The boy gave a jolt to the wagon, which communicated to the steam man,
and it instantly started, at quite a moderate gait, but rapidly
increased to its old-fashioned run.
It was just in the nick of time, for two minutes later the savages
would have been upon him. As it was, when they saw the giant moving
off they paused for a moment in amazement.
But their previous acquaintance with the apparatus had robbed it of
all its supernatural attributes, and their halt lasted but a few
seconds. The next moment they understood that there was some human
agency about it, and uttering their blood-curdling yells, they started
in full pursuit. But by this time the steam gentleman was getting down
to his regular pace, and was striding over the prairie like a
dromedary. For a time the Indians gained, then the intervening
distance became stationary, and then he began pulling steadily away
from them.
Still the savages maintained the chase until satisfied of its
hopelessness, when they gave it up and sullenly withdrew in the
direction of the mountains.
The young fellow, in his triumph, could not avoid rising in the wagon,
shouting and waving his hat defiantly at his baffled pursuers. The
daring act came near costing his life, for it was instantly followed
by the discharge of several guns, and the singing of the bullets about
his ears caused him to duck back into his seat as suddenly as he had
risen from it.
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