“Blendin, give me one of your blasters!” Dipper shouts.

Blendin tosses one to him, and Dipper activates it and puts his finger on the trigger, causing the lawmen to freeze.

Mabel sighs. “Dipper, wait! What are we gonna do, spend the rest of our lives as outlaws?” she asks.

Dipper scratches his chin. “I’m open to it,” he says.

“It beats living with my mom,” says Blendin.

Mabel shakes her head. “We should turn ourselves in. It’s the right thing to do. Also, riding a horse hurts my butt.”

“Aw, all right,” says Dipper. He powers down the blaster.

With heavy sighs, Dipper, Mabel, and Blendin put up their hands.

The sheriff and his crew pounce and cuff them.

“Well, hooooey! Looks like we caught ourselves a posse of regular old bandits,” says the sheriff while dancing a jig and slapping his spurs. “You three have caused a lot of problems. Looks like y’all are gonna be in jail for a while!”

The lawmen throw them in the back of a stagecoach and drive it toward town.

As Blendin sulks in the back of the stagecoach, Dipper and Mabel shimmy toward the front, where the sheriff sits and whittles casually.

“So, uh, Mr. Sheriff, what’s our punishment?” asks Mabel.

“Train-nappin’?” he asks. “Well, if it were up to me, I’d make y’all dress up like little trains and walk through town, and when someone tried to rob you, I wouldn’t stop them. See how you like it. But I’m a touch odd in the head, so they don’t let me choose punishments no more.”

“Well, who does decide the punishments?” asks Dipper.

“Judge Hangamanforanycrime,” says the sheriff. “And I warn you, he lives up to his name. He is an actual judge.”

Dipper and Mabel tremble.

“He’s only let a criminal off once,” says the sheriff, “and it was on account of him being a child!”

“But we’re children!” shouts Dipper.

“What, you three bloodthirsty ne’er-do-wells?” The sheriff laughs. “You’re clearly adults who are just short on account of the malnutrition that’s so popular in these times.”

“It’s true!” yells Mabel, taking off her bandana and mustache. “Look long and hard at me and my brother here!”

Dipper rips off his disguise.

The sheriff squints at them. “Well, I’ll be hoodwinked. You are children! Hmmmm…” He pulls out a key and sets them free. He pauses when he gets to Blendin.

“I’m a child…too?” says Blendin, peeling off his mustache.

“You look like the biggest baby here,” says the sheriff. “Plus, I reckon the townsfolk of Calamity Junction wouldn’t get much satisfaction out of usin’ capital punishment on children. How about we let this go and, say, give you a second chance?”

“Really? Is there a catch?” asks Dipper.

“The catch is do it before I change my mind!” says the sheriff.

Dipper, Mabel, and Blendin spring to their feet.

“Thank you so much. We are soooo sorry,” says Dipper.

“Seriously, so, so sorry!” says Mabel, dusting herself off.

They race the short distance into town, wiping their brows in relief and exchanging smiles.

“Well, now that we’ve got out of that all right, what should we do next?” asks Mabel.

“Looks like we should explore one of those other options if we’re ever going to find this Time Key,” says Blendin.

CONFRONT THE OUTLAWS IN THE SALOON: GO HERE EMBARK ON A MINING ADVENTURE: GO HERE