"The company will take it out of your salary for wasting their coal," remarked Ketchel. "And shure and they ain't none too good to do it," remarked Bill Sheehan with conviction. "Get in, Bill, and throw what coal you have got left into that boiler; we have got to make the siding this side of the Divide to get out of the way of 'The Eastern Express.' That little fracas back there cost us fifteen minutes." "And half a ton of coal," said the fireman, as he bent his back to the work of shoveling, looking for all the world like a black gnome. "I wonder what has happened to the passengers," said Jim to the engineer; "there seemed to be a lot going on back there the last five minutes of the fight." "I can't slow up, Jim," responded the engineer, "because we have got to make that siding." "I don't expect you to, Bob," replied Jim, "I'll go over the roofs. I can make it if those open air burglars did." "It's durn risky," warned the engineer; "we are speeding now, and the train is twisting so it will sure throw you on some of the curves." "I've ridden a few bronchos in my time," declared Jim, "and been aloft in some heavy seas and I guess I can manage this." Self-confidence is all right but pride often goes before destruction and Jim came very near getting his on this occasion. "And where do you think you are going, lad?" asked Bill Sheehan, as Jim started on his climb over the tender. "I'm going back to see how many of the passengers have been scared to death and why some of those guys in the sleepers didn't turn out and help us to fight off those bandits back there." "Oh, them are tenderfeet from way back the other side of the range, they was too busy hiding behind their women folks to fight," declared the fireman, "but you ain't going on no such trip young feller." He made a dive for Jim but that worthy was not to be detained and was half way up the little iron ladder before Bill Sheehan had recovered his balance. "Come back," he cried, poising a bit of coal in his hand, "or I'll bring you back." This bluff did not disturb Jim who was now on top of the baggage car. "Just like a young limb," he muttered, as he watched the daring James. "I'd have done the same twenty years ago." Jim crawled or sneaked his way along the elevated part of the roof, so that he could clutch one side or the other in case of need. The train was now winding through a narrow gulch in a line of hills and a fierce wind tore at his body as though trying to fling him loose. He felt that it was more than he had bargained for, as the grimy roof slipped this way and that under him, then there came a sudden lurch and he was lifted clear off the top of the car and one hand was wrenched loose, and in a second his feet were hanging over the side.