that was a strange thing. "If he would wait an hour, or perhaps two,
Hop Sing might awaken. Besides, to-morrow--"

"Not for ours," said Ned. "We've got to go to-day."

The agent shrugged his shoulders, and went back into his little office
to resume his nap. Jerry walked over to the shed.

"Hey! Hop Sing!" he called, as he approached. "Where's the stage?"

"Want stage? Take lide? All lite! Me come! Chop-chop! Give number one,
top-slide lide!" exclaimed a voice, and a small Chinaman jumped down
from the stage seat, where, under the shade of the shed he had been
sleeping, and began to untie the halters of the mules that were
attached to the ram-shackle old vehicle.

"Be lite out!" Hop Sing went on. "Me glive you click lide. Me go fast!
You see! Chop-chop!"

"All right, if the old shebang doesn't fall apart on the way," said
Jerry with a laugh, as he saw the stage which the Celestial backed out
of the shed. Certainly it looked as if it could not go many miles.

"Come on!" called Jerry to Ned, Bob and the professor, who had
remained on the platform. "I guess it's safe. The mules don't look as
if they would run away."

They piled into the aged vehicle, and Hop Sing, with a quickness that
was in surprising contrast to the indolence of the Mexican agent, put
their trunks and valises on top.