Mister Dapper came out of the bank. Two big guys followed, carrying a heavy chest. They looked at the words painted on the stagecoach. "Old West Cargo – Quick Delivery."

Mister Dapper looked up at Addie and Liam who sat on top.

"You must be Whippersnapper Addie, with sidekick Lucky Liam. I hear you're the best. Take this chest of coins to Lollipalooza Ranch. The cowboys need to be paid for all their hard work."

"Yes, sir," Whippersnapper Addie said.

"We run the fastest, safest stagecoach," Lucky Liam said.

Mr. Dapper twirled his mustache. "I hear Vagabond Violet the outlaw has been seen on the prairie. I'm sending one of my men to protect the cash. This is Quincy Quarrel McQuarrie."

The two big guys loaded the chest into the stagecoach, then one climbed up on top at the back. "I'll scare off those bandits with my pea-shooters." Quincy twirled two small guns.

"Do they really shoot peas?" Liam asked

Quincy just winked.

"Yee-haw!" called Addie. She snapped her long whip in the air. Her six horses set off at a walk, pulling the coach.

Outside of town she snapped the whip two times, and the horses started trotting. The stagecoach rumbled past farms, out onto the prairies, down into gulches, up over mesas. They saw tumbleweeds and antelope and a roadrunner that ran alongside the coach for a long way. But no sign of outlaws. Not yet.

"I'm hungry," Liam said. He pulled his Magic Box out from under his seat and sang, "Magic Box, Magic Box, please make us lunch. Something that's easy to hold and to munch!"

He looked inside. "Yum! Sausage jerky and cheesy breadsticks!" He gave some to Addie, then threw some back to Quincy.

The roadrunner jumped up and down as it ran, clicking its beak. "Please? Please? Please?"

Liam threw it a sausage.

"Thank you!" clacked the roadrunner, which stopped to eat.

In the afternoon they rumbled through a canyon. Suddenly bandits rode horses out of hiding. "Stop the coach!" yelled one outlaw. She wore a violet calico dress with a dusty hem and had a big floppy hat with a violet hatband.

"An ambush!" Addie yelled. She didn't slow down. She snapped the whip three times and the six horses sped up to a gallop. They pulled the stagecoach so fast it bounced and jounced over the bumpy dirt road. It bounced so hard that Quincy Quarrel McQuarrie bounced right off. He hadn't had time to shoot any peas.

"Quincy is gone!" Addie said.

"I'll take over, " Liam said. He pulled out his slingshot.

"Stop!" yelled Vagabond Violet. "I'm going to take all the boxes you have. Even that Magic Box."

Liam shot pebbles with his slingshot. He knocked Violet's floppy hat off. He knocked a pea-shooter out of another bandit's hand. He knocked a cactus. "Oops," he said.

"Hold on!" Addie said. I'm going to drive into that sandstorm. She can't follow us there."

"Ick!" said Liam. "I'm getting sand up my nose."

"Pull up your bandana like a mask, "Addie said. "That's what it's for."

"Maybe Vagabond Violet can't see us," Liam said, "but we can't see anything either!"

~ to be continued ~