The Outdoor Chums After Big Game Part 6

St. Paul was reached in due season, and once more they started forth, this time headed west, with the hunting-land beckoning them on.

"Tell me about this, will you!" remarked Jerry, after they had crossed the broad prairies and were climbing the tremendous heights that lie like a barrier between the center of the continent and the Pacific Slope. "How much more of it do we have before us, Frank? I'm getting so filled with wonder and awe that my tongue is getting into a rut with saying 'Ah!' so much."

"Less than a day will see us through now. Once we get over this range there lies a long valley, and in that is where Martin Mabie has his ranch."

"Then we'll do our hunting along the sides of the mountains?" suggested Will, who had used up nearly half his supply of films already, taking views of the wonderful things they saw on the trip.

"That's my impression, from what he wrote," replied Frank.

"And he also said game was fairly plentiful, if I remember aright,"

remarked Jerry.

"Well, he did say that they had been so busy of late on the ranch that no one had had time for hunting, and consequently the game had not been bothered very much; which, I suppose, amounts to the same thing."

"H'm! I hope he won't be so rushed with work that he can't take the time to go with us. Half of the fun would be lost if Mr. Mabie couldn't be along; for Jesse says he is the most entertaining man alive," grunted Bluff.

"Oh, you forget that he said by the time we got there the work would slacken up, and he promised himself a vacation, just to renew his old pleasure of camping out in the wilderness, away from all mankind,"

laughed Frank.

"That relieves my mind some," declared Bluff, brightening up.

"You're getting tired of all this travel, that's what ails you," said Jerry.

"No; it isn't that," remarked Frank. "Bluff has confessed to me that for the life of him he can't remember putting that beautiful hunting-knife in the trunk along with his other traps; and if he left _that_ behind, half his pleasure would be lost. Now you know what's the matter."

"Not that I wish it to be so, but if such should prove to be the case, there'll be one delighted grizzly bear out in these same mountains--the chap Bluff calculated on carving with that big sticker," remarked Jerry jocosely.

But Bluff would not even smile. Truth to tell, he was counting the hours until he could open that trunk and relieve his distressed mind.

"Did you ever see a wilder bit of country?" said Frank, peering out into the gathering dusk, and trying to imagine those wooded hillsides populated with elk and buffaloes, and all the big game of the past, when a white man was never known west of the Great Lakes.

"Well, to tell the truth, I was thinking of that account I read in the paper we bought, about the work of a sheriff's posse in this region, chasing the bad men who held up a railroad train not a hundred miles away from here. It wouldn't be a pleasant experience for us to meet with, eh, fellows?" asked Will, who was known to have a timid streak in his make-up.

"Talk to me about your croakers!" jeered Jerry. "Will, here, is enough to freeze the marrow in one's bones. There isn't one chance in a thousand that such an adventure will come our way, and he knows it."

"Goodness! What a jar! The engineer must have thrown the air brakes on then in a big hurry! We're coming to a sudden stop, too! Oh! I wonder if anything can have happened? Are we going to have an accident, fellows?"

cried Will.

With much creaking of the wheels the heavy train came to a stop, and at the same moment the four chums, listening with considerable apprehension, caught the sound of many loud and excited voices just outside the car.

CHAPTER VI

AT THE VALLEY RANCH

"Listen!" exclaimed Frank, holding up his hand.

"Talk to me about your Tower of Babel! It wasn't in the same cla.s.s as that row. Twenty men trying to talk all at once!" growled Jerry, starting up.

"Oh! Where are you going?" asked Will.

"Outside, to find out what the trouble is," replied the other.

"But you may get hurt if those bad men start to shooting up the train,"

expostulated the official photographer anxiously.

Jerry gave a hoa.r.s.e laugh.

"Tell me about that, will you! He actually believes we are going to be put through a course of 'stand and deliver' by the merry gentlemen of the road. Why, bless you, my boy, didn't you hear one man say something about a trestle burning just ahead? It spells delay for us, but that's the worst of the whole affair."

"Then I'm going out, too," declared Will, with sudden zeal, as he s.n.a.t.c.hed up his camera and threw the strap over his shoulder.

He scented a chance for a striking picture, and to obtain that Will would have risked even a possible encounter with train robbers.

Frank and Bluff would not be left behind, and quickly the entire quartet had reached the platform. They found that the stop was at a little country station. A signal had suddenly flashed before the eyes of the engineer, telling him he must not think of running past, which accounted for the quick work of the compressed-air brakes.

No need to tell what was wrong. Up the track a quarter of a mile could be seen a fire, and one glance was enough to tell the chums that, just as Jerry had said, a trestle of some sort seemed to be burning.

Loud shouts attested to the fact that every available man was hurrying to the scene, in the hope of saving the trestle before it was so far gone that nothing could be done.

"Come on, fellows! Our train must stay where it is until this thing is done burning, one way or the other. Perhaps we can help put the fire out with buckets."

That was the first thought Frank had, to be of some a.s.sistance.

The four of them ran with the rest of the pa.s.sengers. Such a spectacle could not be witnessed every day, and every one was desirous of getting closer to the scene of action.

"How did it catch?" asked Frank of a railroad man who was hustling about, handing buckets to a line of men extending down to the water of the creek far below.

"Don't know. Perhaps from sparks left by the six-seventeen freight. Lend a hand here, lads; we need all the help we can get," replied the other.

"Sure! That's what we came for. Get along, boys, and pa.s.s these buckets!" cried Jerry, suiting the action to the words.

Once the string of buckets got to going, and the contents began to be cast upon the creeping flames, there sprang up a hope that the trestle might be saved.

Seeing this, the workers redoubled their efforts, and faster rose the full buckets, the empties going down at the same rate. It is really astonishing what a large amount of water can be carried by such an endless chain.

"Hurrah! We're besting it, lads! Keep it up!" shouted the agent, who was the man Frank had first addressed.

Will had not joined the relay. There seemed to be plenty of recruits without him, and, truth to tell, he was bent on getting a picture of the scene. Doubtless many present were startled by a sudden brilliant illumination as he set off his flashlight cartridge; but those who were in ignorance as to what it meant were soon set wise by others.

Once they began to get the upper hand of the fire it became easy.

Fortunately, there was not a breath of wind at the time. Had it been otherwise, no efforts on their part could have saved the trestle.

"I should think they would have them all of steel!" gasped Bluff, as he labored away, pa.s.sing endless buckets up and down.