"I grappled with Gerardo, just as he was boarding the cab and before he
could establish his position, I hurled him, heels over head, down the
side of the track. At the same moment, however, I heard a sharp report
and felt a stinging sensation in my right arm, where the outlaw's bullet
had struck me.

"The firing had nearly ceased at the rear of the train, and feeling that
in another minute we should be safe, I sprang to the lever and threw the
valve wide open. With snorts and shrieks of defiance to our enemies, the
old engine obeyed me, soon gaining a rate of speed which I knew would
out-distance the baffled outlaws, whose yells I could still hear above
the thunder of the train.

"As my excitement abated my arm began to pain me fearfully, and I found
the member disabled for further use. My fireman gone, my situation was
critical, and I was wondering how the rest of the boys had fared when I
heard some one behind me.

"Half expecting to meet one of the outlaws, I turned, and was glad to
see one of the brakemen, who had come to my assistance.

"'We have repulsed them, but they are following us,' he said, in reply
to my anxious questions.

"'Well, let them follow,' I answered, 'if they think they can overtake
my Bonny Bess. Give her more fuel, Ned. You will have to be my--'

"I did not finish my sentence, for at that moment, as we shot around a
curve, great tongues of fire leaped from the track ahead of us. It was a