins of his horse lay loose on the animal's neck, but the beast knew what was expected of him.

It seemed that the stranger would be knocked down and trampled under thousands of sharp hoofs. But he did not seem afraid, riding closer and closer to the line of steers. He emptied one revolver and drew another, never ceasing to yell or wave his coat.

Suddenly, with wild bellows, the leaders of the cattle turned. They were frightened at the strange figure before them. For a few seconds there was great confusion amid the mass of steers. Those behind the line of leaders tried to go straight ahead, but the latter, once having made up their minds that they would turn to the left did so.

Then, like sheep following the bell-wether of the flock, the beasts took after their leaders. They rushed to one side, thundering past within twenty

feet of the auto, while the stranger, pulling up his horse, still continued to wave his coat and shout.

"He's saved our lives!" exclaimed Nestor. "He's stampeded the cattle away from us in the nick of time!"

On and on galloped the steers until the last one disappeared over the rolling hills of the prairie. Then the man on the horse rode over to the auto.

"Howdy!" he called.

"Howdy!" replied Nestor.

"Got ye in kind of a tight place, didn't they?" went on the horseman.

"We would have been killed only for you," spoke Jerry and his voice told how thankful he was.

"Oh, shoo! That wa'n't nothin'," replied the stranger. "I seen ye comin' up in that there shebang of yours an' then I seen the cows chasin' ye. I was a leetle afraid ye'd go over the cliff, but ye stopped in time. Then I see it was up to me to stop them critters, an' I done it."

"Lucky for us you did," put in Nestor.

"I happened to be out huntin'," went on the horseman, "or I wouldn't have seen ye. I know cattle an' their ways an' I knowed there was only one way to head 'em off, an' that was to skeer 'em."

"I'm Jim Nestor," said the miner, and he told the names of his companions.

"Glad to meet ye," said the horseman, dismounting

and shaking hands with each one. "I'm Hank Broswick."

Nestor told the hunter something of the trip they were making, and Broswick in turn related how he was a freelance hunter, roving over the prairies and among the mountains as suited his whims.

"Had yer suppers?" Broswick asked.

"No; an' I don't see any place around here to git 'em," spoke Nestor. "We've got some grub, though, an' we'd be pleased to have your company."

"Thanks. I can add my share to the meal," replied Broswick. "I'd jest shot some prairie chickens afore ye come up, an' we'll roast 'em."

While he went over to where he had left the fowls, Jerry backed the auto, turned it around, and sent it down the hill to the level plain.

"It's a case of camp out again to-night," observed Nestor.

"That suits me," spoke Ned, and the other boys agreed with him.

A fire was soon made, the prairie chickens were prepared for roasting, coffee was set on to boil, and with some tinned biscuits the adventurers made a hearty meal.

Sitting around the camp-fire as night came on, the hunter told several of his adventures while on the trail. Once he had a terrible fight with a

grizzly bear, the scars of the combat being visible on his face and arms.

"Are there any bears around here?" asked Bob.

"Not getting afraid, are you, Chunky?" queried Ned.

"No; I only just wanted to know," replied the stout youth, looking over his shoulder in as careless a manner as he could assume.

"Waal, there's a few now an' agin'," answered the hunter, "but they don't bother me much, not while I have this along," and he patted a rifle which he had left with his game before he rode out to stampede the cattle.

"Are you bound for any particular place?" asked Nestor of Hank.

"Nope; I'm my own boss."

"Then, why not come along with us?" proposed the miner. "We may need your help, for there's a bad gang ahead of us."

He told something of the plans of himself and the boys, in regard to the gold mine, and related how there were enemies in front, and added that he might pay the hunter for his time.

"I'll go 'long!" exclaimed the hunter, after a moment's thought. "I used to be a prospector myself."

More fuel was heaped on the fire, the adventurers wrapped themselves in their blankets and prepared to spend the night in the open.

It was past midnight when Bob was suddenly awakened by feeling some one trying to turn him over

"Go 'way," he said, sleepily. "Let me alone."

Something cold and clammy was thrust against his face, and he heard the breathing and noted the peculiar smell of some wild animal.

With a shout of terror he sat upright. In the glow from the fire he saw, rearing up on his haunches before him, a big, black bear!