"Gracious, but there'll be a joyful demonstration back in camp as soon as the good word is received." As the car sped along over the desert the story was told of how the pursuit had been made.
It was Mr.Hawkins who had tried to wire from camp into town, calling for cars and posses to go in pursuit of the raiders.
As Tom had imagined at the outset, the raiders had cut the railroad telegraph wire.

Discovering this, Mr.Hawkins had leaped on to the bare back of a horse at camp and had covered the distance at a gallop.
Men had been quickly rounded up within the very few minutes that were needed in getting the cars out and ready to run.

There were hundreds of men in Paloma who had grown to despise Duff and all the evil crew behind the gambler.
From the outset the leaders of the posse, on hearing, of the direction first taken by the fleeing raiders, had calculated on the gully as the probable place of halting.
While the posse was still on the way out to the gully, and at some distance away, the sound of Ashby's discharging gun had reached them.
Reasoning that the raiders would probably place a guard only on the town end of the gully, the posse had made a wide detour, so as to approach the gully from the westward.

Leaving the cars at a considerable distance, the pursuers, with Mr.Hawkins at their head, had made quick time on foot.
In the fighting that had followed five men of the posse had been hit, though none dangerously.

These wounded men, after the fight, had been sent back to Paloma in one of the automobiles.
"We saw some of the raiders fall during the lighting," said Mr.Hawkins, "but their friends made a quick retreat and got all hands back to their horses.