Frontier Boys in Frisco
e engine, Jim?" asked the eng
the locomotive, "as well as you did the 'four' that you drove back in Kansas across the plains, when we were boys," a
that," agreed
"the tourists in the eating house are just swallowing their pie
ady, Bob,
d get your heaviest coat and your trusty revolver; we might see some gam
as he started on a trot toward one of the rear
nobody." From the fact that the locomotive was given the dignity of a real name indicates that the time of our narrat
. At least I am going through the formality. Jim, the leader of "The Frontier Boys," whose adventures began on "The Overland Trail," and were last spoken of in the narrative, "In The Saddle," is now on his way to San Francisco in response to a message sent to him by the engineer of his captured
row alley way between the smoking-room and the side of the car, just missing a head on collision with a stout party coming out of the sleeper. The latter was about to express a haughty indignation at Jim's abrupt approach, but that worthy gave him no
harp whistle and the wheels began to revolve. Jim's vacation had not made him fat nor short winded and he sped after the engine, with the swiftness of an Indian on the trail of an enemy. Perhaps Bob Ketchel let
," grinned Bob. "No wonder th
ender that I take them off the
s white teeth shone like a darky's
b," he said. "It's going to kee
g momentum. The little town was left behind in the gathering dusk and soon they were threading their narrow iron way through the solitude of the great mountains. Looking back
h Bob to pilot 'em, lazy beggars," said Jim to himself, divided between admiration for his friend and contempt for the ease loving passengers in the sleepers, who would soon turn into t
the steel rails with sudden, quick thrusts as the "General Denver" rounded a curve. "My but it is great!" cried Jim with enthusiasm, as on the engine roared into
. It was in the center of a wide mountain valley with nothing to indicate human life except a solitar
beauties back there, when I stopped her," sai
imsically, "but I would have been tempted to give
'em up when they feel sort
raveled with," remarked Jim, "bu
he operation with interest while the engineer and his fireman went meth
n at his heavy, open-faced watch. "What do you suppose is the matter
been held up,"
anything but the money the newsboy gets out of the passengers for peanuts and bum dime nov
alifornia," put
able," replied the
tting his hand on his revolver,
ou come in," sa
ir, and to get a view of the 'mountings' by moonlight. But w
spots along the trail ahead where they mig
's the likes of a dirty black gang that will do the deed, the same that shot poor Jimmie McGui
ed Jim, "and it will be all
rs, I don't hear anything o
the engineer. "That boy there can take the tr