Frank picked up a club, and Barney an iron bar. Nobody can handle a weapon of the sort better than an Irishman.
“Whurroo! bad cess to yez fer a pack av omadhouns,” cried Barney, dealing one of the cowboys a crushing blow on the head.
Before one could think, the iron bar came down upon the head of another. Both sank senseless to the floor of the wagon.
Frank Reade, Jr., had knocked Cliff senseless. Only one of the foe was left, and he was quickly knocked out.
In a twinkling, as it were, the tables were turned.
Barney and Frank Reade, Jr., were now masters of the Steam Man once more. The irrepressible Irishman pulled the whistle valve and sent up a shriek of defiance and triumph.
Then Frank Reade, Jr., swung open the wagon door.
“Throw them out!” he cried; “all but Cliff.”
Barney obeyed the command. The three cowboys were quickly dumped out upon the ground.
But Cliff was allowed to remain. The villain lay insensible in the bottom of the wagon.
Frank was about to bind him, when an imminent peril claiming his immediate attention prevented him.
The cowboys were aware of the turning of the tables in the wagon.
With mad yells they were rushing forward in a body to surround the Steam Man. Unless immediate action was made they would succeed.
It would be an easy matter for the cowboys to ruin the invention by a single blow. There was but one way, and that was to beat a retreat.
Barney seized his repeater and began firing into the crowd of cowboys. Frank opened the throttle and sent the Steam Man up the incline toward the stronghold of the vigilants.
Of course the latter had seen and understood all.
They embraced the opportunity to pour a flank fire into the ranks of the cowboys. It was a moment of thrilling sort, but the Steam Man seemed to have the best of it when a thrilling incident happened.
In another moment the Steam Man would have been in the ranks of the vigilants.
It would have been a great point scored, for Cliff would then be a prisoner and the way to save Jim Travers from the gallows would have been paved.
The villain had come to in the meanwhile, but cunning rascal that he was, had laid inanimate in the bottom of the wagon.
He had seen all that was going on, and when he saw that the Steam Man was certain to escape he knew that only desperate action upon his part would save him now.