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diff --git a/old/52832-0.txt b/old/52832-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6ab25dd..0000000 --- a/old/52832-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5960 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Border Boys with the Mexican Rangers, by -Fremont B. Deering - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Border Boys with the Mexican Rangers - -Author: Fremont B. Deering - -Release Date: August 18, 2016 [EBook #52832] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BORDER BOYS WITH MEXICAN RANGERS *** - - - - -Produced by Giovanni Fini, Roger Frank and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: - -—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected. - - -[Illustration: Around a smoldering fire lay several men. - (_Page 28_) (_The Border Boys With the Mexican Rangers_)] - - - - - THE BORDER BOYS - WITH THE MEXICAN RANGERS - - By FREMONT B. DEERING - - AUTHOR OF - “The Border Boys on the Trail,” “The Border Boys - with the Texas Rangers,” “The Border Boys Across - the Frontier,” “The Border Boys in the Canadian - Rockies,” “The Border Boys Along the - St. Lawrence.” - -[Illustration: LOGO] - - A. L. BURT COMPANY - Publishers New York - Printed in U. S. A. - - - - - Copyright, 1911, - BY - HURST & COMPANY - - MADE IN U. S. A. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I. AN IMPRUDENT BEAR 5 - - II. RUGGLES—THE DERELICT 15 - - III. JACK’S ADVENTURE 28 - - IV. A BATTLE ROYAL 38 - - V. CAUGHT IN A TRAP 47 - - VI. AN EXCITING QUEST 57 - - VII. THE CLOUDBURST 68 - - VIII. ADRIFT ON THE DESERT 76 - - IX. THE LONE RANCHO 91 - - X. AFTER MIDNIGHT 103 - - XI. TRAPPED 116 - - XII. THE GRINGOES MOVE 128 - - XIII. SENORITA ALVERADO 140 - - XIV. EL FIESTA 152 - - XV. BY FAIR MEANS OR FOUL 164 - - XVI. A BORDER BOY ERRANT 176 - - XVII. THE TRAIL OF THE TREMBLING MOUNTAIN 186 - - XVIII. BLACK RAMON’S TRICKERY 197 - - XIX. WHAT COYOTE DID 208 - - XX. WITH THE MEXICAN RANGERS 224 - - XXI. THE CAPTAIN PLAYS A TRICK 234 - - XXII. THE DWELLING OF A VANISHED RACE 243 - - XXIII. THE HEART OF THE MYSTERY 255 - - XXIV. THE DEATH TRAP 266 - - - - - The Border Boys with the - - Mexican Rangers. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -AN IMPRUDENT BEAR. - - -Professor Wintergreen sat bolt upright amidst his blankets and listened -intently. Had it been daylight, the angular figure of the scientist -would have made a laughable spectacle. But the canyon in the State of -Sonora, in Western Mexico, in which the Border Boys and their preceptor -were camped, was pitchy dark with a velvety blackness, relieved only -by a few steely-looking stars shining from the open spaces of a fast -overclouding sky. - -The night wind soughed in melancholy fashion through the trees that -clothed the sides of the rugged abyss in which the camp had been -pitched that evening, and the tinkle of the tiny stream that threaded -its depths was audible. But although these were the only sounds to -be heard at the moment, it was neither of them that had startled the -professor. No, what he had heard had been something far different. - -Waking some hours after he had first fallen asleep, the man of science -had indulged his sleepless moments by plunging into mental calculations -of an abstruse character. He was deeply engrossed in these, when the -sudden sound had broken in on the quietness of the night. - -“Bless me, I could have sworn that I heard a footstep, and a stealthy -one, too,” muttered the professor to himself, “I must be getting -nervous. Possibly that is what made me wake up, and—wow!” - -The ruminations of Professor Wintergreen broke off abruptly as he -suddenly felt something warm and hairy brush his face. - -“It’s a bear!” he yelled, springing to his feet with a shout that -instantly aroused the others,—Jack Merrill, the rancher’s son; Ralph -Stetson, his schoolmate from old Stonefell; Coyote Pete, and Walt -Phelps. - -“A b’ar!” yelled Coyote Pete, awake in a flash, “wha’r is ther -varmint?” As he spoke, the plainsman drew forth his well-worn old -forty-four and began flourishing it about. - -Before the others could say a word a dark form bolted suddenly through -the camp, scattering, as it went, the embers of the dying campfire. - -“It’s a bear, sure enough!” exclaimed Ralph, as the creature, a small -bear of the black variety, howled and stumbled amidst the hot coals. - -All at once its shaggy coat burst into flame, and with a cry of intense -agony it dashed off into the woods. - -“Poor creature!” cried Jack Merrill, “it will die in misery unless it’s -put out of its agony quickly. Pete, lend me your gun.” - -The plainsman handed it over with a quick interrogation to which he -received no reply. Instead, Jack made a swift dash for the spot, a few -feet distant, in which the horses of the party were tethered. Throwing -himself on the back of one, with a twisted halter for a bridle, he set -off in hot pursuit of the unfortunate bear. - -He could see it quite plainly as it lumbered along through the woods, -crying pitifully. Its long coat, greasy and shaggy, burned like a torch. - -“Get along, Firewater, old boy,” breathed Jack, bending over his -animal’s neck to avoid being brushed off by the low-hanging branches, -for, after a short distance, the tangle on the hillside at the canyon’s -bottom grew thick and dense. - -But Firewater, alarmed and startled at the spectacle of the flaming -beast rushing along through the dark woods in front, balked and jumped -about and misbehaved in a manner very foreign to him when he had his -young master on his back. - -But Jack never made the mistake of allowing a pony or horse to think -it could get the upper hand of him, and, consequently, Firewater soon -quieted down and realized that there was no help for it but to go -whither he was directed. - -At length Jack arrived within pistol shot of the frenzied bear. Aiming -as carefully as he could for a death shot, he pressed the trigger and -the wretched animal,—the victim of its own curiosity,—plunged over -and lay still. - -“Poor creature,” quoth Jack to himself, “you are not the first to pay -the toll of too much inquisitiveness. Gee whiz!” he broke off the next -instant with one of his hearty, wholesome laughs, “I’m getting to be as -much of a moralist as the professor.” - -Having ascertained that the bear was quite dead and out of its -suffering, the Border Boy remounted his pony and pressed back toward -camp. But as he neared it, it was borne in upon him that the adventures -of the night were by no means at an end, for before he reached the -others, and while a thick screen of brush still lay between him and the -glow of the newly made camp fire, a sudden volley of shots and the -clattering of many horses’ hoofs broke the stillness. - -A touch of the heel was enough to send Firewater bounding forward. The -next instant the brush had been cleared, and a strange spectacle met -Jack Merrill’s eyes. His companions, their weapons in hand, stood about -the fire staring here and there into the darkness. A puzzled expression -was on all their faces, and particularly was this true of the -professor, who was scrutinizing, through his immense horn spectacles, -a scrap of paper which he held in his hand. He was stooping low by the -firelight the better to examine it. - -“Oh, here you are,” cried Ralph, as the returned young adventurer came -forward into the glow. - -“Yes, here I am,” cried Jack, throwing himself from Firewater’s back. -“I despatched that bear, too, but what on earth has been happening -here?” - -“Read this first, my boy, and then I will tell you,” said the -professor, thrusting the not over-clean bit of paper into his hands. - -“Read it aloud,” urged Pete, and Jack, in a clear voice, read the -untidy scrawl as follows:— - - “Señors; you are on a mission perilous. Advance no further but turn - back while you are safe. The Mountains of Chinipal are not for your - seeking, and what you shall find there if you persevere in your quest - will prove more deadly than the Upas tree. Be warned in time. Adios.” - -“Phew!” whistled Jack, “that sounds nice. But what was all the -firing—for I suppose that had something to do with it?” - -“Why, the firing was my work,” struck in Walt Phelps, looking rather -shamefaced, “and I’m afraid I wounded the man I shot at, too.” - -“You see it was this way,” went on Ralph Stetson. “We were watching the -woods for your coming when, suddenly, a horseman appeared, as if by -magic, from off there.” - -He pointed behind him into the dark and silent trees. - -“Under the impression that we were attacked, I guess, Walt opened fire. -But the man did not return it. Instead, he flung that note, which was -tied to a bit of stone, at our feet, and then dashed off as suddenly as -he had come. What do you make of it?” - -“I don’t know what to think,” rejoined Jack in a puzzled tone; “suppose -we ask the professor and Pete first.” - -“A good idea,” chorused the other boys. “Well, boys,” said the -professor anxiously, “not being as well versed in such things as our -friend Mr. Coyote, I shall defer to him. One thing, however, I noticed, -and that was that the note is worded in fair English, although badly -written in an uneducated hand.” - -“Maybe whoever wrote it wished to disguise his writing,” ventured Walt -Phelps. - -“That’s my idee of it,” grunted Coyote Pete; “yer see,” he went on, -“ther thing looks this yer way ter me. Some chap who knows of a plot on -foot ter keep us frum the Chinipal, wanted to do us a good turn, but -didn’t dare be seen in our company. So he hits on this way of doing it -and gits drilled with a bullet fer his pains.” - -Walt Phelps colored brilliantly. He felt ashamed of his haste. - -“Don’t be upsot over it,” said Pete, noticing this, “it’s ther -chap’s own fault fer dashing in on us that way. I reckon, though, he -kalkerlated on finding us asleep, an’ so we would have bin if it hadn’t -a bin fer Mister flaming b’ar.” - -“The question is, are we to heed this warning, or is it, what I believe -is sometimes termed a bluff?” asked the professor anxiously. He drew -his blankets about his skinny figure as he spoke, and stood in the -firelight looking like a spectacled and emaciated ancient statue. - -Coyote Pete considered a minute. - -“Suppose we leave that till the morning fer discussion,” he said. “In -my judgment, it will be best fer you folks ter turn in now and sleep -ther rest of ther night.” - -“And you, Pete?” asked Jack. - -“I’ll watch by the fire in case of another visit. I don’t think -there’ll be one, but you cain’t most gen’ally always tell. Gimme my gun -back, Jack; I might need it.” - -There was no dissuading Coyote from his plan, so the others turned in -once more, and, despite the startling interruption to their slumbers, -were soon wrapped in sleep. - -As for Coyote, he sat by the fire till the stars began to pale and the -eastern sky grew gray and wan with the dawn. Except for an occasional -swift glance about him the old plainsman’s eyes were riveted on the -glowing coals, seemingly searching the innermost glowing caverns for -some solution of the situation that confronted them. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -RUGGLES—THE DERELICT. - - -But you lads who are not already acquainted with the adventurous Border -Boys, must be wishing, by this time, to know something about them and -of the quest which brought them into this wild and rugged part of -the great Mexican Republic. In the first volume of this series “The -Border Boys on The Trail,” it was related how Ralph Stetson, a somewhat -delicate young easterner,—the son of “King Pin” Stetson, the railroad -magnate,—came out west to visit his school chum Jack Merrill, the only -son of a ranch owner. - -The lads’ adventures in pursuit of a band of cattle rustlers,—headed -by Black Ramon de Barros,—were related in full in that volume. There -also, it was told how they escaped from the mysterious old mission and -found a rich treasure in a secret passage of the mouldering structure. -Jack’s bravery in preventing Black Ramon from destroying a dam and -flooding the country was also an incident of that book. But although -the boys had succeeded in routing Black Ramon for the nonce, that -scourge of the border was destined to be re-encountered by them. - -How this came about we told in the second volume of this series, “The -Border Boys Across The Frontier.” Beginning with their discovery of the -subterranean river leading from the Haunted Mesa across the border, -the lads were plunged into an amazing series of adventures. These -culminated in the attack on the Esmeralda,—a mine owned by Jack’s -father,—and the gallant defense of it by our lads and their faithful -friends. The attacking force was composed of Mexican rebels and they -were only repulsed by an unexpected happening. Black Ramon was active -in this part of the boys’ adventures, too. For a time it looked as if -they at last had brought the rascal with the coal black horse to book. -But it proved otherwise, and Black Ramon once more made good his -escape from the arm of the law. - -Their adventures in Mexico over, and the revolution brought to a -termination by the abdication of President Diaz, the Border Boys -settled down to spend the rest of their vacation in comparative -monotony. A few weeks before the present story opens, however, an -incident had occurred which seemed destined once more to provide some -excitement for them. - -Mr. Stetson, whose railroad interests had brought him to Mexico during -the fighting days, had paid a hasty visit to the ranch and spent some -time in consultation with Mr. Merrill. Professor Wintergreen had also -been summoned to the conference. It appeared that the railroad king -had, some years before, materially aided a young college friend who -had fallen on hard times. The beneficiary of his aid had, however, -ultimately wandered away from the position with which Mr. Stetson had -provided him, without leaving a word or a sign of his destination. The -years rolled by and Mr. Stetson had practically forgotten all about -the man, when, during his stay in El Paso, a wretched, ragged figure -had confronted him on the street one day and disclosed his identity as -Stewart Ruggles, the outcast. - -Mr. Stetson, shocked at his old friend’s abject appearance of misery -and illness, ordered a carriage and took him to his hotel. Here, after -Ruggles had been suitably clothed and fed, Mr. Stetson listened to his -story. After wandering off so many years before, Ruggles, it seems, had -fallen in with bad company. He finally had become connected with a bank -robbery and had been compelled to seek refuge in Mexico. After knocking -about for many lonely years, he became a prospector. - -One spring had found him in the mountains of Chinipal, with his burros -and prospecting outfit. He met with indifferent luck and was about to -vacate the country, when, one day, in a rugged pass, he heard groans -coming from the trailside. Investigating, he found a Yaqui, who had -been swept from his horse by an overhanging branch, and whose leg was -broken. With characteristic brutality and callousness, the rest of the -tribe had passed on, leaving the wounded man to shift as best he might. - -Ruggles, who had some rough knowledge of surgery, set the man’s leg -and tended him for several days. At last one day the Yaqui was ready -to ride on. But before he left he confided to Ruggles the location of -a mountain known to the Indians as the Trembling Mountain. In a cavern -in the interior of this eminence,—so the Indian legend had it,—a -vanished race of aborigines had hidden vast treasures of gold and -sacrificial emblems of great value. Asked why, if this was the case, -his own tribesmen had not sought for it, the Yaqui had declared that -rather than enter the mountain his fellows would cut off their right -hands. It was, according to their belief, guarded by the spirits of the -dead and gone race, and terrible vengeance would light on the head of -the luckless mortal who offended them. - -Under the Indian’s direction Ruggles had drawn up a rough map of the -location of Trembling Mountain and then, determined to investigate it, -had set out for the north to find proper equipment for his quest. But -he found the land in the throes of revolution, and where he was not -laughed at as a lunatic he was told to wait till times became more -settled. In poverty and despair he was wandering the streets of El Paso -when chance threw him across the path of his old college mate. - -Mr. Stetson, who had been known as one of the most daring operators -on Wall Street, believed where others had scoffed. He agreed to back -Ruggles in his quest to any amount. But while active preparations were -still on foot, a fever seized the prospector. His impoverished frame -was unable to resist the attack, and in a few days he breathed his -last, not before, however, he had confided to Mr. Stetson his wish that -the latter would carry out the quest. - -The railroad king faithfully saw the remains of his unfortunate and -erring friend to the grave, and then began to consider the feasibility -of the enterprise to which he stood committed. It was clear, he -decided, that the mission was no ordinary one. It could only be -performed by trustworthy agents, for, in the event of the treasure -being there, the temptation to play him false would be tremendous. -Then, too, it must be kept secret, because, on the face of it, the -venture appeared such a far-fetched and desperate one that unless -success crowned it its promoter was likely to be heaped with ridicule -from one end of the country to the other. - -Altogether, Mr. Stetson was at a standstill till he suddenly bethought -himself of the Border Boys and their companions, Coyote Pete and -Professor Wintergreen. - -With his customary promptitude, he had lost no time in getting to the -Merrill ranch. At first the rancher was unwilling that his son should -embark on such an enterprise, but on Jack’s pleadings to be allowed -to participate, he finally agreed on the condition, however, that no -unnecessary risks were to be run. - -The fact that Coyote Pete and Professor Wintergreen were to go along -played no small part in enabling the rancher to make up his mind. As -for Mr. Stetson, he remarked: - -“Ralph will have to play his part in the world before very long now, -and such adventures are good for him. They form character and make him -quick in action and decision.” - -And so it came about, that a week before, our party had disembarked -from, the queer little narrow-gauge train at Esmedora, on the borders -of Sonora,—the starting point of their three hundred and fifty mile -trip into the unknown. Not unnaturally, some excitement had been -created at Esmedora by the arrival of so many strangers. It had been -given out by Professor Wintergreen that the expedition was a scientific -one and their real destination was, of course, carefully concealed. -Firewater,—Jack’s favorite pony,—had been the only animal brought -from the States by the party, as it was understood that excellent -animals could be purchased in Esmedora. This proved to be the case. - -Coyote Pete was provided with an excellent little buckskin, while Ralph -and Walt Phelps each secured a calico pony. The professor’s mount was -a tall, bony animal, almost as lanky as himself, but one which Coyote -Pete pronounced a “stayer.” Its color was a sort of nondescript yellow, -and the man of science, when mounted on it with all his traps and -appendages, cut an odd figure. Besides the horses and ponies, two pack -burros were purchased to carry the somewhat extensive outfit of the -party. - -Naturally, in that sleepy part of the country, such purchases and -preparations caused quite a stir. By that species of wireless -telegraphy which prevails in parts of the world unprovided with other -means for the transmission of news, the information was, in fact, -in the few days the party remained in Esmedora, diffused over a -considerable part of the country round about. - -In due course it reached the ears of a person to whom it was of -peculiar interest. This individual was one whom we have met before, -and whose presence in the vicinity would have caused the Border Boys -considerable anxiety had they known of it. Who this man was, and what -effect his presence was to have upon events in the immediate future we -shall see before very long. - -And now, after this considerable, but necessary digression, it is high -time we were getting back to the camp in the canyon where we left the -lads and the professor enjoying peaceful repose, and Coyote Pete hard -at work thinking. Before the morning was far advanced, however, the -plainsman aroused his comrades and a great scene of bustle was soon -going on. - -While the professor visited the creek to indulge in a good wash in -its clear, cool waters, Walt Phelps, who had already performed his -ablutions, cleaned up the “spider” with sand, and having scoured it -thoroughly he set about getting breakfast. Coyote Pete attended to -the horses and the two burros, and Ralph Stetson, always fastidious, -“duded up,” as Jack called it, before a small pocket mirror he had -affixed to a tree. - -As for Jack, while all this was doing, he set off for a stroll. - -“Too many cooks spoil the broth,” he remarked laughingly, as he -started. With him he carried a light rifle thinking that he might -encounter an opportunity to bring down something acceptable in the way -of a rabbit or other “small deer,” for breakfast. - -His path took him by the spot on which the night before he had killed -the bear. The animal, charred and blackened to a crisp, still lay -there. As he neared the place, however, a heavy flapping of wings as -several hideous “turkey buzzards” arose heavily, apprised him that the -carrion birds had already gathered to the feast. The lad noted that, -before rising, the glutted creatures had to run several yards with -outspread wings before they could gain an upward impetus. - -The crisp beauty of the morning, the smiling greenery of the trees, -and the thousand odors and sounds about him all combined to make Jack -wander rather further than he had intended. Then, too, a boy with a -rifle always does go a longer distance than he means to. That’s boy -nature. - -All at once he found himself emerging from the brush at a point rather -higher up the canyon side than their camp in the abyss. So gentle had -been the rise, however, that he had not noticed it. Before him lay a -sort of roughly piled rampart of rocks. The boy was advancing toward -these to peer over their summits into the valley below, when something -suddenly arrested his footsteps as abruptly as if a precipice had -yawned before him. - -The sharp, acrid odor of tobacco had reached his nostrils. At the same -instant, too, he became aware of the low hum of voices. The sounds came -from immediately in front of him, and seemingly just below the rock -rampart. With a beating heart, and as silently as possible, the lad -crept forward to ascertain what other intruders besides themselves had -come into the primeval fastnesses of the Sonora country. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -JACK’S ADVENTURE. - - -A few stealthy footsteps served to bring him to the edge of the natural -rampart, and then, removing his sombrero, he peered over. What he saw a -few feet below him caused him to exercise all his self-control to avoid -uttering a sharp exclamation. Around a smoldering fire, above which -hung an iron pot that emitted a savory odor, lay several men. Swarthy -Mexicans they were, with villainous countenances for the most part, -although, to Jack’s astonishment, one of the party had a fair Saxon -skin and reddish hair, which, with his blue eyes, made him seem oddly -out of place in the midst of the dark-skinned, black-orbed group. - -But Jack had little time to note these details, for something else -entirely occupied his attention. This object was nothing less than one -of the party who sat somewhat apart, trying the edge of a hunting -knife he had been sharpening upon a bit of madrone wood. In the -hawk-like countenance and slender, active form, Jack Merrill had not -the least difficulty in recognizing Black Ramon de Barros himself. At -a short distance from the swarthy rascal grazed his famous coal-black -horse. Even in his somewhat awkward position Jack could not repress -a thrill of admiration as he gazed at the splendid proportions and -anatomy of the glossy-coated beast, through whose delicate nostrils the -light shone redly. - -“Lucky thing I’m down the wind from that outfit,” thought the Border -Boy. “I’ve heard it said that Black Ramon’s horse can detect the -presence of a stranger as readily as a keen-scented fox.” - -Most of the Mexicans were rolling and smoking slender cigarettes of -powdered tobacco and yellow corn paper. These had occasioned the acrid -smell which had luckily betrayed the existence of the camp to Jack -before a false step could make them aware of his presence. Expelling -a cloud of blue smoke from his thin lips, Black Ramon began speaking. -He was addressing the red-haired man who looked so oddly out of place -although he wore Mexican garb, red sash, flowing trousers, short jacket -and cone-crowned sombrero with a mighty rim. - -“You are sure that this Ruggles was not mistaken, Senor Canfield?” he -was saying. - -The other shook his head. - -“I’d take my oath to that on a stack of Bibles,” he said. “Ruggles was -a pretty level-headed chap although he led a fool’s life, and if he -says the In’jun told of a treasure in the Trembling Mountain he was -right.” - -“What puzzles me, though, is that he should have told you of it as well -as this Americano Stetson,—curses be upon him,”—grumbled Black Ramon. -“If he was, as you say, ‘on the level,’ why should he have betrayed his -friend’s confidence?” - -“Well, you see,” responded the man addressed as Canfield, slowly, -“Ruggles and I had roughed it together a bit, and I reckon he was a -little off his head with worry and the approach of the fever when I met -him in El Paso. Anyhow, he spun out the whole yarn, with the exception -of the plan.” - -“We can do without that,” said Black Ramon, “I have often heard of the -Trembling Mountain, and can, I believe, find it without difficulty. But -you are sure that Senor Stetson has the plan?” - -“I know it for a fact. That was the reason that I hastened to dig you -up as soon as I knew he was fitting out an expedition to go after the -treasure. I thought you were the most likely man in Mexico to carry out -the job.” - -“And you were not mistaken, Senor Canfield,” rejoined the other with a -gratified smile. “If the treasure is there we will get it out, even if -it were only to obtain revenge on those Gringoes, Jack Merrill and his -chums. They drove me off the border, they tricked me in Chihuahua, but -now the cards have changed, and I hold the trumps. But you are certain -we are far ahead of them?” - -“Positive,” was the rejoinder, “they are at least two days’ march -behind, and with our swift animals we shall make the strike first, do -not fear.” - -Jack was puzzled. - -Clearly, from what he had heard, the Mexican leader knew nothing of -their doings, but that they had started from Esmedora. On the other -hand, it appeared equally positive that Canfield was the man who had -carried the message into their camp the night before and created -so much excitement. Jack noticed now, too, as a further means of -identification, that Canfield’s hand was bandaged. Ramon seemed to -notice this also at the same instant. - -“Your hand is hurt, senor,” he said sharply, with a suspicious -inflection. - -“I cut it this morning while closing my knife,” rejoined Canfield -glibly. - -Ramson nodded and said nothing. In the meantime one of the Mexicans -had been busy dishing out the contents of the pot and handing portions -about. The smell reminded Jack that he was excessively hungry and -concluding that he had heard about all he wanted to, he prepared to -depart as silently as he had come. But as he moved his legs an alarming -thing happened. The rock upon which he had been resting gave way -without the slightest warning. Jack made a desperate effort to avoid -crashing down with it, but he was unsuccessful. With a roar and crash, -amid a flying cloud of dust, stones and twigs, the rock and the Border -Boy slid together into the midst of the camp of the man whom Jack had -every reason on earth both to fear and detest. - -But even as he was making his avalanche-like slide down the steep bank. -Jack’s active mind was at work. - -The instant his feet touched solid ground he sprang upright with a -terrific yell:— - -“Yee-ow-ow-ow!” - -“Todos Santos! It is El Diablo,” shrilled some of the Mexicans. But -Ramon, superstitious as he was, was not to be thus easily alarmed. - -“It’s a man!” he shouted, and then the next instant:— - -“Santa Maria! It’s one of the Border Boys!” - -But so quickly had Jack moved that by the time Ramon, the first to -regain his wits, had recovered from his surprise, the lad was already -among the Mexicans’ horses which were tethered at some little distance. -Jack’s quick eye had noted that one of them was saddled and bridled. -Like a flash he was in the saddle, and plying the quirt with might -and main. Behind him came a fusilade of shots, and he could feel the -bullets whistle as he crouched low on his stolen steed’s neck. But he -had assumed, and the event proved correctly, that the Mexicans would -not risk killing one of their horses. - -“Don’t hit the horse!” the fleeing boy heard Ramon shout, as he -dashed off. He really had no idea in what direction he was going, but -flogging his mount with unmerciful ferocity for the kind-hearted Jack, -the lad made all speed from the vicinity of the Mexican camp. - -“Hooray, I’ve shaken them off, anyhow,” he thought to himself, as, -after ten minutes or so of hard riding he heard the shouts and cries of -the Mexicans grow faint behind him. - -But in this assumption Jack had reckoned without his host, in the shape -of Black Ramon’s famous sable steed. - -As he drew rein he heard distinctly the sound of a horse coming toward -his halting place at a terrific gait. No other horse than Black Ramon’s -could have kept up such a speed over such ground, and Jack, with a -sinking heart, realized that if he did not act quickly he was likely to -fall into the outlaw’s hands once more. - -The spot where he had halted was a small rocky eminence surrounded by -the luxuriant fern and scrub growth which clothed the rugged floor of -the canyon. - -To turn his panting animal and head off into the dense growth was the -work of an instant. Hardly had he vanished, however, before the fern -parted once more and disclosed the form of Ramon’s black horse with the -outlaw himself upon his glossy back. - -Like Jack, Ramon halted as he reached the little eminence, and listened -intently. Despite the speed he had made in pursuit, the black showed -hardly a trace of fatigue. His finely carved nostrils dilated a little -more than usual and his large, intelligent eyes shone more brightly -perhaps, but that was all. He pricked his delicate ears and seemed to -be as keenly on the alert as his master, whose face, just now, wore an -expression of almost diabolic rage and baffled fury. - -In the meantime, Jack was loping along at as fast a pace as he dared to -go. The ground, as has been said, was rough and stony to a degree,—the -worst sort of going for one who wished to conceal the sound of his -advance. But there was no help for it; press on the boy must, or fall -into the hands of men whom he knew would give him short shrift indeed. - -“If ever this old plug stumbles—” - -Such was the thought in Jack’s mind when the exact event he had dreaded -transpired. - -His purloined animal gave a plunge forward as its feet caught in a rock -and a tangle of fern. - -The next instant Jack was shot like a projectile through space, while -the horse, with an almost human groan of pain, sank to the ground. At -the same time Ramon, halted on the little hill, caught the sound of the -crash. - -A cruel smile curled his thin lips, exposing his long yellow -teeth—almost like those of some beast of prey. With a whispered word -to his black horse the Mexican outlaw plunged into the brush in the -direction of the sound which had just reached his ears. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -A BATTLE ROYAL. - - -Jack struggled to his feet and surveyed the scene of his disaster -with dismay. A brief examination of his fallen horse told him that it -would be impossible to continue his flight on the animal. Its knees -were cut and bruised, and it lay with an expression of dumb suffering -in its eyes that touched the sorely-tried lad’s heart. If he had not -dropped his little rifle in the excitement of his escape he would have -despatched the creature,—risking the chance of detection from the -sound of the report. - -“Well, here’s where I take to Shank’s mare,” murmured Jack, setting off -once more,—when something whistled through the air and settled about -his neck in a stifling coil. - -It was a rawhide lasso, hurled with deadly accuracy by Ramon, who had -entered the glade just as Jack arose from his examination of the -fallen horse. - -Before the boy had time to realize what had occurred, he was yanked -from his feet and thrown violently to the ground for the second time. - -“So I’ve got you fast and tight, at last, eh,” sneered Ramon -vindictively, gazing down from his great horse at the crestfallen, -dust-covered boy. - -“Well, my young senor,” he continued, with a vicious intonation, “I can -promise you that this time you will not escape so easily. This will be -a treat for the boys.” - -Jack answered nothing. He struggled to rise but the rope was given -a jerk by his captor which brought him to the ground once more. He -could almost have cried with humiliation. At the moment this was his -overmastering feeling. Of fear he felt little, but he would have given -a lot just then to stand up with Black Ramon in a twenty-four-foot -ring! - -Having “thrown” poor Jack very much as he might have done a refractory -calf, the outlaw turned his attention to the injured horse. - -“So you have ruined one of our horses, too, you Yankee pig,” he -snarled; “well, it only makes one more score to settle up with you.” - -He drew one of his big revolvers from its chased leather holster, and -carefully aiming it, shot the mortally injured animal between the eyes. -The creature gave a convulsive shudder and straightened out,—dead. -Without another word Ramon swung his black around, and before he could -make a move Jack found himself being dragged over the rough ground at -a swift pace. Within a few yards his side was bruised and cut, and the -clothing torn from him. - -“Great heavens, if this keeps up I shall be unable to move hand or -foot,” thought Jack in dismay. - -For a moment his heart failed him, and then he suddenly bethought -himself of his knife. To reach it in his side pocket—for his arms -were partially free,—was the work of an instant, and with one quick -slash he cut the rawhide that bound him. - -Released of its burden thus suddenly, the sure-footed black lost its -footing and almost stumbled. - -“Diablo!” Jack heard Ramon shrill out as the Border Boy gave one quick -leap into the dense woods. - -When Ramon looked around there was not a trace of the lad he had had at -the end of his lariat. Instead, a broken end of the rope dangled on the -ground, its ends frayed out. - -“Maledictions!” he yelled, all the fury of his Latin blood boiling -to the surface in an ungovernable flood. “That cursed gringo pup has -fooled me once more.” - -In one of those meaningless frenzies of rage into which his countrymen -are apt to fall when thwarted in anything, Ramon began to vent his -rage on the first animate object to hand. This was the black horse. On -the beautiful creature’s shiny coat the cruel blows of the Mexican’s -lariat fell furiously, raising great welts across the glossy surface. - -For an instant the black quivered and stood motionless. The suddenness -of the attack dazed it. But the next moment, its rage,—as ungoverned -as that of its master, surged up in its equine heart. With an angry -squeal it gave a succession of huge bucks which would have unseated any -ordinary—or extraordinary rider,—but which did not even disturb the -Mexican’s seat. - -Then followed a magnificent exhibition of man versus horse. And it was -not without its watchers—this Homeric struggle for supremacy between -maddened man and maddened beast. - -Jack, from his hiding place in the ferns and brush, heard the sounds -and almost unconsciously he drew closer to the scene of the combat. -Parting the ferns he peered through cautiously, and then was held -spellbound. - -If he were to have been captured for it the next instant he could not -have withdrawn his gaze from the spectacle. - -With clenched teeth and face that was yellow and drawn with rage, Ramon -plied quirt and spur. The big rowelled instruments he wore tore great -streaks in the black’s glossy hide. All the time his quirt fell in a -perfect hailstorm of blows about the noble animal’s flanks. - -But if Ramon’s rage was impressive from its very vindictiveness, how -much more so was the just anger of the big horse. - -Its delicately pointed ears were pressed close back to its shapely -head, while its eye gleamed whitely. As the big silver-mounted bit of -the barbarous Mexican pattern cut and gored its sensitive mouth, the -animal champed and snapped,—like a rabid dog,—till its great chest -was flecked with blood and foam. But it was unsubdued, as unconquered -as its master. - -“By George, what a rider!” was the involuntary exclamation of -admiration forced from Jack as he watched. - -And the next moment. - -“Gracious, what a horse!” - -Suddenly the black reared straight upward, beating the air with its -forelegs. For a breath it swayed and balanced perfectly, and then, -losing its equilibrium—perhaps purposely—it fell backward. - -A cry of alarm broke, against his will, from Jack’s whitened lips. -Ramon’s death seemed certain. But instead of the black crushing his -body in its fall, the agile Mexican was out of the saddle with the -agility of an eel, and as the black leaped erect once more its master -was back in the saddle breathing fresh maledictions and flogging and -rowelling more unmercifully than ever. - -But from that time on, there was no question but that the animal -realized that it had met its match. Its bucks were no longer great, -animated, splendid leaps, driven by the force of its powerful muscles. -Instead, they were limp and dispirited. - -But Ramon seemed bent on thoroughly humiliating the animal. Jack’s -blood began to boil as he saw the brutal punishment increasing in -violence as the black grew more and more subjugated. Its sunken flanks -heaved, its limbs trembled and actual tears rolled down its cheeks; but -Ramon still flogged and beat and spurred as furiously as ever. - -“Oh, that such a rider should be such a brute!” thought Jack, watching -the scene from his place of concealment. - -“This has got to stop,” he determined the next instant. So great was -his anger at the brutal exhibition that had he had his small rifle he -would almost have risked crippling one of the Mexican’s arms or legs in -order to end the sickening brutality. - -But if Jack had not a rifle, he had another weapon perhaps even more -efficacious in his hands. It will be recalled that Jack had performed -some remarkable feats of pitching at Stonefell College, notably in -the great game between West Point and Stonefell. What more natural -then than that he should select from the plenty about him, a small, -well-rounded stone, somewhat smaller than a league ball. - -Feeling sure that Ramon was too intent on his punishment to notice -anything else, Jack stepped boldly to the edge of the little clearing, -and with a preliminary twist he sent the stone hurtling straight and -true at the head of the black’s tormentor. - -Like a tree that has felt the woodsman’s axe, Ramon threw up his hands -as the stone struck him, and without a sound pitched out of the saddle, -crashing in a heap on the ground. - -Jack felt rather alarmed as he saw this. He had not intended to throw -quite so hard. For an instant a dreadful fear that he had killed -Ramon—rascal though the man was,—clutched at his heart. - -Coming boldly out from his place of concealment he hastened to the -fallen man’s side. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -CAUGHT IN A TRAP. - - -But Ramon was not dead,—far from it, in fact. As Jack bent above him -he reached back, and with a swift, cat-like motion, whipped out a knife -and, balancing it on his palm for the fraction of a second, sent it -whistling past the lad’s ear. - -Before he could rise the boy was upon him, and for a space of several -minutes they struggled on the uneven ground, the exhausted horse -looking disinterestedly on. Had it not been for its recent punishment -it is likely that the brute might have interfered, for some of the oft -told tales along the border concerned the black’s love for its master. -But as it was, it made no move, not even when Jack, holding Ramon -pinned to the ground with one hand, with the other jerked loose the -lasso from the saddle, by its hanging end, and rapidly proceeded to -bind the Mexican fast. - -“Adios, Ramon!” cried the boy, as, his task completed, he turned away. - -Had the black horse not been so completely worn out it is likely that -Jack might have commandeered him. But as it was, he deemed it wisest -not to bother with him. - -And so he slipped away, leaving the exhausted horse and helpless master -side by side. - -After traveling some distance Jack began to realize that his woodcraft -was seriously at fault somewhere. He had intended to make a detour -which would bring him around the outlaw’s camp and enable him to reach -their own bivouac unobserved. - -Instead of this, as he now began to dread, he had apparently headed -altogether in the wrong direction, for the country into which he -emerged after traversing the fern-brake and scrub-coppice, was of a -kind distinctly foreign to anything they had as yet encountered in -Mexico. - -Almost bare of vegetation, it was riven and split as if by volcanic -action. The earth was of a reddish color, as if it had been seared by -elemental fires, and the beetling cliffs rose threateningly on either -side. - -“What a gloomy place,” thought Jack, “it reminds me of that valley in -which Sinbad the Sailor found the snakes and the diamonds. Wonder if -there are any diamonds here? Tell you what, though, I’d give a whole -handful of the gems right now for a good square meal.” - -The thought of the appetizing breakfast which had been preparing when -he left camp made Jack hungrier than ever, a fact which he had not -had time heretofore to realize in the rapid march of events which had -occurred since his departure. - -The Border Boy looked about him carefully. He realized that if not -actually lost, he was in grave danger of being so. The thought -quickened his faculties and he set about gauging his position in real -earnest. Having, by the aid of the sun, calculated the direction in -which the Border Boys’ camp ought to lie, Jack struck out for it. His -way led him across a corner of The Baked Land, as he had mentally -christened the dreary valley. - -He was hastening forward when, suddenly, as he stepped into what seemed -a patch of ferns and high grass, the solid ground seemed to vanish from -under his feet. - -Straight down shot the Border Boy, clutching desperately, as he fell, -at projecting rocks and bits of growth; but none of these remained firm -in his grasp. - -For twenty feet or more the boy fell, and then suddenly his drop was -arrested by a heap of dried vegetation at the bottom of the pit or -crevasse into which his hurrying feet had led him. - -So well had the deceitful growth on the edges of this gulf hidden it, -that it was small wonder that Jack, in his haste, had not perceived -it. It was dark with a gloomy, damp sort of dusk in the bottom of the -crevasse, only a dim, greenish light filtering in from the top. - -The reaction from his hopes of a few minutes before almost unnerved the -lad for the nonce, but presently he marshalled his faculties and set -himself to the task of ascertaining exactly what had happened to him, -and what means of escape presented itself. - -At a single glance he could see that there was no hope of getting out -of the subterranean trap by means of climbing up the walls. Although -they were rough and might have afforded a foothold, they overhung the -floor of the pit at such an angle that even a fly would have found it -difficult to maintain a foothold on them. - -Yet rescue himself he must, or face death in that gloomy place. Without -any definite idea in his mind, Jack struck off along the bottom of the -abyss, which was overgrown with a short, coarse sort of grass of a -pallid green color. - -As he moved along his progress was suddenly arrested. His foot had -encountered something that wriggled and squirmed horribly under his -sole. It was a sickening sensation, this, of feeling that squirmy mass -under his foot. - -Jack stepped hastily back. As he did so something brown and mottled -slid off through the grass, hissing angrily. As it went there came a -dry sort of sound, like the rattling of peas in a bladder. At the same -time a nauseating musky odor filled the air. - -“This place may be alive with rattlers!” thought Jack, glancing -nervously about him. - -As he spoke he thought that from a dark corner at the further end -of the rocky pit he could hear a sort of scuffling and rustling, -unpleasantly suggestive of intertwined masses of scaly bodies writhing -and contorting in snaky knots. At any rate, he decided to explore the -rift no further in that direction. Instead, he turned back and sitting -down on a projecting bit of rock,—after first carefully reviewing the -surroundings,—Jack set himself to some hard thinking. - -If only he had possessed a rifle or a revolver,—or even a knife,—his -situation would have been different. By firing the weapons he might -have attracted attention to his dilemma, and with the knife it might -have been feasible to cut steps in the walls at some other part of the -crevasse. - -Then, too, there is something in the mere feel of the good wood and -steel of a rifle that gives a fellow confidence and courage. It seems -like a friend or at least a protector. But poor Jack had none of this -comfort He was trapped in the bowels of the earth with only his bare -hands to aid him out of his difficulties. - -As it was unthinkable to dream of exploring the pit further in the -direction in which he felt sure lay the den of snakes, Jack finally -decided on striking off the other way. That he went carefully, you -may be sure. He did not want again to experience that wriggly, crawly -feeling under his foot. - -The crevasse seemed to be of considerable length. In fact, he estimated -that he had walked some half mile or more before he reached what -seemed to be its confines. It ended abruptly in a steep wall of rock, -and with its termination Jack’s hopes of escape vanished also. Fairly -unnerved, the boy sank down on a heap of dried fern and buried his face -in his hands. - -Was he to be buried alive in this horrible place? - -Then he fell to shouting. He yelled and hulloed till his throat was -dry and sore, and his lips cracked. He knew that he ran considerable -risk of attracting the attention of the outlaws, but in his present -predicament he didn’t much care what happened so long as he got out of -the terrible place. But all his shouting came to naught, and after an -interval of waiting Jack realized that it had all been in vain. - -What was he to do next? Nothing but to wait for rescue or—— But Jack -would not allow himself to complete the sentence. - -“While there is life there is hope,” he murmured to himself, and -involuntarily recalled the night when he had stood upon the tower of -the old mission, a hundred feet above the ground, and deemed that his -end had come. Yet he had escaped from that dilemma, and more impossible -things had happened than that he should get out of his present scrape -alive. - -All at once, while he sat thus meditating, the boy spied, not far above -his head and only a short distance away, a dangling vine some two -inches in circumference, and seemingly tough and fibrous. - -“It ought to bear my weight,” thought Jack, “and if only it will, I’ll -get out of this hideous place yet.” - -He began making brave efforts to reach the trailing tendon. Time and -again, with hands that were cut and bleeding from the rough surface -of the rock, he was compelled to desist in his efforts, but at last, -mustering his waning strength, he made a mighty leap. His fingers -closed on the vine and he drew himself upward. But as the boy’s full -weight came upon the green trailer it snapped abruptly, and Jack was -thrown violently to the ground. - -He fell with such force that he was stunned and helpless. Clasping the -broken bit of treacherous vine in his hands, the Border Boy lay on the -floor of the crevasse, senseless. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -AN EXCITING QUEST. - - -In the meantime, the keenest anxiety prevailed in the camp. After -awaiting breakfast for a long time, it was at last eaten and the tin -dishes scoured, without there being any sign of the missing boy. - -“We must organize a search at once,” declared the professor. “Following -on the top of that warning last night, it begins to look ominous.” - -“Maybe he has lost himself, and will find his way back before long,” -suggested Ralph hopefully. - -Coyote Pete gloomily shook his head. - -“Jack Merrill ain’t that kind,” he said; “I tell yer, I don’t like the -looks of it.” - -“Why not fire guns so that if he is in the vicinity he can hear them?” -was Walt Phelps’ suggestion. - -“Yep, and bring the whole hornets’ nest down on our ears, provided they -are anywhar near,” grunted Coyote Pete. “No younker, we will have to -think up a better way than that.” - -“Would not the search party I suggested be the best plan?” put in the -professor. - -“Reckon it would,” agreed Coyote Pete; “what you kain’t find, look -fur,—as the flea said to ther monkey.” - -But nobody laughed, as they usually did, at Pete’s quaintly phrased -observations. There was too much anxiety felt by them all over Jack’s -unexplained absence. - -“Shall we take the horses?” inquired Walt. - -“Sartin, sure,” was the cow-puncher’s rejoinder, “don’t want ter leave -’em here for that letter writer and his pals to gobble up.” - -So the stock was saddled and the pack burros loaded and “diamond -hitched,” and the mournful and anxious little party got under way. It -so chanced that their way led them to the little hill where Jack had -stopped on the stolen horse and listened for sounds of the pursuit. -Coyote’s sharp eyes at once spied the tracks, but naturally he could -make nothing of them. - -Suddenly Ralph Stetson, who had ridden a little in advance, gave a -startled cry. - -“Come here, all!” he shouted. - -“What’s up now?” grunted Coyote Pete, spurring forward, followed by the -others. - -“Why, here’s a horse,—a dead horse, shot through the head, lying -here,” was the unexpected reply. - -“Well, Mr. Coyote, what do you make of it?” asked the professor, after -Pete had carefully surveyed the ground in the vicinity. - -“Dunno what ter make uv it yit,” snorted Pete. “Looks like ther’s -something back of this, as the cat said when she looked in the mirror, -and—wow!” - -“What is it?” they chorused as they pressed about the spot where Coyote -was pointing downward, an unusual expression of excitement on his -ordinarily unemotional features. - -“See that?” he demanded. - -“Yes, I see several footsteps,” said the professor, “but what have -they——” - -“Ter do with it? Everything. Them’s Jack Merrill’s footmarks or I lose -my guess. And see here, this little wavy line,—a lariat’s dragged -here. Oh, the varmints!” - -“How do you construe all this?” asked the professor. - -“Easy enuff. Them rascals, whoever they be, hev roped Jack, hog-tied -him and dragged him off.” - -“O-oh!” - -The exclamation, half a groan, burst from all their throats. Examining -the ground further, it seemed likely that Coyote’s construction of the -case was a correct one. All of which goes to show how very far wrong a -theory can go. - -“Let’s hurry after them, whoever they are, and put up a fight,” cried -Ralph. - -“Yes, we must rescue Jack,” echoed Walt Phelps. - -“Now, hold your broncs, youngsters,” warned Coyote, “in the fust place -we dunno how many of them there be, and in the second we dunno jus’ -whar they air. Am I right?” - -“Indeed, yes,” said the professor. “Boys, you should not be so -impetuous. Julius Caesar, when he——” - -“Dunno the gent,” struck in Pete, “but my advice is to kind of hunt -around this vicinity and maybe we’ll find some more clews. Go easy, -now, boys, and make as little noise as possible.” - -A few moments later the ashes of the camp fire near which Jack had so -suddenly alighted were found, but of the outlaws no trace remained. As -a matter of fact, Ramon’s shouts had attracted them, and as soon as -they had rescued him the camp had been abandoned in a hurry. It did not -suit Ramon just then to try conclusions with the Border Boys. - -“Wall, here’s whar they camped,” muttered Coyote Pete, “we certainly -had some close neighbors last night.” - -The boys examined the camp site with interest, while the professor -and Coyote Pete conversed earnestly apart. At the conclusion of their -confab, Coyote Pete spoke. - -“It’s up to us to go forward, boys,” he said. “Ain’t no use lingering -’bout these diggin’s.” - -“But mayn’t the bad men have turned back down the canyon?” asked Ralph. - -Coyote shook his head. - -“Think agin, son,” he admonished, “the floor of the gulch is too narrow -for ’em to hev got by us without our knowing it.” - -“That’s so,” said Walt, while Ralph colored up a bit. He didn’t like to -be looked upon as a tenderfoot. - -It was some time later that they reached the volcanic-looking stretch -of country into the pitfalls of which Jack had fallen. - -“Ugh! What a dreary place!” stammered Walt, a bit apprehensively. - -Somehow they all felt the oppressive gloom in the same way. It -depressed and made them silent. When they spoke at all it was in -hushed tones, like folks use in church or a big museum. This is the -effect of most awe-inspiring scenery, be it beautiful and grand, or -merely gloomy and threatening. - -“In past ages volcanic energy was at work here,” said the professor, -gazing about with interest; “the formation of yonder cliffs tells an -interesting story to the scientist. I wish my geological hammer was not -in the packs, and I could get some specimens of the rocks. They would -be excessively interesting.” - -“Not half so interesting ter me as a peek at Jack Merrill,” grunted -Pete. “I wish your science was capable of finding that lad for us, -professor.” - -“Indeed, I wish so, too,” sighed the professor, “but that is outside -the realm of science. She can tell you of the past but is silent as to -the future.” - -“I wonder if there are any volcanoes ’round about here now?” asked -Ralph, looking about rather apprehensively. - -“No, indeed, the fires are long extinct,” declared the professor, “this -valley was formed at a remote period when no doubt hot water geysers -and fires spouted through the earth’s crust. But that will never occur -again. In fact——” - -“Look! Look there!” shouted Walt, suddenly pointing off to one side of -the valley. - -“By Jee-hos-o-phat—smoke!” yelled Pete, fairly startled out of his -usual composure. - -“A volcano!” cried Walt “Hadn’t we better be getting away from here?” - -“This is most extraordinary,” exclaimed the man of science, “there is -every evidence here that the internal fires have been long extinct -and yet, as if to confound us, smoke comes pouring from that fissure -yonder.” - -“Wall, my vote is that we git right out of hyar quick,” declared Pete, -“volcanoes and Peter de Peyster never did agree.” - -But the professor, filled with scientific ardor, was already spurring -his bony animal across the scarred and arid plain toward the smoke. - -The others, watching him, saw him approach the fissure carefully and -dismount. The next instant he uttered a yell that startled them all. - -“Hez ther fireworks started?” asked Coyote anxiously. - -The professor was waving his bony arms around like one of those wooden -figures that you see on barns. He was evidently in a state of great -excitement. - -“What’s that he’s shouting?” asked Walt. “Hark!” - -“Boys! boys! I’ve found him—Jack!” - -This was the cry that galvanized them all into action. Without seeking -for explanations, in fact, without a word, they spurred toward the -professor’s side. They found him peering down into the fissure, the -edge of which was concealed by grass and ferns. Craning their necks, -they, too, could spy a figure in the depths of the crevasse. - -“Jack! Jack, old boy! Are you all right?” they cried anxiously. - -“Bright and fair!” came up the cheery answer, “but almost dead. I -thought you’d never come. Got anything to eat?” - -“Anything your little heart desires,” Walt assured him. - -In the meantime Pete had been busy getting a lariat in trim to lower -to the beleaguered boy. Presently it was ready, and after much hauling -and struggling, they got their companion once more to the surface. Jack -reeled for an instant as he gained the brink, but Ralph’s arms caught -him. The next minute he had recovered his self-possession, however, and -after eating ravenously of such provisions as could be got together -hastily, he related the story of the strange things that had happened -to him since leaving camp that morning. - -“If I hadn’t thought of those matches in my pocket and of igniting -a fire of that dried grass, I doubt if I’d have been here now,” he -concluded. - -“I think you are right,” said the professor gravely, “I am glad that -that fire at least was not extinct.” - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -THE CLOUDBURST. - - -Our adventurers, after a council of war, decided to press right on. As -Coyote Pete put it: - -“We’ve got a plumb duty ter perform and we’ll see the game through, if -it’s agreeable to all present.” - -It was, and after Jack had fully recovered, which, aided by his natural -buoyancy, did not take as long as might have been expected, the start -was made. - -“It’s a race for the Trembling Mountain, now,” cried Jack, as he once -more bestrode brave little Firewater. - -“So it is,” cried Walt Phelps. - -“And may the best man win,” struck in Ralph rather pointlessly, as Pete -reminded him. - -“There’s only one bunch of best men on this trip,” he said, “and -they’re all with this party.” - -It did not take long to leave the dreary volcanic valley behind them, -and they soon emerged on a rolling plain covered with plumed grasses of -a rich bluish-green hue, on the further margin of which there hung like -dim blue clouds, a range of mountains. - -“There is our goal,” cried the professor, with what was for him a -dramatic gesture. He waved his arm in the direction of the distant -hills. - -“Yip-yip-y-e-e-e!” exploded the boys, in a regular cowboy yell. - -“A race to that hummock yonder!” shouted Jack. - -The others needed no urging. After their rough journey among the -mountains the ponies, too, seemed to enter into the pleasure of -traversing this broad open savannah. - -Off they dashed, hoofs a-rattling and dust a-flying. But it was -Firewater’s race from the start. The lithe little pony easily distanced -the others, and Jack, laughing and panting, drew rein at the goal a -good ten seconds before the others tore up with quirts and spurs going -furiously. Jack decided it was a dead heat between Walt and Ralph, and -both declared themselves satisfied. - -As the sun dropped lower, and hung like a red ball above the distant -mountains, the question of finding a suitable camping place became an -urgent one. Finally, however, on reaching the dried-up bed of a river, -Coyote Pete decided that they had reached the proper spot. - -“What about water?” inquired Walt rather anxiously. - -“Plenty of that,” said Pete, sententiously. - -They looked about at the dry sand and rocks in the river bed and at the -waving grass on either hand. - -“You must have splendid eyesight,” laughed Ralph, “I don’t see a drop, -unless it’s in those clouds ’way off there above the mountains.” - -“I, too, must confess that I’m puzzled,” put in the professor. “A more -arid spot I have rarely seen.” - -“Wall, I’ll guarantee that if you dig down a few feet right hyar you’ll -get all the water you want,” said Coyote Pete calmly. - -“Soon proved,” cried Ralph, and aided by Walt he unpacked one of the -burros and the two lads selected long-handled shovels. - -How the dirt did fly then! Maybe it was an accident, and then again -maybe it wasn’t, when the professor, deeply immersed in a book he -carried in his pocket, found himself the center of a regular gravel -storm. He hastily moved out of the radius of the energetic diggers. But -presently a loud cry from them announced a discovery. - -“Struck oil?” asked Jack. - -“Better still,—water!” - -Sure enough, from the steep sides of the big holes they had dug, water -was beginning to ooze. It was brownish in hue, alkaline in taste and -distinctly warm, but still it was water, and men, boys and beasts drank -eagerly of it. - -But it ran in very slowly, and, as Jack observed, it was a long time -between drinks. - -“Wish some of that rain off in the mountains would strike hereabouts,” -observed Walt, as they sat down to supper. - -“How do you know it’s raining off there?” asked Ralph belligerently. - -“I can see the dark clouds, Mister Smarty, and also, I have observed -the fact that lightning is flashing among them.” - -“Hear the thunder, too, I suppose?” asked Ralph sardonically. - -“Might if my ears were as big as yours,” parried Walt. - -Immediate hostilities were averted by the professor, who said: - -“Boys! boys! Let us change the subject.” - -“The ears, you mean,” muttered Walt, but he didn’t say it out loud, -and the meal passed off merrily after the little passage-at-arms. -As it grew dark, they could see the lightning flashes in the far -distance quite distinctly. It had a weird effect, this sudden coming -and departure of blue flares on the horizon. Against the radiance the -serrated outlines of the mountains stood out as if they had been cut -from cardboard. - -“Going to set a watch to-night?” asked Ralph, as they sat about a fire -formed of the tough fibrous roots of the tufted grass, which was really -more of a shrub. - -“Of course,” rejoined Coyote, “we don’t know whether them varmints of -Ramon’s is ahead or ahind, but wherever they are, if we don’t watch -out, they’ll do us all the mischief they can.” - -“Reckon that’s right,” agreed Ralph, “there’s one good thing, though, -they can’t very well creep up on us here.” - -“No, that’s one advantage of an open camp,” agreed Jack, “on the other -hand, though, we might have a job defending ourselves if attacked.” - -More discussion, none of which would be of vital interest to record -here, followed. But it did not last long. Thoroughly tired out as our -adventurers were, they one by one sought their blankets and the camp -was soon wrapped in silence. That is, if the snores of some of the -members of the party be excepted. But Coyote, who was on watch, was not -bothered with sensitive nerves, and the noise disturbed him not a whit. - -It was about midnight, and time for the plainsman to call Jack and -Ralph to relieve him on guard, when a most peculiar sound arrested him -in the act of crossing to the sleeping lads’ sides. - -The noise which had attracted his attention was a most unusual, -an almost awe-inspiring one. Coming from no definite quarter, it -yet filled the air with an omnipresent rumbling and roaring, not -unlike,—so it flashed into Coyote’s mind,—the reverberating rumble of -an express train. - -“But they ain’t no night mails crossing this savannah as I ever heard -on,” he thought. - -“Jumping bob cats!” he fairly howled the next instant. - -In two bounds he reached the sleepers’ sides and fairly shouted and -shook them into wakefulness. - -“What is it, Indians?” cried Jack, springing erect. - -“Another bear!” gasped the professor. - -“It ain’t neither. It’s worser th’n both!” was Coyote’s alarming, if -oddly expressed, rejoinder. - -As he spoke the roaring became louder, closer, more ominous. - -Through the darkness they could now see that rushing toward them -down the dry river bed was a mighty line of white. In the very -indefiniteness of its form there was something that gripped them -all with a cold chill of alarm, the keener for its very lack of -understanding of the nature of the approaching mass. Ralph snatched up -a rifle, but Coyote, seizing his arm, checked him in a flash. - -“Don’t do that, son. It’s not a mite of good,” he cried, and then the -next instant:— - -“Run for your lives, everybody! Thar’s bin a cloudburst in ther -mountains, and here comes ther gosh darndest flood since Noah’s!” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -ADRIFT ON THE DESERT. - - -The consternation which Coyote’s words caused may be imagined. The -Border Boys hastily snatched up what they could, and with Professor -Wintergreen sprinting beside them, they dashed off, making for the -higher ground off to the right of their camping place. Behind them came -the wall of white, angry water, uplifting its snowy crest gleamingly -through the darkness. - -But suddenly Jack stopped short. - -“Here, take these,” he exclaimed, thrusting his rifle and blankets into -Ralph’s hands. - -Before the other could reply Jack was off into the night, sprinting -away as he had not done since the field meet at Stonefell, when he won -that memorable two hundred yard dash. The lad had suddenly recollected, -and bitterly censured himself for it, too, that in the first flash of -panic he had entirely forgotten to turn their stock loose. Tethered as -they were, the animals would be drowned and the party helpless, unless -the creatures were set free to swim for their lives, or gallop off -before the flood. - -Fortunately, it was not far, as the animals were staked out some -distance below the camp and in the general direction in which the -active lads had been fleeing. - -As he ran, Jack felt for and found his knife, a big-bladed, -heavily-handled affair. Reaching the ponies’ sides, he hastily slashed, -with heavy sweeps of his stout blade, one after another of the tethers. -The animals, super-sensitive to approaching danger, were already wildly -excited, and as their halter lines parted one after another, they -dashed off madly. - -The last animal for Jack to reach was Firewater. But the pony, instead -of dashing off like the others, nuzzled close to Jack, shivering and -sweating in an extremity of terror. Do what he could, Jack could not -get him to move. All at once the boy threw a quick glance behind as a -rapid footstep sounded. - -“Coyote!” he cried. - -“Yep, Jack, it’s that same dern fool,” cried the cow-puncher, “I see -you had brains enough to do what I orter done afore we started on the -run.” - -“No time to talk about that now,” exclaimed Jack. “Look behind you.” - -“Gee whillakers, boy, the flood’s upon us!” - -Jack’s reply was to spring upon Firewater’s back. - -“Here, Pete! Up behind me, quick!” - -“Go on, Jack, and get away; I’ll take my chances.” - -“Not much you won’t! Get up quick, now!” - -The lad extended a foot. Pete rested his weight on it for a flash and -the next instant was mounted behind Jack. - -“Yip-ee-ee-ee!” shrilled the boy, driving home his heels into the -pony’s flanks. - -[Illustration: Firewater, balky no longer, gave a mad leap forward. -Behind them roared the oncoming flood.] - -Firewater, balky no longer, gave a mad leap forward. Behind them roared -the oncoming flood. - -“Make for the high ground!” shouted Pete, “it’s our only chance.” - -Jack made no reply, but bent lower over Firewater’s withers, urging -the gallant little pony on. But suddenly their flight was checked. -And that, too, just as they had reached the comparative safety of the -higher ground on the banks of the dry water course which had become so -suddenly converted into a menace. - -Firewater stuck his foot into a pocket-gopher hole. He struggled -bravely to maintain his footing, but what with the heavy load he was -carrying and the speed at which he had been suddenly halted, the pony -lost his equilibrium. The next instant Jack and Coyote were on the -ground while Firewater, thoroughly scared now, dashed off, whinnying -wildly in his terror. - -Pete, too, was up in a flash, but Jack lay quite still. The force of -the fall had stunned him. The cow-puncher caught him up in a jiffy and -set off clumsily, running from the menace behind with the unconscious -boy in his arms. - -But like most men whose lives have been spent in the saddle in our -great west, Pete was an indifferent runner. Then, too, his heavy -leather “chaps,” which he had not removed while on watch, hampered him. - -Before he had run ten yards the onrush of water was upon him and his -senseless burden. The irresistible force of the flood swept him from -his feet in a flash and bore him on its swirling surface like a chip or -a straw. But half stunned, choked and dazed as he was, the cow-puncher -clung to Jack. How long he could have continued to do so is doubtful, -and this story might have had a far different termination. But -something that occurred just at that instant deprived Pete of further -responsibility in the matter. - -Something struck him a sudden blow in the back of the head and a -thousand lights instantly surged and danced before his eyes. As he -lost consciousness, Pete felt himself seized by what appeared to be a -mass of rough arms or tentacles, and lifted bodily from his feet. Then -everything faded from his senses. - -When he recovered it was broad daylight and Jack was bending over him. -Sick and weak as the rugged cow-puncher felt as his senses rushed back -like an arrested tide, he could not forbear smiling as he gazed at the -lad. - -Jack’s costume was, to say the least, an airy one. It consisted in -fact, of part of his night clothing, badly torn, and a pair of boots -which he had just had time to put on in the hurried retreat from the -camp. - -The boy saw the smile and guessed its reason. But the smile was -speedily replaced by a more serious expression as Pete sat up and at -once sought to have explained to him just what had happened. - -“Something that felt like one of them octopusses you read about, -gripped me, and that’s about all I can recall,” he said; “what came -next?” - -“I hardly know much more about that than you,” was Jack’s response, -“except that when I recovered my senses after that spill that Firewater -gave us I found myself half drowned, all tangled up in the roots of a -big tree that the flood was hurrying along. Feeling about me the first -thing I discovered was you, and I can tell you I was mighty glad, too, -Pete, old boy. No, don’t glare at me. I know,—or can guess,—that it -was you who saved my life after Firewater threw us both off and——” - -“No more of that, youngster,” snorted Pete sternly, although his eyes -were filled with an odd moisture. “I reckon it was the old tree yonder -that saved us both. We were both struggling in the flood when it hit -me and put me to sleep for a while. It’s a good thing it came on roots -first or we might not have bin so chipper this partic’lar A. M.” - -They both regarded the tree to which they probably owed their lives. -A big stick of timber of the pine variety, and evidently of mountain -growth, it lay a short distance from them just as the flood had left it -stranded. For the cloudburst over, the water had sunk in the dry river -bed as rapidly as it had arisen. Hardly a foot of muddy liquid now -remained in the river to show the aftermath of the wild watercourse of -the night. - -“But now, what has become of the others?” exclaimed Jack anxiously. “I -hope they are all right.” - -“I guess so, son,” said Pete, rising rather weakly to his feet, for the -blow the tree had struck him, while it had not broken the skin, had -been a stunning one. - -“You see,” he went on, “they got a good start of us and should have -reached the high ground afore the water hit.” - -“That’s so,” agreed Jack, “and I can see now that the water did not -rise so very high. It was its speed and anger that made it terrible.” - -“Wonder how far that blamed old tree carried us,” said Pete, rather -anxiously. “It’s just curred to me that if we don’t connect with the -stock and some grub pretty quick, we’ll be in a bad fix.” - -He gazed about him as he spoke. On every side stretched monotonous -plains covered with the same gray-green brush as the savannah amidst -which they had camped the night before. But the question in Pete’s mind -was whether or not it was the same plain or another altogether on which -they stood. - -But fortunately for them, for they were not in the mood or condition -to stand hardship long, they were not destined to remain long in doubt -as to the whereabouts of their companions. While they were gazing -anxiously into the distance Jack’s keen eye suddenly detected a sharp -flash off to the eastward. It was as if the sun had glinted for an -instant on a bit of sharply cut diamond. The flash was as bright as a -sudden ray of fire. The next instant it was seen no more. But a second -later it flashed up again. This time the glitter was to be seen for a -longer interval. - -“What on airth is it?” gasped Pete, to whom Jack had indicated the -phenomenon. - -“Wait one moment and maybe I can tell you if it is what I hope,” cried -Jack in an excited tone. With burning eyes he watched the distant point -of light flashing and twinkling like a vanishing and reappearing star. - -“Hooray!” he cried suddenly, “it’s all right! It’s Ralph and the rest -and they are all safe. But they don’t know yet where we are.” - -Pete gazed at the boy as if he suspected that the stress of the night -might have turned his mind. - -“Anything else you kin see off thar?” he asked sardonically. - -“Nothing but that they say the horses are all right, and that if we see -their signals we are to send up a smoke column,” replied Jack calmly, -his countenance all aglow. - -“Look hyar, Jack Merrill, I promised your father ter take care of yer,” -said Pete sternly, “an’ I don’t want ter take back a raving loonertick -to him. What’s all this mean?” - -“That Ralph is signalling with a bit of mirror,—heliographing, they -call it in the army,” cried Jack, with a merry laugh, which rather -discomfited Pete. - -“Wall, that may be, too,” he admitted grudgingly, “thar sun would catch -it and make it flash. But how under ther etarnal stars kin you tell -what he’s saying?” - -“Simple enough,” rejoined Jack; “he was making the flashes long and -short,—using the Morse telegraph code, in fact. You know we had a -cadet corps at Stonefell to which we both belonged. Field signalling -and heliographing was part of our camping instruction, but I guess -neither of us ever dreamed it would come in handy in such a way as -this. That certainly was a bully idea of Ralph’s. He knew if we were -any place around we would see the flashes and be able to read them, -whereas we couldn’t have sighted them in the tall brush so easily and -might have missed them altogether.” - -“Wall, what air we goin’ ter do now?” asked Pete, rather apathetically. - -“Do? Why, light a fire, of course. Then they’ll see the smoke column -and come over to us with grub and the ponies.” - -“Hum,” snorted Pete. “Got any matches?” - -“Why, no. Haven’t you?” - -“Nary a one.” - -“Phew!” whistled Jack. “Now we are in a fix for certain. What can we -do?” - -“Keep your shirt—or what’s left of it—on, son, you’ll need it,” said -Pete slowly, a smile overspreading his sun-bronzed features, “thar’s -more ways of killing cats than choking ’em ter death with superfine -cream. Likewise thar’s more ways of lighting a fire than by using -parlor matches.” - -Jack watched Pete wonderingly as he took out his knife in silence and -strode off to the tree. He found a dead branch and whittling off the -wet outside bark soon reached the dry interior. This done, he cut the -wood down to a stick about two feet long and a little thicker than a -stout lead pencil. Then he hacked away at some more of the dry wood -till he had a small flat bit of thoroughly dry timber. In this he -excavated a small hole to fit the point of the pencil-like stick. - -“Now git me some dry twigs from that brush yonder,” he directed Jack, -who had been gazing on these preparations with much interest and a -dawning perception of what the old plainsman was going to do. - -By the time Jack was back with the twigs,—the dryest he could -find,—Pete had scraped off a lot of sawdust-like whittlings and piled -them about the hole he had dug out. Then taking the pencil-like stick -between his palms, he inserted its lower end in the hole, carefully -heaped the sawdust stuff about it, and began rotating it slowly at -first and then fast. - -All at once a smell of burning wood permeated the air. From the -sawdust a tiny puff of blue smoke rolled up. Suddenly it broke into -flame. - -“Now the twigs! Quick!” cried Pete, and as Jack gave him the dry bits -of stick he piled them on the blazing punk-wood, blowing cautiously -at the flame. In ten minutes he had a roaring fire. But the old -plainsman’s work wasn’t finished yet. He began hacking green branches -from the tree and piling them on top of his blaze. - -Instantly a pillar of dun-colored, smoke, thick and greasy, rolled -upward into the still air. - -Pete took off his leather coat and threw it over the smoking pyre, -smothering the column of vapor. - -“Now then, son,” he said, with the faintest trace of triumph in his -voice, “yer see that this here hell-io-what-you-may-call ’em, ain’t -ther only trick in the plainsman’s bag. By raising and lowering that -coat you kin talk in your Remorse thing as long as you like.” - -“Pete, I take off my hat to you,” exclaimed Jack, feeling ashamed -of the rather superior manner he had assumed when talking of the -heliograph a while before. - -“That’s all right, son. But take it frum yer Uncle Dudley that we none -of us know everything. Thar’s things you kin larn from an Injun, jus’ -as I larned how ter git that fire a-goin’.” - -Kneeling by the smoldering smoke-pile, Jack raised and lowered the coat -at long and short intervals, forming a species of smoke telegraphy -easily readable by anyone who understood the Morse code. - -An hour of anxious waiting followed and then upon the scene galloped -at top speed the rest of the adventurers bearing with them some food, -scanty but welcome, and best of all, the ponies and one rifle. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE LONE RANCHO. - - -Well, that was an odd meal, that refection of water-soaked biscuit and -canned corned beef, with flood water as a beverage. Perhaps in all the -adventures of the Border Boys, when in after years they came to recall -them, no scene stood out quite so strikingly. - -For one thing, Coyote Pete alone, of the party, possessed any sort of -wardrobe. The professor was clad in his “barber pole” pajamas. Ralph -boasted a shirt and Walt Phelps possessed the same with the addition of -a pair of socks, which latter hardly fulfilled requirements so far as a -covering for his nether limbs was concerned. - -From time to time the Border Boys had to look at each other and burst -out laughing. Only the professor viewed the matter in a serious light. - -“Suppose we should meet some ladies,” he asked indignantly. - -“Reckon thar ain’t many of ’em hereabouts,” ventured Coyote, spreading -a big slice of beef on a bit of soggy bread. “The burros is ther only -representatives of the gentle sex fer a good many miles, I opinion.” - -The burros, relieved of their packs, which had been swept away, wagged -their ears appreciatively at this, and continued browsing on the short, -coarse grass which grew in patches here and there, and which the boys -were delighted to see seemed also to be palatable to the horses. - -Ralph and the others had already related how the terrified animals -had been recaptured without difficulty early that day. In fact, a -circumstance which has often been noted was their good fortune, namely, -that panic-stricken horses in lonely, wild countries, will actually -seek human companionship,—provided, of course, that they have already -been domesticated. As for the burros, their loud “hee-haws” had -resounded all night. - -Ralph also explained how the idea of the mirror heliograph came to him. -The lad who, as has been explained, was a bit of a dandy, was horrified -to discover the abbreviated state of his wardrobe. But a search of -his shirt pocket revealed his pocket-mirror with its folding brush -and comb fittings. The railroad king’s son had at once set to work to -make himself presentable about the head at least, and was combing his -hair neatly and wondering how Jack and Pete had fared, when the sun -caught the mirror and it flashed blindingly into his eyes. This gave -him the idea of flashing it in all directions in the hope that the -others, if within sight, would catch its glint. Then came the happy -thought of telegraphing with the bit of glass by alternately covering -and uncovering it. The idea had met with the warm approval of the -professor and Walt Phelps, although, perhaps, even they had not been -over sanguine of results. - -“Well,” said Jack at length, after the events of the night and the -following incidents had been discussed and re-discussed, “what are we -going to do now?” - -“Get clothes,” cried Ralph, without an instant’s hesitation, regarding -his bare legs disparagingly. - -“By all means, yes,” agreed the professor. - -Coyote Pete grinned. - -“Jack,” said he, “will you be so kind as ter step ter the telephone -and tell the Blue Front Store to send up a few samples of men’s -furnishings?” - -All but the professor burst into a roar of laughter at this sally. - -“At any rate,” suggested Walt Phelps, “we’re not likely to get held up.” - -“Not so sure about that,” said the professor, “I have the money belt -containing most of our finances around my waist. I always sleep with it -there.” - -“Hooray!” shouted the boys, who, up to that moment had not once thought -of the important question of finances. It struck them now with -sobering force. - -“By George!” cried Jack, “if it hadn’t been for your foresight, -professor, we might have been penniless as well as wardrobeless.” - -“That’s right,” agreed Coyote Pete, “and ther chance that you’d stand -of being helped out by the greasers would be about ther same as a -snowflake ’ud have on a red-hot cook stove.” - -“My idea is to lose no time in striking out for a town or village where -we can get some clothes, even if they are only Mexican garments,” -announced Jack. - -“And food, too,” put in Walt Phelps, who liked to get his three meals a -day, “we’ll be on starvation diet if we don’t stock up on that.” - -After more discussion it was agreed to follow up the dry bed of the -river, as the professor’s map showed a small village some distance up -a stream which, though unnamed on the map, seemed to be the one on -whose banks they now were. This decision reached, no time was lost in -mounting. There was no saddling to be done, for the saddles had been -swept off with most of the rest of their outfit. - -“If you ever catch me camping in the dry bed of a river again you are -welcome to hang me to a sour apple tree,” grumbled Walt Phelps, as he -mounted. - -“I reckon I’m ter blame fer it all,” volunteered Coyote Pete, “but I -never thought as how that far-off storm would affect us in the plains. -That must have bin a jim-dandy of a cloudburst.” - -“I’d hate to have been any closer to it than we were,” laughed Jack. -“If we had been, we’d have been going yet, I imagine.” - -“I heard of a cloudburst once that did some good, though,” struck in -Pete; “ther thing happened to a friend of mine in Californy. He wuz a -miner, Jefferson Blunt by name. - -“Wall, sir, Jeff had struck such all-fired bad luck up on the -Stanislaus River that he’d about concluded to pull out for other -regions when, all of a sudden, one night up came a storm, and in the -middle of it there come the all-firedest cloudburst that Jeff had ever -heard of. It picked up his cabin and floated Jeff off down the river, -a-going like a blue streak. He thought every minute that he’d hear -Gabriel’s trumpet and see ther golden stairs, but that little old cabin -was well built and watertight, and it floated like a boat. - -“It must hev been hours, Jeff says, afore he felt ther thing give a -bump and stop. As soon as he dared he opened ther door and peeked out. -He wuz in a part uv ther country he’d never seen. It was all cliffs and -big trees and very imposing, and ther like of that,—that ‘imposing’ is -Jeff’s word. - -“Wall, Jeff he steps out of his sea-going shack and looks about him, -and ther first thing he sees is a big streak of ore just a-glitter with -gold and stuck, like a band of yaller ribbon along ther cliff face -above his head. - -“Jeff had bin so unlucky that first he thinks it’s jes’ fool’s gold and -not the real article. But he soon convinces himself thet he’s struck -it rich at last. Wall, ter make a long story short, Jeff files a claim -and in a few y’ars is a rich man, and what d’ye s’pose he called ther -mine?” - -“‘The Cloud Burst,’ of course!” cried Jack. - -“How’d yer guess it?” asked Pete. “But yer right, and thet’s ther only -cloudburst I ever hearn’ of, thet brought anybody any luck.” - -“Personally, if I could find a pair of trousers,” wailed the professor, -“I should esteem their possession almost above even such a lucky -discovery as you have related.” - -“I think I’d trade it right now for a porter-house steak and trimmings, -brown gravy and green corn, and——” - -“See here,” put in Ralph, with assumed indignation, “if you don’t shut -up I’ll, I’ll——” - -“Go right home,” chuckled Walt teasingly; “you’d be a fine sight in -that rig. I’ll bet the folks back east would have you put in the -calaboose.” - -But by noon the gay spirits of the boys were considerably toned down. -No sign of a town had yet come in sight and they were all hot, hungry -and tired. The odd procession, with the burros tagging along behind, -looked disconsolate enough as it followed the windings of the river. -The shallow aftermath of the flood steamed and simmered under the hot -sun, sending up unpleasant odors,—yet they had to drink it or go -without. - -By way of cheering the party up, Coyote Pete began to sing—or rather -wail—in the high-pitched voice affected by cow-punchers singing to -their cattle: - - “O-ho-wa-hay da-own upon the Su-wahanee River, - Fa-har, fa-har a-way——” - -But before he could begin the next line Ralph struck in with: - - “There’s where our pants are floating ever; - There’s where they’re gone to stay!” - -In the general roar of laughter which followed, the “grouch” which had -settled down on the tired wayfarers vanished like the spring snow under -a burst of sunlight. - -With a shout the boys, their troubles forgotten in an outburst of that -good nature that makes the whole world kin, plunged forward, their -shirt tails flying. - -“Yip-yip-ye-ee!” - -The joyous yell filled the air. And then it broke off into a real -cheer, for, on surmounting the summit of a small eminence, they saw -below them, not more than a mile off, a small adobe house of unusual -type, for it had two stories. It was surrounded by a grove of green -willows which delighted the eye tired by the endless gray-green -stretches of grease-wood savannahs. - -Even the dignified professor joined in the enthusiasm, and in a minute -a cavalcade was bearing down on the place at breakneck speed. As they -neared it in a thunder of hoofs and a cloud of yellow dust, a door -opened and the figure of a gaunt Mexican, with long, shaggy, black -hair hanging straight and lank to his shoulders, stepped out. His next -move halted the leaders of the party abruptly. - -He jerked a long-barreled rifle to his shoulder and pointed it -threateningly. - -“Mira rurales!” he yelled to some one within the house. - -“No rurales! Americanos!” cried Coyote Pete. - -The effect was magical. The man’s startled air changed, and with a -sheepish smile he stepped forward as Jack and Ralph, who were in -advance, drew rein. - -“What did he mean by rurales, I wonder?” asked Ralph of Jack in a low -tone as the others loped up. - -“Why, rurales are a species of police. Rangers, they are called -sometimes. They are wild chaps, mostly recruited from the ranks of -brigands and highwaymen. The government pays them a high figure to be -good and keep law and order.” - -“But this man seemed to fear them.” - -“Maybe he has reason to. But we can’t be particular. At any rate, we -are a strong enough party to look after our own hands. But see, here -comes his wife. I guess, after all, he is nothing more unlawful than a -cattle rancher in a small way, who perhaps, once-in-a-while takes an -unbranded calf or two from his neighbor’s estates.” - -The woman who joined the man, who by this time had set down the rifle, -was a stout, slatternly-looking creature in a greasy cotton wrapper. -She shot out a few rapid words in a low voice to the other, who replied -in equally low tones. So far as Jack, who was closest, could judge, the -woman seemed to be protesting against something, and the man stilling -her objections. - -Coyote Pete as spokesman now advanced, and in Spanish asked if they -could obtain lodging and refreshment for themselves and their stock. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -AFTER MIDNIGHT. - - -To their astonishment, the man seemed to hesitate. They had judged from -the poverty-stricken look of his place and belongings that he would -jump at the chance to make some money easily. But it seemed that this -was not the case. - -While the fellow still hesitated, glancing covertly at the newcomers, -the professor did a foolish thing. He exhibited his money belt and -tapping it made it give forth the suggestive jingle of coins. Coyote -Pete’s expression grew angry for a moment, but he checked his chagrin -at the professor’s foolish move. - -But the exhibition of the party’s financial solidity seemed to have -decided the ill-favored Mexican and his wife, for after some more -parley, which somehow appeared to Jack to be merely for form’s sake, -they agreed to shelter the party and their stock at two dollars each, -Mexican, which is equivalent to one dollar of our money. - -“Cheap enough,” said Jack, as ten minutes later they turned their stock -loose in the corral and watched them attack with wholesome appetites -the hay stack in the center of the enclosure. - -“May be dear enough before we get through,” thought Coyote Pete to -himself. - -He refrained from mentioning his mistrustful feeling to the others, -however, as, after all, the Mexicans might be honest enough folks even -if his impressions were otherwise. - -After a wash-up in a small creek which flowed at the back of the place, -the adventurers were quite ready to sit down to a smoking meal of -frijoles (beans fried with red peppers) and eggs cooked in the Mexican -style. Some thin red wine was served with the meal, but as none of -the party had any use for alcoholic beverages in any form, they were -content to wash it down with water from the great stone olla,—or water -cooler which hung under the broad eaves of the veranda. - -Jack had an uneasy sense that they were being scrutinized as they ate, -by some unseen pair of eyes, and once looking up quickly he caught, or -thought he did, a glimpse of the woman’s print gown slipping from a -shuttered window. Jack was not a boy to make a mountain out of a mole -hill, though, and concluded that, in all probability, the woman, if she -had been looking at them, had been merely curious at the advent of so -many strangers. - -The rest of the afternoon, for it was late when they concluded their -meal, was passed in chatting and lounging about under the trees. Nobody -felt inclined for more strenuous occupations. The professor, however, -having obtained some old canvas, succeeded in fashioning a rough pair -of trousers. They were short and shapeless, and his legs stuck out -oddly from them like the drumsticks of a fowl, but they were better -than nothing, he thought. As for the boys, they had bought some baggy -garments of the Mexican type from the lone rancher, which would have to -last them till they reached the nearest town. This, they were informed, -was Santa Anita, and was not more than ten miles distant. - -An early start being determined on, they sought their beds soon after -supper, which consisted of the same fare as the other meal with the -addition of some greasy pancakes. Jack ate some of these, not caring -for a second dose of the peppery beans and a short time after felt, as -he expressed it to himself, “as if a cannon ball were in his midst.” - -Perhaps this accounts for his wakefulness, for he found it impossible -to sleep after they had all turned in, in one large room,—or, rather, -garret,—which formed the second floor. The others flung themselves -on the straw, which served for beds, with the lassitude of complete -exhaustion, but Jack lay awake, with the pancakes on his chest like a -leaden weight. At length he fell into an uneasy slumber, from which -he awakened a short time later with a start and a queer feeling that -something in which they were vitally interested was going forward. - -His first vague feelings rapidly crystallized into more definite shape -as, from the yard outside, he could now distinctly hear the trampling -of horses’ hoofs. There seemed to be several of them, to judge by the -noise. - -Moonlight was streaming into the garret through an unglazed opening in -the adobe wall, and holding his watch in the rays, Jack saw that it was -half an hour after midnight. - -“Queer time to receive visitors,” he thought to himself. - -At the same time he was conscious of an overwhelming curiosity to -ascertain who and what the midnight arrivals could be. The boy had -noticed a door in the wall of the garret when they first entered it -that evening, and from his previous inspection of the exterior of the -house he had formed an idea that it opened upon the top landing of an -outside stairway. They had been conducted to the garret, however, by a -ladder leading from the room below. - -As well as he could judge, the noise came from the opposite side of the -house to that on which the door was situated, so there did not seem -to be much chance of detection in slipping out of the door, down the -outside stairway and, from some point of vantage, seeing what all the -racket might portend. There was one possible difficulty in the way, and -that was that the door might be locked. But it proved to be unlatched, -and Jack, swinging it open, after he had partially dressed, found -himself, as he had surmised he would, on a landing or platform at the -top of an outside flight of stairs. - -In his bare feet, for he had not paused to put on shoes, he slipped -as noiselessly as possible down the stairway and presently found -himself in the yard. The moonlight cast black and white patterns of the -overhanging willows on the ground, but a brief inspection convinced -Jack that there was no human being astir but himself on that side of -the house. - -As he reached the ground he could distinctly hear the voice of the -slatternly woman crying out:— - -“Hush!” to the new arrivals. - -The voices which had been loud at first were instantly lowered, and he -could hear the riders, whoever they were, addressing quieting remarks -to their horses. - -“Well, I’m going to see what all this means, if it’s the last thing I -do,” said Jack to himself, and suiting the action to the word he glided -rapidly along in the shadow of the wall till he reached the corner of -the house. There was a low outbuilding there, which might at one time -have been used as a pigstye. This was just what Jack wanted. He placed -both hands on the top bar of the little enclosure outside the pen-like -erection, and the next instant had vaulted lightly over and was inside -the little shack. The boards of which it was composed were interspersed -by wide cracks, and applying his eye to one of these the Border Boy -commanded a fine view of the moonlit yard at the end of the house. - -As he had expected, it was full of riders, one of whom was mounted on -an animal which somehow seemed familiar to the boy. He with difficulty -suppressed a cry of astonishment, as the next instant the rider emerged -into the moonlight, and Jack saw that he was none other than Black -Ramon. The others, he now recognized as men he had seen in the camp on -that adventurous morning following the delivery of the warning letter. - -But Jack had not much time to meditate on all this, for he suddenly -became aware that Ramon was riding behind the cantle of his saddle, and -that lying across the saddle itself was a human figure. A second later -the boy made out that it was the senseless form of a woman that the -outlaw chief was carrying before him. - -Hardly had he made this discovery before the woman and the man of the -lone ranch came forward and lifted the inanimate form from the back -of the black horse of the Border scourge. As they did so a mantilla of -elaborate workmanship which covered her face, fell from it, disclosing -her marble-like features, as pale as death. Jack then saw that she was -young and very beautiful. As the girl was lifted by the lone rancheros, -her consciousness returned, and opening her eyes she began to pour out -a flood of Spanish. Jack, like most boys bred along the border, had -a working knowledge of the language, and it didn’t take him long to -gather that she was promising rich rewards, estates, anything to her -captors if they would release her and restore her to her parents. - -But Ramon’s rejoinder was a hoarse laugh. He informed the girl that he -meant to exact a heavy ransom from her father for her freedom, and that -if it were not forthcoming he would make her his own wife. - -An astonishing change came over the girl at these words. From a -pleading, terror-stricken maiden, she became a fine figure of scorn. -Drawing herself up proudly, she exclaimed with blazing eyes:— - -“I would die before such a thing happened. My father will find you out -and punish you like the wicked men you are.” - -“Colonel Don Alverado will never find Black Ramon or see his daughter -again if a hundred thousand pesos are not forthcoming before the end of -the week,” was the rejoinder. - -In speaking these last words Ramon had unconsciously raised his voice, -and the rancheros, with faces full of alarm, stepped forward. - -“Hush! for heaven’s sake not so loud!” the woman exclaimed, “there are -several Gringoes in the house!” - -Ramon’s face grew black. - -“Gringoes!” he snarled, “what do you mean by admitting the Yankee pigs -when I have paid you well for the use of your house?” - -“But they are here only for the night and are sound asleep,” protested -the male ranchero. “Depend on it, they will not interfere. They are -pressing on toward Santa Anita to-morrow at dawn.” - -“And then, too, they have a belt full of money, Senor Ramon,” whined -the woman, “there is no reason why your excellent self should not have -it. We had that idea in our head when we consented to let them stop -here.” - -“Oh, so that’s the reason you suddenly became willing to let us stop,” -thought Jack in his hiding place. - -But Ramon was now leaning forward with a sudden expression of keen -interest. - -“These Gringoes, old woman,” he asked, “tell me, are they three boys, -a tough-looking, long-legged man with a yellow moustache, and a -spectacled old man?” - -“Si, senor,” was the rejoinder. - -“Santa Maria,” exclaimed Ramon, “here is good fortune. It is those -Border Boys and their companions delivered into our hands for the -plucking. You did well to let them stop here, senora. They are all -asleep, you say?” - -“Si. It is but a few minutes ago that my man crept up the ladder and -peered into the garret in which they are sleeping. They are all snoring -like the Yankee pigs they are.” - -“Bueno. We will attend to them shortly,” was the rejoinder; “but now to -dispose of the girl. Have you a room in which we can confine her?” - -“Yes, in the small room at the other end of the house. It was formerly -used as a wine room and is without windows, except a small one at the -top for ventilation. It has a strong door, too, for when we grew vines -and made wine, thieves used to visit us, ill fortune light upon them.” - -“That’s a queer sort of morality,” thought Jack, “for if I ever saw or -heard of a precious band of rascals, these are surely they. That poor -senorita! We must devise some way of aiding her to escape, but what -can we do? I guess I’ll sneak back now while they are busy elsewhere -and wake up the others, for if I’m not mistaken we are going to have a -tough fight on our hands before very many minutes.” - -As Jack cautiously slipped back by the way he had come, he saw the -senorita being led away into the house, proudly disdaining to parley -further with her captors. - -“There’s a girl in a thousand,” thought Jack to himself, “no hysterics -or uproar about her. We’ve just got to help her out of the clutches of -those ruffians.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -TRAPPED! - - -Cautiously awakening his companions one by one, Jack told them of his -adventures while in the pig pen. - -“The scoundrels!” exclaimed the professor, “we must act at once.” - -“Now hold your horses,” drawled Coyote Pete in the easy tone he always -adopted when danger was near, “it ain’t our move yet. If I ain’t very -much mistaken we’ll have all the action we want in a very short time, -too. As a first step I’d suggest we bar that door yonder,—the one that -Jack sneaked out of—I see it’s got a good big latch on the inside. In -that way we’ll head off an attack frum thar, an’ we’ll only have the -trap door from below to look after.” - -The heavy bar being noiselessly placed in its hasps, Pete outlined his -further plans. - -“They’ll figger we are asleep,” he said, “but it ain’t likely they’ll -jump us till they’ve sent someone up to make sure. It’s our play then -ter git back on the straw and all snore as natural as possible.” - -“What then?” asked Walt Phelps in rather an alarmed tone. “We’ve only -got one rifle.” - -“That’s so, consarn it,” grunted Pete, “wall, we’ll hev ter do ther -best we can an’—hush, hyar comes the advance guard now!” - -In the room below they could hear cautious footsteps. Evidently Ramon -had lost no time in hatching out his plans. - -“Lie down, everybody, and sham sleep as hard as yer can,” ordered Pete -in a low, tense whisper, “our lives may depend on it.” - -The order was obeyed none too soon, for before many seconds had passed -they could hear the creaking of the ladder as someone mounted it. -Presently, from one half-closed eye, Jack perceived a head poked upward -through the trap in the floor. By the light which streamed up from -below he saw that it was the cranium of the red-headed man whom he -was pretty sure was the author of the warning message which had been -carried into their camp. - -The man stood still as a statue for perhaps five minutes. During the -tense moments Jack’s heart beat as if it would break through his ribs. -It was not fear, but intense excitement that thrilled him. The moment -was at hand when they would be engaged in a desperate game against -terrible odds. What would be the result? - -Having apparently satisfied himself that they all slept soundly, the -scout of the outlaws descended once more, the ladder creaking under his -weight. - -“It’s goin’ ter come in a few minutes, now,” whispered Pete, rousing -himself, “gimme the rifle, Walt. How many cartridges is in it?” - -“Five,” was the disheartening reply. - -“An’ we ain’t got another one between us,” moaned Pete. “Wall, it -can’t be helped, as the hawk said to ther chicken when he carried her -of, leavin’ her numerous family behind. Now, I’m going ter git right -by this here opening and the first head that pokes through it gits a -crack. We’ll save the cartridges for an emergency.” - -“An emergency!” exclaimed Ralph, thinking that if ever there was an -emergency the present situation had already arrived at that stage. - -They could now hear whispers below, and worse still, the ominous click -and slide of repeating rifles being got in readiness for use. - -“There’s some old furniture piled in that corner,” exclaimed Jack -suddenly, “couldn’t we use it to block the trap with?” - -“A good idea when the worst of it comes,” assented Pete, “but we’ve got -ter keep ther trap open so as to disable as many as possible before we -have to come to close quarters.” - -The next ten minutes,—for though it seemed like the same number of -hours, it was not in reality any more,—was the most painful period the -boys ever recalled having put in. From the room below came furtive -sounds, but they were so soft and infrequent that it looked as if the -main body must have withdrawn further to discuss the attack. - -“Say, let’s rush them. I can’t stand this any longer.” - -It was Ralph who spoke, but Coyote laid a restraining hand on his arm. - -“Easy, lad, easy,” he admonished in a low breath, almost in the lad’s -ear, “it won’t be long before they start tuning up for the performance, -and it ain’t goin’ ter be a funeral march for us neither.” - -As he spoke, Pete “clubbed” their solitary rifle, holding it by the -barrel. At the same instant a door beneath quietly opened and closed, -and the next minute the ladder creaked as a foot was placed upon it. - -“Up with you, Miguel,” they heard Ramon whisper, “here’s the knife. -Remember the money belt is on the old man. Jose, you follow him -closely, and Migullo, you come after. That is all it is safe to trust -on the ladder at one time. I myself will come later.” - -“The cowardly greaser,” breathed Coyote, with one of his increasingly -frequent lapses into plain English, “I guess he’ll feel less like -climbing than ever when he sees what’s going to happen to the first -arrival. It’s a good thing for us they can’t come but one at a time. In -that way they’ll have no chance of rushing us.” - -As he finished speaking the boys felt the peculiar thrill that comes -before the enactment of some exciting deed. A black head poked itself -cautiously through the trap and as it did so Coyote raised his rifle -stock, swung it, and brought it down with crushing force on the head -of the intruding wretch. He fell backward with a crash, and landed in -a heap in the room below. Under ordinary circumstances, not one of -the Border Boys would have stood for such drastic measures. But they -knew that now it was their life or the Mexican’s. Nevertheless they -felt relieved as they heard the fellow stagger to his feet and begin -cursing in picturesque Mexican. - -“Diablo! The fiend himself is in those Gringoes,” he raved, “I think -they have broken every bone in my body.” - -“More fool you, for not being more cautious,” growled Ramon, and then, -raising his voice, he shouted up in English: - -“It will be of no use to you to resist. I have a superior force and if -you injure another of my men when I do get you it will go hard with -you. Surrender and give me the money and no harm will come to you with -the exception of Jack Merrill. I mean to deal with him as I choose.” - -“When you get him, you dog,” shouted Coyote Pete, “which won’t be yet -or for a long time to come,—ah! you would, would you!” - -As he spoke, the cow-puncher had projected his head thoughtlessly over -the edge of the trap door. A bullet aimed to kill, which, however, -whizzed harmlessly by his ear, was the result. The missile sang -through the air and buried itself in one of the rafters. - -“We’ll give you all you want of that directly,” hailed Coyote Pete, -essaying what is sometimes called “a bluff,” “we have plenty of rifles -and ammunition, and we can use them, too, so bring on your next man.” - -“You shall smart for this, you Gringo pig,” cried Ramon from below. -Evidently the complete failure of his first attack and Coyote’s -bantering tone had driven him beside himself with fury. - -“Oh, I’m a smart fellow, anyhow,” chuckled Coyote Pete, “come on. One -cigar for every head I crack. That’s the way they do it at the county -fair with the Jolly Nigger Dodger, and I don’t know as you greasers -have anything on him.” - -“Rush up and bring them down out of that!” screamed Ramon furiously. -But the sharp lesson they had just had seemed to hold the Mexicans in -check. Evidently the Gringoes above were not to be trifled with. Ramon -strode up and down the room stamping and raging and biting his nails. -Altogether he was in a fit of black Latin rage which is not so very -different from the tantrums we occasionally find in our own nurseries. - -“Why not come up yourself, Ramon?” was Coyote’s next thrust. “If your -head is burning with such blazing thoughts it must need ventilating.” - -But the Mexican, wisely enough perhaps, did not reply. Instead, he -called down the men from the ladder, seeing, in spite of his rage, that -it was useless to waste his followers in that fashion. - -“We’d better bottle up the trap door now,” said Pete, as the voices -below became more inaudible. “Get that old furniture, boys, and we’ll -make things snug.” - -“Here’s an old table top that might fit over the hole,” said Jack, -bringing the article in question, “it’ll just fit too, and it’s solid -mahogany.” - -“Just the thing, boy. Now quickly bring all the stuff you can to pile -on it.” - -“Say, there’s a pile of big stones over here where the chimney goes -through,” reported Ralph presently, “how would those do for weights?” - -“Fine. Bring them right along. Your Uncle Dudley will pile them.” - -One would have said from the cow-puncher’s boisterous spirits that he -was in perfect security instead of a situation the danger of which he, -perhaps, more fully realized than any of his companions, comparatively -inexperienced as they were. - -One by one the lads carried the big stones over and they were piled on -the table top. - -“That will do,” said Coyote at length, “they’ll never get that up -unless they use dynamite.” - -“What do you suppose they’ll do now?” wondered Jack as, the work over, -they sat down about the newly covered hole. - -“Try rushing that back door, most likely. Suppose you take a peek out -of the window. It gives a view of the steps and it’s too small for the -varmint ter git through.” - -The small aperture, mentioned before, was quite high up in the wall, -but, hoisted up by Ralph and Walt, Jack was able to rest his elbows on -the sill and peer out. He did so cautiously, which was just as well, -for, as the astute cow-puncher had surmised, the next attack must come -from the back door. So much was evidenced by a view of the steps which -were covered with dark forms advancing stealthily. - -“We’ll give ’em another surprise party,” announced Pete when he had -heard his young lieutenant’s report. “Jack, take the rifle while I -guard the trap. There’s a chance they may try to rush the two places at -once. Aim through the keyhole, and when you think it time to, let ’em -have it. Don’t be scared of hurting them. Remember it’s our lives or -theirs.” - -Feeling a bit squeamish, but far too good a soldier to attempt to -disobey orders, or even question them, Jack did as he was directed. -Placing the muzzle of the rifle to the keyhole he waited with beating -heart the first signal that their enemies had ascended the stairway and -were actually on the balcony outside the door. - -He had not long to wait. Presently there came a scuffling, scratching -sound without, as the Mexicans fumbled about the door, evidently -feeling for a latch of some sort. With a hasty prayer that he might not -inflict a mortal wound, Jack awaited the right moment, as he judged it, -and fired. - -There was instantly a loud yell of pain from without. - -“Good for you, boy,” grunted old Pete grimly “you brung him down.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -THE GRINGOES MOVE. - - -From without the door there now came shouts of baffled rage. The -Mexicans were finding out, as their kind has done before, that a party -of brave Americans is more than a match for twice their number in a -fight. Moreover, thanks mainly to Jack’s presence of mind in slipping -out of the house and performing scout work, our party was strongly -entrenched. The door was stout, and the iron bar within solid. There -was no apparent way of forcing an entrance by battering it down, for -the landing was too small to use a “ram” effectually. - -“Hooray, we’ve got ’em beaten!” cried Ralph thoughtlessly. - -Coyote flashed a scornful eye on him. - -“Beaten!” he scoffed, “we ain’t got ’em beaten till we’re out of this -place and miles on our way. Why, if they kain’t do anything else they -kin starve us out if they want to.” - -“That’s so,” assented Ralph sorrowfully, and then with a violent twist -of spirits, “I guess we’re goners.” - -“There, go galloping off the reservation agin,” struck in Pete; “we -ain’t goners yit by a long shot, but we’ve got a powerful lot of work -afore us, as the government said when they tackled digging that Panama -Canal.” - -All now became silent once more, or at least the boys could hear -nothing. Evidently the Mexicans had withdrawn for a council of war. - -“This time they’ll be in dead earnest,” opined the cow-puncher, “so -keep a smart eye open for ’em everywhere.” - -Hanging breathlessly on the least sound, the besieged party waited -for the first sign of the coming attack. It was a long time in making -itself manifest, and when it did, it was for a moment puzzling enough. -It came in the form of a noise from above. - -“Somebody’s on the roof!” exclaimed Pete. “The foxy varmints! I wonder -they didn’t think of that before.” - -The roof of the lonely rancho was flat, and soon they could hear -several footsteps on it as their besiegers paced about. - -“What are they going to do?” asked Ralph in a puzzled tone. - -“Not hard to guess,” rejoined the professor, “cut a hole in it, I -guess, and then they’ll have us completely at their mercy.” - -“If we let them,” said Jack, “but why not try to escape by the trap, -while they are busy on the roof?” - -“That might be a good idea if it warn’t likely that they have the foot -of the ladder guarded, or most probably have taken it down,” said -Coyote Pete; “no, you’ll have to guess agin, Jack. Think uv something -new and original.” - -“I might say try that door, but I guess that’s guarded, too.” - -“Not a doubt of it,” was the reply. - -“Tell you what we’ll do,” exclaimed Jack suddenly, struck with an -inspiration, “we’ll try the walls. There may be a secret passage or a -concealed window in them some place.” - -The cow-puncher laughed. - -“This ain’t a story book, son, and I never heard of such things outside -of one. Lady Gwendolens in real life come out by the fire escape more -often than by the old secret passage or the haunted wing.” - -Undismayed, however, Jack set about his task. He was in the midst of -it, and had met with no success,—not that he had seriously hoped for -any,—when a sudden sound pierced the darkened garret. - -The noise was that of axes cutting into the roof. - -As Jack listened a slight shudder ran through him. From that point of -vantage the outlaws could shoot them down as they wished, and there -would not be much chance of using their four remaining shots in return. -By this time Jack had reached the spot by the big stone chimney from -which they had taken the stone used to weight the table above the trap -door. - -With a rather vague idea of using some more of the stones as weapons, -he started pulling down the remaining loose ones. He had been at this -work but a few minutes when he gave a sudden cry of triumph. - -“Look! Boys! Look here!” he cried, amazedly. - -They scurried to his side to find him pointing into a black, yawning -mouth, evidently intended originally for a fireplace but left -unfinished, as the stones they had used now testified. - -“It’s big enough to swallow a horse almost,” cried Ralph. - -“It’s big enough to save our lives, maybe,” grunted Pete, “but maybe -it’s only a blind lead, and may come out nowhere. In that case a fellow -at the bottom of a well would be better off than the chap in there, -for ther’d be no way of gitting out uv that chimney once you got in, -and—Jumping Jupiter! Come back, boy!” - -But it was too late. While Coyote Pete had been talking, Jack had -slipped into the fireplace, and clutching the rough sides of the -chimney had taken the daring drop. - -The others listened above in breathless anxiety, and then, to their -infinite relief, a voice trickled up to them from the depths. - -“It’s all right, boys! Come on, but take it easy, for I knocked all the -skin off my shins in my hurry.” - -The blows on the roof were by this time becoming louder, and they could -distinctly hear the sound of splintering wood as the axe blades cut -into it. - -“They’ll hev pecked through that in ten minutes, now,” said Pete, -getting over to one side of the fireplace, “come on, boys. Be on your -way.” - -But the boys insisted on the professor going first, now that they knew -the drop was safe enough. Not without misgivings, to which he was too -brave to give utterance. Professor Wintergreen, scientist and writer, -cast himself into that black hole in the garret of the lonely rancho. -An instant later, after a prodigious scraping and bumping, word came -up that he, too, was safe. Ralph and Walt came next, the former softly -humming:— - -“I don’t know where I’m goin’, but I’m on my way.” - -Coyote Pete came last; and now we shall follow the party, leaving the -Mexicans still hacking away at the roof. It is a trip worth taking, -too, for at the bottom of the chimney an astonishing condition of -things prevailed. - -The smoke duct led not into a cellar or into a blind hole, but instead, -Jack, on alighting, had found himself, soot covered and scratched -and torn, in a large open fireplace in a small room. As he made his -sensational entrance there was a sudden sharp scream from a corner of -the room and a female figure clad in white sprang up. - -For an instant a dreadful fear that he had alighted in some sort of a -trap flashed into Jack’s mind. But the next instant he realized that -the alarmed girl was none other than the senorita, and that the room -into which he had fallen was the one selected as her prison. - -“Hush, senorita!” exclaimed the boy, as soon as he had given the signal -to his comrades above that all was well, “do not fear me. I am not -one of your enemies but a friend, an American. My companions are with -me,—er—er—that is, they will be.” - -“Oh, senor!” cried the girl in English, “what a dreadful fright you -gave me. You—you, if you will excuse me, you are so black. I suppose -it’s the soot in the chimney.” - -Jack could hardly refrain from smiling, as, for the first time, he -bethought himself of the alarming figure he must present. - -“I’m not as black as I’m painted, senorita, really, I’m not. Nor are -these two new arrivals chimney sweeps, but young American gentlemen,” -he added with a sweeping bow, as Walt Phelps and Ralph popped out of -the chimney. “Allow me to present myself. I am Jack Merrill, and these -are my friends, Walt Phelps, of New Mexico, and Ralph Stetson, of New -York. Not forgetting,” he added merrily, as the professor straightened -up from an instinctive brushing of his clothes, “our instructor -and—er—er—chaperone, Professor Wintergreen, of Stonefell College, -and,” as the other member of the party appeared, “Mister Peter de -Peyster, of the Merrill Ranch.” - -“At your service, miss,” said Coyote Pete with a low, sweeping bow and -a deep flourish of his sombrero, to which even in his fall he had clung. - -“Oh, I feel safer now,” cried the girl delightedly, “but,” and she -clasped her hands, “_Madre de Dios_, what I have passed through! I was -summoned to my garden this evening by a decoy message, that one of the -good sisters at the convent wished to see me. I had hardly set foot on -the path when I was seized and carried off!” - -“The rest of your story we know, senorita,” said Jack earnestly. - -“You know it?” repeated the girl in an amazed tone, “but, senor, I do -not understand.” - -“I will explain later,” said Jack, “at least, we all hope to have the -pleasure of doing so. I may add that I overheard the ruffians, your -captors, discussing the matter while I was hiding in a pig pen.” - -The senorita’s large dark eyes grew larger than ever at this. She -began to think Jack a very peculiar young person to come sliding down -chimneys into rooms and to choose to eavesdrop on brigands from pig -pens. But she made no comment, and the talk at once turned to the -subject of escape. - -The door of the room was of oak, barred and bolted on the outside, -and impregnable. But the window, high up in the wall though it was, -appeared to be just about large enough to squeeze through, ample -enough even for Coyote Pete, who was the largest of the party. - -“Reckon we can reach it by putting this chair on that table yonder,” -declared Pete, “but we’ll have ter look slippy, for those chaps will be -through the roof before long, and when they discover we’re gone and see -the hole in the chimney, they’ll guess the route we’ve taken.” - -When the table had been dragged over under the window and the chair -placed upon it, Pete clambered up and found that he could easily reach -the aperture. - -“It’s all clear outside, too, and the corral isn’t more than a few rods -away,” he announced. “Boys, if we have any sort of luck we may get out -of this and save the young lady. I’ll go first, for it’s a longish drop -to the ground. Those that foller kin land on my shoulders.” - -The next instant he raised his lithe, ranch-toughened form and wriggled -through the hole. In a flash he was gone. - -“Your turn next, senorita,” said Jack; “allow me to assist you.” - -The brave girl made no foolish hesitation about obeying. With a -graceful little leap she was on the table and by Jack’s side. In a -jiffy he had assisted her through and she was caught by Coyote Pete -outside. Next came the professor; following him, Walt and Ralph. As -Walt alighted, he was ordered to creep over to the corral, keeping -cautiously in the shadow of the willows. Once in the corral he was -to get all their horses and a saddle for the senorita, if possible, -selecting any one from the two or three hanging on the fence after the -shiftless Mexican fashion. Presently Jack joined him at the risky work, -having been the last to emerge from the window. - -They had got the last of their own horses and had selected one for the -senorita, when there came a loud shout from behind them followed by a -volley of shots. - -A dreadful fear shot into Jack’s heart. Had they been discovered? - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -SENORITA ALVERADO. - - -But the next minute, to their infinite relief, they decided that it was -only a false alarm. In all probability, so Jack surmised, it signified -that the Mexicans had broken through the roof and were firing a volley -of shots into the garret to terrify its supposed inmates. He could -hardly forbear a chuckle as he pictured the outlaws’ astonishment, -when, tired of their attempts to terrify, they should penetrate the -garret and find it empty of life. - -“Providence willing, we’ll be far away by then,” he thought to himself -as, with a wave of his arm, he signalled to the others crouching in the -shadows of the rancho, that all was ready. - -The senorita laughed at the idea of a side saddle, when Jack -apologetically indicated to her the ordinary Mexican affair which had -been the only one they could raise. - -“A girl born and brought up on a Mexican hidalgo’s estancia can ride in -any saddle, senor,” she said, “more particularly to oblige such gallant -rescuers.” - -Jack felt himself coloring under his minstrel-like coating of soot as -the girl spoke. The lad was somewhat susceptible, and the dark eyes of -the senorita had made quite an impression on him. - -“The pleasure is all ours, senorita,” he said, with a vague -recollection of having seen that phrase in print somewhere. - -The young Mexican girl sat her saddle as lightly as a bird on a -bough, and the mount they had selected for her,—“borrowing” one of -the outlaws’ animals for the purpose,—was a fine, springy-stepping -creature, full of life and action. - -“I guess our best plan is to head for Don Alverado’s estancia,” said -Jack, as they crept as noiselessly as possible forward. - -But, as a matter of fact, much caution was not necessary, for the -Mexicans in the rancho, confident of having bottled up the Americans, -were making so much noise that the light amble of the horses could not -be heard above the roar. Their chief danger lay in being seen. - -This, however, was not so probable as might be imagined. The corral was -separated from the house by quite a small plantation of willows and -cottonwoods, among whose branches the moonlight filtered thinly. Once -they had rounded the corral they would be practically invisible. - -The senorita informed them that it was ten miles from there to Santa -Anita, in the suburbs of which her father lived. This, as we are aware, -Jack already knew, and the corral once rounded their steeds were set at -a lively gait. - -“Are there any police in Santa Anita, senorita?” asked the professor, -as they rode rapidly through the night, the well-fed horses, refreshed -by their rest, pacing strongly forward. The professor was a great -stickler for law and order. - -“No police, senor,” was the rejoinder, “but it is the headquarters of -the Mexican Rangers who have charge of the district. My father is the -local magistrate and administrator, and has charge of them.” - -“I sincerely hope that he will set them on the track of those -ruffians,” said the man of science severely, “Mexico should be known as -a land of law and order like the United States.” - -“Yet I have heard that you occasionally have train robbers and all -sorts of terrible criminals in the United States, senor.” - -The senorita spoke gently, but like all of her race, she was patriotic -and a flash of fire was in her eye as she spoke. - -“But we try to get rid of them, senorita,” stammered the scientist, -somewhat taken aback at this self-possessed young lady’s reply. - -“And so do we, senor,” was the answer, which caused Coyote Pete to -chuckle, “but you see, they won’t always wait to be caught.” - -“You speak English charmingly, senorita,” said the professor, in an -endeavor to change the subject and pay a compliment at the same time. - -“That is to the credit of one of your American colleges, senor. I was -educated at Vassar University.” - -The boys exchanged glances. So that explained the senorita’s poise and -self-possession, which were far more those of an American girl than of -a languishing Spanish beauty. - -“I must compliment Vassar,” said the professor, bowing his angular -form. But he had forgotten that he was riding bareback and was not the -most accomplished of horsemen in any event. His attempt at courtliness -almost caused his downfall, for, losing his balance, he would have -slipped from his gaunt steed if he had not grasped it desperately by -the wither lock with one hand while his arm encircled its neck. - -From this undignified position he was rescued by Coyote Pete, who -spurred swiftly to his side,—it will be recalled that Coyote had -saved his spurs out of the general loss of property—and aided him to -recover his balance. - -They all had the grace to refrain from laughing, although the -temptation was a sore one. The man of science, glancing suspiciously -about him, was unable to detect the shadow of a smile on any of their -faces, although the senorita did find it necessary to lean over and -adjust her stirrup leather. When she looked up, however, her face was -quite demure. - -From time to time, as they rode forward over the level savannah, they -glanced behind them. But the intervals grew longer as the distance -between them and the Mexicans increased, and there was still no sign of -pursuit. - -“I guess they’ve discovered our escape, all right,” said Jack, “but -don’t venture to chase us toward the town.” - -“That’s it, I reckon,” said Coyote Pete, “and in any event, with our -horses we could outdistance them all with a mile start.” - -“All of them except that big black of Ramon’s,” said Jack. - -“Guess you’re right,” agreed Coyote, “I’d like to know if there air any -relatives of that animal hangin’ around. I’d buy ’em if it bust me. -You don’t meet up with a bit of horseflesh like that every day of your -life.” - -An hour later, without any incident worthy of mention having occurred, -they clattered through the sleeping town of Santa Anita, and, as -daylight broke wanly, they found themselves outside the white walls -surrounding the princely hacienda of the wealthy Don Alverado. But if -the town was asleep, all seemed to be awake here. Lights could be seen -flashing in the house which stood on a small eminence some distance -from the outer walls. - -As they neared the gate of the estate, it flew open and a dozen -horsemen, fully armed, dashed out. - -“Surrender, caballeros,” they cried in Mexican, “or we shall kill you -without mercy.” - -“Hold your horses,” hailed back Coyote Pete, quite oblivious of the -fact that, in all probability, none of the horsemen understood that -free and easy form of English. - -But to the boys’ surprise the cow-puncher’s words were greeted with a -shout of laughter from the advancing ranks, and a fresh young voice -cried: - -“Who are you,—for the love of Mike?” - -“We are Americans who have brought back the Senorita Alverado,” cried -Pete, and was going on, but his words were drowned in a ringing cheer. -The next minute explanations ensued. It appeared that the party which -had sallied out at their approach was made up of young American mining -engineers, resident in the neighborhood, who, on hearing of Don -Alverado’s loss, had at once formed themselves into a posse. - -They had been starting out on a hunt for the abductors of the Don’s -beautiful daughter when they heard the advance of our party. Surmising -that it might be the outlaws returning to commit further outrages, they -had concealed themselves and dashed out intent on capturing or killing -the disturbers of law and order. - -Their enthusiasm over the news of Senorita Isabella Alverado’s rescue -knew no bounds. Wheeling their horses they dashed off up the broad -drive leading to the house to inform the Don,—who was anxiously pacing -his library,—of the good news. They were followed, at a more sober -gait, by the Border Boys and their party. - -“My poor father! He must have known heavy grief in the past few hours,” -breathed the senorita, as they approached the house. Jack was struck -by the unselfishness of the thought. Of herself the senorita made no -mention nor of all that she had endured at the hands of the outlaws. It -was only of her father that she appeared to think. - -Don Alverado, a tall, dignified looking old Spanish gentleman, with -a gray goatee and aristocratically pointed moustaches, stood on the -steps of the porch as they came up. His daughter threw herself from -her mount as they drew close, and rushing into her father’s arms, was -held there for a brief interval. After his first emotion at recovering -his daughter had subsided, Don Alverado bade the servants take the -Americans’ horses, and came forward, warmly thanking them for their -services. It made the boys feel rather shamefaced to be thanked in such -emotional fashion, for the Don would insist on kissing each of them, -and by the time he got through his face was almost as black as their -own sooty countenances. - -Then they entered the house where, after they had enjoyed refreshing -baths, a hasty breakfast, but magnificent in its appointments, was -served. In the meantime, Senorita Alverado had slipped upstairs and -donned a clinging gown of black, in the bosom of which flashed an -immense diamond. The boys gazed at the wearer of the gem with more -admiration than at the stone itself. If Senorita Alverado had looked -beautiful in the lone rancho she appeared absolutely regal now. - -“I see you regarding that diamond with interest, gentlemen,” said Don -Alverado, “it has an interesting history. It was the present to me many -years since of a man who had received it from an Indian sheep herder. -This man, according to my friend, had found a wonderful cave in some -mountain that he called the Trembling Mountain. My friend tried to get -him to give some detail, but the Indian declared that devils lived in -the mountain who would kill him if they knew he had revealed the secret -of their dwelling place to the outside world; so that except for the -fact that there is the stone,—and you can see for yourselves it is a -beautiful one,—I regret I can tell you no more details. But, even as -it is, the diamond is doubly interesting outside of its intrinsic value -on account of its history.” - -As the professor made no mention of their own peculiar interest in -the legend of the Trembling Mountain, Jack and the rest said nothing -about it. But, perhaps, all their hearts beat a little faster at this -convincing proof that the strange story of Mr. Stetson’s dead protege -was true. - -But it had been a long night and the lads could hardly keep their -eyes open, even their sense of politeness flagging under the leaden -feeling that had come into their eyelids. The Don noted this, and at -once suggested bed. It was high time, too, as the early sun was already -beginning to light up the magnificent grounds about the place, and the -boys felt like regular night owls. - -Servants in gorgeous livery escorted each lad to a bedroom furnished -with the gloomy magnificence characteristic of the Spanish race. -But not one of them noted his surroundings as, tumbling into the -deliciously cool, clean sheets and sinking into the downy mattresses, -they dropped into slumber as profound as it was dreamless. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -EL FIESTA. - - -It was evening before the party reassembled. On arising each member -of our party found, neatly folded upon his bed, a complete outfit. -Investing themselves in which, they felt more like human beings again. -For this kindness the Don would not hear of being paid. - -“It is only a small part of my indebtedness to you,” he declared. - -After the evening meal that night, which the boys vowed was a starlight -breakfast, the Don informed them that the next day being a Saint’s Day -and a holiday in the village, he had arranged for a series of sports -of the country and a great fete. This was partly in recognition of his -gratitude at his daughter’s recovery. - -“As you are all good horsemen, possibly you may wish to participate,” -went on the Don; “the prizes will be worth competing for. In the -lassoing contest the prize will be a double-cinched saddle of Cordovan -leather, silver mounted. In a novel game called Tilting the Ring, my -daughter has donated as first prize a pair of silver spurs. The second -prize in both events will be bridles fitted with silver-mounted bits -and appendages. There will be other games, races and so on, but these -two contests are the most interesting.” - -Of course, this set the boys all agog. Their first rather bashful -feelings at the sumptuousness with which they were surrounded, -vanished, under the stimulus of discussion of the forthcoming contests. -They all, with the exception of the professor, entered for the Tilting -the Ring contest, which will be described later, while Coyote Pete and -Walt Phelps put down their names as contestants in the lassoing events. -Besides these, there were races and jumping contests, in all of which -the boys decided to compete. - -The next morning dawned fair and still. Jack, on opening the leaded -sash of his window, gazed with delight at the landscape below him. -Softly rolling hills spread far and near, dotted with park-like groves -of trees. Cattle could be seen in the distance, and Jack guessed that -they were part of the herds controlled by Don Alverado. At the foot of -the hill upon which the hacienda stood, lay the red roofs and white -walls of the village, with its cathedral towers rising above the green -vegetation which picturesquely was intermingled with the dwellings. -Blue smoke ascending into the still air from the chimneys proclaimed -the fact that Santa Anita was astir early on the day of the Don’s fete. - -Breakfast was a merry meal, and the boys gazed admiringly at the -senorita, who looked more beautiful than ever in a white morning gown -with a dewy rose stuck jauntily in her black hair. - -“Say, she looks like an old Spanish painting, only more so,” observed -Jack to Ralph, as, leaving Walt and Pete to look after the stock and -the professor to examine the Don’s extensive library, they sauntered -off to view the preparations. - -“Seems to me you are taking a lot of interest in old Spanish paintings, -my gallant youth,” chuckled Ralph with a knowing look. - -Jack reddened. - -“The Don has a whole gallery full of them,” he said, “and naturally I -made comparisons.” - -“With the advantage in favor of the living type,” chuckled Ralph; “say, -you’re as easy to see through as a spy glass, and——” - -“See here, Ralph Stetson, you shut up or I’ll soak you,” sputtered -Jack, looking rather sheepish over his companion’s raillery. - -Ralph deemed it prudent to change the subject. - -“They certainly do things in style here,” he said, gazing in admiration -at the scene of busy preparation which was going forward on the level -fields at the base of the hill on which the hacienda was situated. Jack -agreed with him. Already a big force of men was at work roping off a -course for the sports, and decorating the poles in the national colors. - -At one end of the course several peons were erecting a rather tall pole -with a swing cross-bar affixed to the top. From this cross-bar depended -a cord to which was attached a ring by a snap contrivance. At the other -end of the bar hung a heavy bag filled with sawdust. This was for the -game of Tilt the Ring, as they were to learn later. Each contestant was -required to pass a lance through the ring so skillfully as to remove it -from the snap bolt. If he did not succeed it was obvious that the bag -of sawdust would swing around and deal him a blow before he could get -out of its reach. - -“Looks like a bully game,” opined Jack, after the two boys had asked -some questions of an English-speaking peon, “but what happens to you if -the sack hits you?” - -“Maybe stick on. More maybe you fall off,” grinned the man. - -“Humph,” grunted Ralph, “I don’t know so much about that game. Looks -pretty strenuous to me.” - -Soon after, they visited the stables where Coyote Pete and Walt already -were. Coyote had his lariat out, stretching it and getting it supple -and ready for the afternoon’s test, for the sports were to commence -after the midday meal. Walt was rubbing the knees of his horse with -care. Firewater and Petticoats,—for Ralph had given his new pony the -old name,—whinnied as Ralph and Jack entered, and their glowing eyes -and shiny coats showed that they were in fine fettle. In a stall by -them stood the horse they had appropriated from the outlaws. It was a -fine beast, somewhat heavy, perhaps, but strongly limbed and sinewed. - -“I’ll bet Ramon would give a lot to have that horse back,” observed -Jack, gazing at the beast admiringly. - -“Yes, considering that we chose him in the dark and in such a hurry, I -don’t think we made a bad choice,” was Walt’s rejoinder. - -The boys ate sparingly at noon day, despite the variety and splendor -of the dishes set before them. They felt that they were the -representatives of America at the games, and that it would not do to -risk a tummy-ache or any other uncomfortable feeling. Ralph, however, -eyed the various dishes longingly, having, as we know, a fastidious -appetite. But Jack’s whispered, “You’re in training,” was enough to -keep him to the agreement they had made before luncheon. - -“I will have your horses saddled for you and brought round,” said the -Don, after the conclusion of the meal. He was preparing to give the -order to a servant when Jack interposed. - -“Without meaning any discourtesy, Don Alverado,” he said, “we would -rather saddle up Ourselves. You see——” - -“Say no more, say no more. It shall be as you wish,” said the Don, but -it was plain to see that he was rather nettled over the Americans’ -independence. - -“You see,” Jack explained to his chums later, as they wended their -way to the stables, “the lower orders of Mexicans have no love for -Americans, and they are capable of putting up any tricks on us. I don’t -say that they would, but then again it’s best to be on the safe side.” - -A chorus of assent greeted this. It did not take long to saddle up, -the necessary trappings being among the gifts which Don Alverado had -insisted on showering on the saviors of his daughter. The party had -protested that they were well able to pay their own way, but the Don -would not hear of it. - -“We do not treat our guests thus, in Mexico,” he said, “and you, -of course, know that the hospitality of the old dons of Spain was -proverbial.” - -The Americans made a fine-looking cavalcade as they rode at an easy -trot down to the field where the contests were to be held. All wore -sombreros, held under the chin by a strap of rawhide. Riding trousers -of the loose, Mexican style, red sashes and short jackets completed -their attire. It was in fact only by their clear, cleanlooking skins -and erect bearing that you could have told they were not of the Spanish -race. - -A large crowd had already gathered when they reached the “lists,” -as the scene of the contests might be called. People came in costly -carriages with great C-shaped springs, in humbler vehicles, and in -back-country burro carts. From the town a great procession streamed out -on foot, and everywhere there were Caballeros dashing about on fiery -horses, riding with the reckless abandon of the Mexican horseman. - -“We’re up against a likely looking lot of horsemen,” said Ralph, as -they came in full view of the gay scene. - -“We’ll have to do our best,” said Jack simply, “the more skilled our -opponents are, the more credit it will be to us to defeat them if we -can.” - -In a corral some distance off were the cattle that were to be used -in the lassoing contests. A curious crowd was gathered about them -expatiating on their good points. All at once a band broke out into -the Mexican national hymn as the Don and his daughter, accompanied by -a party of guests, rode up to their seats in a small stand, protected -by a striped awning, placed immediately opposite the tilting ring -apparatus. - -“Gee whillakers, it’s hard to believe that we’re in the twentieth -century, ain’t it?” asked Coyote Pete, as he gazed about him. - -“It’s like Don Quixote,” cried Ralph, quite carried away by the -shifting pictures of color and life on the greensward about them. - -“Donkey who?” inquired Coyote Pete, whose reading in the classics had -not been extensive. - -“Oh, a certain old gentleman in Spain whose specialty was going about -rescuing beautiful maidens and getting into trouble.” - -“Wall, that seems to be us,” observed Pete dryly. “But look, the Don -is announcing the first contest. It’s the race to the town and back -agin, carrying a letter to the city hall, or whatever they call it, and -returning with an answer. Whoever makes the best time wins a fine horse -blanket and a silver-mounted quirt. Any of you boys in it?” - -“No, I want to keep my mount fresh for the tilting,” said Jack. - -“Same here,” announced the others. - -They watched the contest with interest, however. It was won by a -small Mexican on a wiry little animal who sped into the town and back -in seemingly incredible time. As soon as he could escape from the -congratulatory crowd, the wiry little horse was spurred toward where -our friends stood in a group waiting for their contests to be announced. - -“For you I have the letter,” he said, as he rode up and extended a bit -of paper. - -“A letter for us. Impossible!” exclaimed Jack. “Who could have sent it?” - -“It’s addressed ‘Senor Jack Merrill,’ sure enough,” cried Ralph, “and -the address is printed, too.” - -“Somebody trying to disguise his hand,” commented Jack, taking the -note. “Well, let’s see what it is, any how.” - -The note was only folded and when opened proved to contain but a few -words, but those words were fraught with meaning. - -“_Be on the lookout to-day. You are in great danger._” - -“Well, what do you know about that!” exclaimed Coyote Pete. “Is it -a genuine warning, I wonder, or jest a trick to keep us out of the -contests?” - -“Hard to say,” rejoined Jack. “Where’s that little Mexican who brought -it?” - -But the man on the wiry little horse had vanished and a diligent search -by the adventurers failed to disclose him. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -BY FAIR MEANS OR FOUL. - - -A bugle note cut short their search. It proclaimed that the start of -the tilting contest was at hand. The boys, accordingly, rode up to the -stand where the senorita handed each of them and the other contestants -a sharply tipped lance decorated with white, green and red, the -national colors. - -They were then informed of the rules of the contest, which were simple. -Each contestant was allowed twenty-five tries at the rings, and the -one gaining the greatest number of points was to be the winner. A blow -with the sawdust bag was to count one point off. As the Don finished -announcing the rules, the Mexicans gave a yell and a flourish of their -lances and galloped off to the starting point. - -Jack, Ralph and Walt saluted with a wave of their hats and flourish of -their lances, and then headed off after them. Their little display of -gallantry caused quite a murmur of admiration to run through the crowd. -This was increased to enthusiasm when it was seen how easily and well -they sat their active little horses. - -“Diablo! Those Gringoes can ride!” exclaimed more than one Mexican in -evident amazement that any American could sit on a horse at all. - -At the starting line the lads dismounted, as they did not wish to -impose any more exertion than was necessary upon their ponies. Leaning -their lances against the ropes of the course, they gave themselves over -to studying intently the methods used by the tilters, some of whom were -old hands at the game, or so one would judge by the confidence they -displayed. - -“By George, those fellows are doing magnificently,” Jack had to -admit, as one after another the Mexican contestants dashed down the -human-fringed lane and neatly transfixed the ring without bringing the -heavy sack around. - -The next instant a roar proclaimed that one victim had been struck, -and peering down the course the boys could see the one who had failed -galloping off, shaking his spear angrily, while his hat hung all awry -on his head from the force of the blow the sack had dealt him. - -But while everybody was still laughing at the mishap, and addressing -all kinds of jocular remarks to the victim, Jack suddenly turned around -as he heard a peculiar noise behind him. He was glad he had done so, -for as he faced about the figure of a Mexican slipped away in the -crowd. The fellow had been standing by the group of lances assigned -to the Americans. With a few quick steps Jack reached the implements -and found that an attempt had been made to saw one of them through in -the middle. The rascal who had attempted the trick, however, had been -detected so quickly by Jack’s vigilance that he had not had time to do -much more than scratch the tough ash handle. - -“Guess I’ll take charge of those lances,” said Jack to himself, and he -proceeded to do so. - -The next minute Walt was summoned to take his turn, and leaped into the -saddle with a bound. Jack handed him a lance, making no mention of what -he had discovered, for he had no wish to make his chum nervous. - -Down dropped the starter’s flag, and off dashed Walt down the lane of -faces, his mount going like the wind. As he neared the post he crouched -and drove his lance, as he thought, straight for the ring. But alas! -he hit the arm of the tilting apparatus and around came the sawdust -bag, hitting the Border Boy a blow on the head that almost knocked him -out of the saddle. A chorus of yells and jeers that made Walt’s ears -burn, greeted his failure. He was much downcast, as he rode back to the -starting place to await his turn to try again. - -Ralph came next and fared no better than Walt. But he was more -easy-going about it. - -“Guess I’ll do better next time,” he shouted to the laughing Mexicans, -none of whom understood him. - -Now came Jack. On account of his mount,—little Firewater,—he perhaps -attracted more attention than the others. At all events, a great ripple -of sound swept like a wave through the crowd as he dashed down the -lists. But as the Border Boy neared the ring and couched his lance for -the tilt, a sombrero was hurled from the crowd, striking Firewater -full in the eyes and causing him to stop and swing with an abruptness -that would have sent a less practiced rider flying, and perhaps have -caused him serious injury. But if this had been the intent of the man -who hurled the hat, it failed, for Jack kept his seat almost without a -perceptible shifting. - -“A hundred pesos to the man who finds and captures that scoundrel!” -shouted the Don angrily. “Senor Merrill, come here.” - -Thus summoned to the stand, Jack became the center of all eyes. - -[Illustration: Jack swept by in a cloud of dust and transfixed the -ring.] - -“That was an outrage, senor, for which I apologize to you in the name -of my country,” said the Don, his voice quivering with real chagrin. - -“Oh, it was cowardly!” cried the senorita, clasping her hands -impulsively. - -“Most probably it was the act of some irresponsible person,” declared -Jack, unwilling to give his host more pain. - -“He shall suffer for it if he is caught,” was the rejoinder; then -turning to one of the officials of the course, the Don told him to -announce that Jack would try again. - -This time a roar of genuine surprise went up as Jack swept by in -a cloud of dust and transfixed the ring as deftly as any of his -predecessors. - -“Bravo!” cried the Don, “and shame on any of my countrymen who will not -say likewise.” - -This had its effect on those within hearing of the Don, but on -the outskirts of the crowd, where the lower element of the town -predominated, low hootings and expressions of dissatisfaction were -heard. - -On the next round several of the Mexicans failed, but Walt, Ralph and -Jack each got one of the rings. This placed Jack and the three Mexicans -who had succeeded on an even basis. - -The crowd began to shout encouragement to its representatives. One of -them, a tall fellow on a splendid horse, turned to Jack as they stood -awaiting their turns once more. - -“A bet of twenty pesos on the Mexican team, senor,” he said. - -“I don’t bet,” rejoined Jack, “but I hope the best man wins.” - -The Mexican, with a glance of contempt, replied: - -“Peste! You are only boys. Mocho chico. What chance have you to win? -You had better withdraw before you are covered with shame by your -failure.” - -“Guess we’re not worrying,” rejoined Jack easily, “but it’s your turn, -senor.” - -“So it is. Behold, and you shall see with what ease I will get zee -ring.” - -He thundered confidently off. Alas, for the caballero’s hopes! It is -true that he “got it” in one sense, but instead of getting the ring he -got the bag with a force that sent his sombrero spinning into the crowd. - -“Not so easy as it looks, eh?” laughed Jack, as the discomfited Mexican -came riding back with a black frown on his face. - -“Santa Maria, it was my horse’s fault,” he declared, “the brute is no -good. He is a beast; what you Gringoes call a ‘skate.’” - -He began spurring the animal savagely, making the poor creature jump -and caper about in its agony. - -“I wouldn’t do that, senor,” said Jack quietly, but with a gleam in his -eyes. “By the way, we’ve a proverb in our country that might interest -you.” - -“A proverb,—bah! what is it?” - -“Why, they say a bad workman always complains of his tools,” rejoined -Jack, looking the other straight in the eye. “Think it over.” - -Before the other could reply it was Jack’s turn once more, Walt and -Ralph both having scored failures. Once more the Border Boy succeeded, -thus getting one point ahead of the rest. On the next round, however, -he missed the mark, while the three Mexicans still in the contest all -scored. - -“You see,” said the tall Mexican, “we can easily, if we will, prevent -you Gringoes from scoring at our national games.” - -“By fair means?” replied Jack. - -“By any means, senor,” was the reply, “all is fair in love and war.” - -“Guess I’ll keep an eye on you,” thought Jack to himself. - -With varying fortunes the game went on till two rounds from the -concluding one only Jack and two Mexicans were left in the game. Walt -and Ralph had dropped out in favor of Jack when they saw that they -were too far behind to catch up. The scores of all three, the Mexicans -and the Border Boy, were now even, and the excitement was extreme. No -cheers or any other sounds were to be heard now. In intense silence -the crowd watched every move. - -The next bout found them still on even terms. Now came the last, with -everyone fraught up to a tense pitch of excitement. It had ceased to -be a game of tilting the ring. It was a contest for the supremacy of -Mexico at one of her favorite games. - -“Now, Jack, old chap, no misses,” cried Ralph from the crowd. - -“Go in and win, old boy. You can do it!” came from Walt. - -Jack said nothing, but in his heart was a determination to get that -ring at any cost but that of fair play. The tall Mexican now regarded -the Border Boy with open looks of enmity. He made no attempt to conceal -his hatred of the young American boy who had made the best horsemen in -Sonora look to their laurels. - -But Jack paid no attention to the fellow, concentrating all his -attention on his lance, to see that it was in fit condition for the -crucial test. - -The tall Mexican was the first of the trio to dash off. - -Yells, almost prayers, of encouragement implored him to transfix the -ring. But just as he couched his lance his horse stumbled, and before -he could regain his stride the prize was gone so far as that contestant -was concerned. Next came his compatriot. But ill fortune followed him, -too. In some unknown manner his aim, which had proved unerring, now -failed him at the test, and he struck the ring with a jangling clink -but failed to dislodge it. - -Bang! Around came the sand bag, knocking him almost off his horse, -which he had imprudently reined up, in his chagrin. - -Now came Jack’s turn. That lad would not have been human if he had not -felt a slight trace of nervousness as he settled himself in his saddle -and prepared for the word. Amid a breathless silence it came. - -“Yip-ee-ee-ee!” - -The cowboy yell broke from the throats of Walt and Ralph. It was the -only sound but the clattering of Firewater’s hoofs as he rocketed -down the course. But the next instant Bedlam broke loose as Jack’s -lance entered the ring cleanly and removed it from its snap without a -hitch. Howls and a few cheers filled the air, but the former by far -predominated. But amid the confusion there came a sudden sound that -abruptly halted the babel. - -Three shots sounded out sharp and clear. At the same instant Jack, who -had just reined in Firewater, was seen to reel from his saddle and fall -apparently helpless to one side of it. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -A BORDER BOY ERRANT. - - -But the bullets which had been meant to terminate Jack’s career had -not found their “billet.” Instead, his sudden fall to one side of the -saddle was a quick acting out of an old cowboy trick. The instant that -the first bullet had whistled by his ear Jack had flung himself down -thus, and as a consequence, the shots had missed their mark. The relief -of Walt and Ralph, as they came elbowing through the crowd to find that -their chum was unhurt, may be imagined. - -The incident, too, had quite changed the temper of the crowd, as such -things often will. An unpopular monarch has often been turned into his -people’s idol by an attempted assassination, and something of the same -thing occurred now. Cheers for the American boy rang through the air. -In the midst of the excitement Don Alverado came riding up, pressing -his big chestnut horse through the throng. - -“Thank the saints you are not injured, my gallant boy,” he cried in his -impulsive way. “Not for my entire estates would I have had you even -scratched. But what is this?” - -The Don broke off in his congratulations abruptly, as a sudden -commotion occurred on the outskirts of the crowd. Rising in his -stirrups Jack could see that the center of the turmoil was Coyote Pete, -and that he was dragging something at the end of his lariat, one end of -which was wound around his saddle horn. - -Suddenly the crowd rushed in on this object, whatever it was, but the -next instant the wave of humanity surged back again, as Coyote drew two -pistols and aimed them right and left into the throng. - -“The first one that touches the varmint gits a taste of these!” he was -shouting, and although few in the crowd could understand the words, -they all caught the significance of his tones and fell back. Thus, -left with a free path, Coyote spurred his horse on and rode up to -where the Don and the Border Boys were assembled. The professor had, -by this time, joined the group and brought word that Senorita Alverado -wished to be informed at once of Jack’s condition, and if he had been -seriously injured. Word was at once despatched to her that he was -unharmed. - -What Coyote Pete had at the end of his lariat was now at once apparent. -It was a human being who struggled to his feet as the cow-puncher drew -rein. Covered with dust as the man was, and bleeding from his not over -gentle treatment by the first of the crowd who had rushed in on him, -Jack yet had no difficulty in recognizing the man as the tall Mexican -who had been defeated, and who had declared his intention of shutting -out the American boy by fair means or foul. - -“What is this?” demanded the Don, as the abject object stood cringing -and whining before him. - -“This is the pesky critter that fired them shots at Jack Merrill, your -Donship!” announced Coyote. “Stand up thar, you dirty dog, and let -’em git a good look at you. Yer see,” he went on, “arter that hat was -thrown at Jack, I was on the lookout fer dirty work, so I jest took up -my stand near the tilting post, fer I judged thet if thar was truble it -’ud come thar. Wall, I seen this fellow miss and ther look on his face -when he realized it. ‘Ole hoss,’ thinks I, ‘I’ll jes’ watch you close.’ -Wall, I did, but afore I could stop him he fired them shots. Arter that -he sneaked off in the crowd, but I got arter him with my lariat, and I -reckon I got him good an’ tight and hog-tied for branding.” - -The Don’s face grew black. - -“I know this fellow,” he said, “he is a former employee of mine whom I -discharged for quarreling and gambling. But this outrage will terminate -his career. As a magistrate of this district, I convene court here and -sentence him to——” - -But with a piercing scream the abject being whom Coyote had lassoed -cast himself on the ground. He writhed, he dug at the dirt with his -nails, he grovelled and begged in an agony of terror. But the Don -was unmoved. It was different with Jack, however. While the fellow’s -cowardice disgusted him, at the same time he felt a faint sentiment of -pity. At any rate, he did not wish human life taken on his account. - -Just then a woman rushed through the crowd holding a child by each -hand. Word flew around that it was the would-be assassin’s wife and -children. This decided Jack. Pressing his pony forward, he rode to Don -Alverado’s side. - -“Don’t you think, sir, that leniency might be observed in this case?” -he said. “The man’s wife and children, the excitement, the chagrin of -losing the contest, and——” - -“Say no more; say no more,” was the abrupt reply. In fact, at the -sight of the man’s terrified wife and bewildered children, the Don -himself had experienced a feeling of compunction, “Jose, your life is -saved——” - -The abject creature sprang up, pouring out a fulsome stream of thanks -and blessings. But the Don abruptly checked him. - -“Had it not been for your wife and children, and for the noble -intercession of this young man whom you attempted foully to -assassinate, I should have hanged you without loss of time. But their -pleadings have had weight with me——” - -“Oh, the blessings of the saints on the caballero’s head,——” began -the Mexican, but once more he was cut short. - -“But I only remit your sentence on one condition,” went on the Don, -“and that is that you leave this part of the country forever. My -overseer will supply you with the money. If within twelve hours you are -in the neighborhood of Santa Anita, your life shall pay the penalty. -Now go!” - -The Mexican reeled to his feet, and, shunned by the crowd, tottered -off. Only his wife and children clung to him. - -“Strange that often the worst of men will have the most faithful -wives and devoted children,” mused the Don. “But come,” he said, -putting aside his momentary gravity, “do not let us mar the day by this -incident. Senor Merrill, you will now proceed to the stand where your -prize awaits you.” - -At this the crowd set up a great cheer, and surrounded by his friends, -Jack rode to the grandstand where the senorita, still pale, but -radiant, presented him with the prize. Jack, crimson to the roots of -his hair, stammered out something in reply, he never knew what; and -then bending low he presented the lance tip on which the ring still -reposed to the senorita. With a blush and a smile she took the ring -and snatching a red rose from her hair affixed it to the point of his -lance. What a shout went up then! And in the midst of it our party rode -off, for the roping contest had been called. - -“Say, where did you learn that trick, all that bowing and doo-dadds, -and all that?” grinned Walt, as the chums rode side by side. - -“Yes, old chap, you acted like a regular knight errant. Polite as a -floor walker,” chortled Ralph; “there’s only one thing you’ve forgotten -to do.” - -“What’s that?” asked Jack innocently. - -“Why, press the rose to your lips, you chump. I never read of any -regular blown-in-panel knight who didn’t do that.” - -“Well, I’m not one of that brand, I guess,” laughed Jack. But just the -same, it may be set down here that he took particular care of that rose -for many a long day. - -To his chagrin, Coyote Pete only came off second best in the roping -contest, but, as the boys remarked, “It wouldn’t do for these people to -think we are hogs and want all the prizes.” - -“That’s right,” agreed Pete, good humoredly, “an’, as somebody said, -some place ‘thar’s glory enough fer all.’” - -Early the next day after participating in the festivities of the -evening, the lads and their elders once more took to the trail. In the -meantime, the professor had attended to the renewing of their supplies -and “scientific paraphernalia,” and they had decided to confide their -adventures and the object of their quest to Don Alverado. - -“You are on an adventurous mission,” he commented, “and I wish you all -success.” - -Before they set out the generous Don confided to Jack’s care a document -in Spanish. - -“If you fall in with any government officials,” he said, “that will act -as your safeguard and passport. Adios, señors.” - -“Adios!” shouted the boys, as they rode off. Jack, looking back in the -early dawn, thought he saw a handkerchief fluttering from an upper -window of the hacienda. At any rate, he waved his sombrero gallantly -and bowed low. - -“Guess it’s a good thing we got Jack away from the hacienda,” chortled -Walt, in an audible tone. - -“Guess it’ll be a good thing for you to maintain a discreet silence,” -growled Jack, in what was for him such a savage tone that Walt looked -rather alarmed. But before they had gone many miles Jack, who had been -silent and thoughtful, began to become his old self once more under the -influence of the trail and looked-for adventure. - -They traveled that day without any incident worth chronicling, and -nightfall found them camped on a fertile plain, deep in waving grasses -and plentifully watered. The level expanse was almost at the foot of -the gloomy Chinipal Range, in which was located the mysterious mountain -in search of which they had journeyed so far. That night all lay down -to rest with the feeling that the morrow would see the beginning of -their real hard work. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -THE TRAIL OF THE TREMBLING MOUNTAIN. - - -But the Trembling Mountain still lay far from them. Following that -bivouac at the foot of the somber chain of mountains, they made their -way for some days through the most magnificent scenery they had ever -seen. Even Grizzly Pass could show nothing to compare with it. It was -an enchanted land of soaring peaks, deep and narrow canyons in whose -depths lay perpetual twilight, mighty cliffs and crags and leaping -waterfalls. - -Sometimes on topping an eminence they could see far off to the -southwest a circle of snowy peaks vaunting it above their timber -clothed brethren. From some of these peaks issued columns of blue -smoke. Somewhere among those smoldering volcanoes, the professor -told them, lay the object of their quest. At noon every day careful -observations were taken, but they still pressed onward, the mystery and -charm of their quest increasing all the time. - -Often, seated about the campfire, they discussed the possibility of the -Ramon gang having trailed them; but the consensus of opinion was that -they had succeeded in throwing the rascals off their tracks. - -“But the scoundrels are keen on the scent where gold or treasure is -concerned,” said Ralph one evening, “and I’ll bet that if they are not -now on our trail they are trying to get upon it. I’ve got a private -presentiment that we are not destined to land that treasure without a -struggle.” - -“If only we could encounter those Mexican Rangers of Colonel -Alverado’s, our task would be easier,” said Jack. “I’ve a good mind to -look about at daylight to-morrow before we get under way, and see if I -can discover some trace of them.” - -“Not a bad idea,” assented the professor, “the Don said that his men -were off in this section somewhere, as it was suspected that the -rascally gang of which Ramon is the head would make in this direction -to seek shelter in the wild fastnesses.” - -The next day, dawn had hardly made things visible before Jack was -stirring, and saddling the big horse which they had taken from the -Mexican outlaws at the lone rancho, set forth on his quest. They -had wished to leave this horse as a present to Don Alverado for his -kindness, but the Don would not hear of it. He argued that they might -need an extra horse, and his words had proven true. The extra animal -had come in handy once or twice when one or another of their own mounts -was crippled temporarily by the rough mountain roads. - -Jack did not set out without an objective point. This was the summit of -a cliff at some distance which he felt sure he could reach by a sort -of natural trail he had observed from below. It was going to be risky, -though. To begin with, the trail was too narrow for him to turn back -if he found it ended abruptly, but it was the only way of reaching the -cliff top, and Jack felt that only from there could he obtain a good -view of the surrounding country. - -To his relieved surprise, however, the trail, though narrow enough in -places to give a timid rider heart failure, was yet wide enough toward -the summit to afford a foothold to a sure-footed horse like the one -he bestrode. After about half an hour of breath-catching riding, the -Border Boy at length reached the top. As he had anticipated, the view -from there was as extended as it was magnificent. Peak after peak in -serried ranks stretched away on every side. Deep canyons lay between -them, with here and there a solitary eagle soaring above the dark -depths. The sky above was a blinding blue, and the newly risen sun -shone brightly, but yet, at that great altitude, Jack felt chilled. - -But if he had expected to see the smoke of campfires, or spy a distant -line of moving dots on this vast panorama, he was mistaken. No human -note marred the impressive solemnity of the scene. Jack Merrill, poised -with his horse on the cliff top, might have been the only being in the -world for any evidence to the contrary. - -“Well, I suppose I’d better be getting back again,” he thought to -himself. “What a magnificent country! It is like those cloud palaces -you see among the thunder heads on a still summer’s day in New England.” - -With half a sigh at leaving such a spectacle behind him, the boy turned -his horse, and as he did so gave vent to a shout of surprise. - -Kneeling on one knee behind a rock, and pointing a rifle full at him, -was the figure of a man who must have crept quietly up while Jack had -been admiring the view. This figure made a gesture cautioning Jack not -to move, and then gave a shrill whistle. Instantly the woods all about -galvanized into life. A score of wild-looking horsemen sprang out. They -were all armed, and Jack, utterly at a loss to know what this could -portend, stopped short. - -“Well, senors, what is it?” he asked politely. - -“Get off that horse, Miguel de Acosta,” ordered one of the men sternly. -“It is useless to resist, and——” - -“But my name doesn’t happen to be Miguel de Acosta,” protested Jack. - -“In that case, what are you doing with his horse?” - -“Whose horse?” - -“Why, De Acosta’s. If you are not De Acosta and have his horse you are -a horse thief, which is as bad under our laws as any of the crimes of -which De Acosta is accused.” - -“Will somebody please tell me what all this means?” cried Jack, looking -about him bewilderedly. - -“Please let me examine the brand of that horse,” said the first -speaker, who seemed to be a kind of leader; “ah, just as I thought. A -bar and a flying U. That’s De Acosta’s horse and you are the man we’re -after. Get off now.” - -“But—but——,” began Jack, beginning to think that this adventure -might turn out seriously after all. - -“No explanations now. You may make those to the commandante later. -Come, senor,” as Jack still hesitated, “are you going to dismount?” - -“Nothing for it I suppose but to obey,” said Jack, clambering out of -the saddle. - -The man who was conducting this inquiry while the rest looked grimly -on, was excessively polite, but there was something alarming in -his very suavity. As Jack’s feet touched the ground a sharp order -was given in Spanish, and two of the horsemen who had so suddenly -appeared stepped to his side. As they did so they tapped their rifles -significantly. But suddenly Jack noted something, and that was that on -the butt of each of the rifles was stamped Republica de Mexico, No. 2, -Sonora. - -A great light broke upon him. - -“Why, you are Mexican Rangers,—Rurales,—are you not?” he demanded of -the seeming leader. - -“Si, senor. None should know that better than you.” was the grave -reply. “We are the second division of Sonora, with headquarters at -Santa Anita.” - -“Hooray, then it’s all right after all,” cried the boy, and plunging -his hand into his breast pocket he drew forth the paper which Don -Alverado had given him before they departed from his hospitable roof. -The officer scanned it with raised eyebrows. - -“Why, senor. A thousand pardons. I see that a mistake has been made. -But pardon me, how do you come to be riding the horse of the notorious -outlaw, De Acosta, who is one of Black Ramon de Barros’s chief -lieutenants?” - -“Oh, I see it all now,” cried Jack, “you were in search of Black Ramon, -and when you saw a horse answering the description of De Acosta’s, you -at once jumped to the conclusion that I must be he. Say, that’s quite a -joke.” - -“It wouldn’t have been much of a joke for you, if you had not proved -your identity, senor,” was the grave reply of the officer,—for such -Jack now knew he must be, “do you know what we would have done with -the real Acosta had we found him? Hanged him to the nearest tree and -left his body for the gallinazos and the buzzards.” - -The day was warm, but Jack shuddered as the leader of the Mexican -Rangers spoke. - -“But, senor,” went on the young officer, “you hinted just now at having -a story to tell about how you came by the horse. Will you breakfast -with me at our camp yonder, and you can relate your story as we eat? It -may be of great value to the State if it throws any light on the ways -of Black Ramon.” - -Jack assented to this proposition. For one thing, he was hungry. For -another, he saw that the Mexican Rangers might prove valuable allies -in case of a brush with the Ramon outfit. All the rurales, among whom -a very democratic spirit prevailed, were much interested in his tale. -They hung closely about the officer’s quarters, a blanket stretched -on the ground, while Jack related his story of the happenings at -the lonely rancho. It made an odd scene, this conclave under the -great mountain pines. There was the clean-cut American lad sitting -tailor fashion opposite the young officer who listened eagerly, while -all about hovered the forms of the rangers, clad in bright sashes -and brilliant-hued serapes, with immense cone-topped hats lavishly -decorated with gold and silver braid. Jack learned later that some -of these men oftentimes pay as high as two hundred dollars for their -headgear, and that a good sombrero will pass down from father to son -and grandson without deteriorating. - -At the conclusion of Jack’s narrative, the officer expressed a wish -to visit the camp of the Border Boys, more especially as it was in a -part of the mountains unfamiliar to him. No time, therefore, was lost -in mounting and getting under way. The Rangers used bugle calls like -regular troops, the trumpeter riding at the leader’s side. - -In single line they defiled down the steep trail by which Jack had -ascended, and were soon at the foot of the mighty cliff. - -“And where is your camp, senor?” inquired the officer, after they had -ridden for some time in the direction in which Jack knew it lay. - -“That’s what’s puzzling me, senor,” rejoined the boy anxiously, “it -should be here, but——” - -He broke off abruptly. Undoubtedly from the litter and the still -smoking embers upon which they had just that minute stumbled they must -be at the site of the camp. But where were the lad’s companions? - -Had the earth swallowed them they could not have vanished more -completely, nor did a painstaking search by the Rangers reveal any clue -as to their whereabouts or the manner of their departure. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -BLACK RAMON’S TRICKERY. - - -“This looks like some of that rascal Ramon’s work!” - -Jack paused in the fruitless search and wiped the perspiration from his -forehead. - -The officer of the Rangers, whose name was Antonio Del Rio, carefully -rolled a brown paper cigarette and lighted it before he glanced up at -the troubled young countenance before him. - -“I think you are right, senor. During your absence he and his band must -have surprised the camp and carried your amigos off as prisoners, that -is, unless they themselves have taken to the trail.” - -“And leave me behind! Not likely. No, senor, they have met with some -foul play.” - -“I proffer you my services and those of my Rangers,” was the prompt -rejoinder, “we will set out at once.” - -“But the question is, in which direction shall we go?” asked Jack, -frankly bewildered. - -“Wait. I will call Juan Andreas. He is the most expert tracker in the -Rurales, and if there is a chance of picking up their trail, he will do -it.” - -Andreas proved to be a small, shrivelled Mexican on a “paint” or -spotted pony. Jack saw that his eyes flashed like those of an old -hunting dog, as, in obedience to his superior’s command, he slipped -from his pony and began running about in the surrounding woods, -crouching low, with his nose almost on the ground. - -Suddenly he stopped, straightened up, and with a gesture almost regal, -he raised a hand and pointed to the west. - -“They go that way,” he said in Mexican. - -The young officer nodded. The notes of the bugle rang out, and an -instant later the camp site was once more deserted as the cavalcade -dashed off through the dense woods in hot pursuit of the missing men -and boys. - -It is now time that we inquire for ourselves just what was happening -and had happened to Ralph, Walt, Coyote Pete and the professor. After -Jack had left the camp then, the professor with his geological hammer -had started out to get specimens, of which he already had several -pounds, much to Coyote Pete’s disgust. - -He wandered down the canyon and had perhaps gone further than he -intended, when suddenly he was seized from behind, his arms pinioned -and the cold muzzle of a pistol pressed to the back of his neck. - -“Now march,” came a crisp order, and the man of science, being also -a man of discernment, “marched.” He did not dare to turn his head, -but from the trampling of hoofs behind him he judged that several men -must be following in his wake. Before long he found that they were -undoubtedly headed for the Border Boys’ camp. But he dared make no -outcry, for the old man had guessed already that his captors must be -Black Ramon’s men, and he knew that they held human life no dearer than -so much dust. - -Arrived near to the camp, the old man was tied to a tree and gagged, -and then his captors, whom he now recognized as Ramon’s band, scattered -among the trees in such a manner that they completely encircled the -camp. All at once one of them began to make a peculiar sound,—a -perfect imitation of the “gur-gur-gur-gobble” of the wild turkey. - -How the professor longed to warn the boys of the crafty trap that was -being set for them! But he was powerless to do anything. As the wily -band of marauders had guessed, the “skirling” of the supposed turkey -was enough to set the camp agog. Snatching up shotguns, Walt and Ralph -plunged off into the underbrush. They had not gone twenty paces before -the brigands, noiselessly as panthers, seized and bound them, old coats -being held over their heads to prevent their making any outcry. This -done, they were bound to the same tree as the professor. - -The capture of Coyote Pete alone, now remained to be accomplished. -For, as we know, though the marauders were not aware of the fact, Jack -was far from the camp at the time. But in Coyote the Mexicans caught a -Tartar. The old plainsman was frying some bacon, stooping low over the -coals, when the sharp crack of a twig behind him caught his attentive -ear. Like a flash he bounded erect, but not before the muzzles of a -dozen rifles were aimed at him from the underbrush. - -Black Ramon was taking no chances with Coyote Pete, whom he knew both -by reputation and experience. - -For one instant, as he took in the situation, Coyote was still as a -figure carved from marble. Only the heaving of his chest under his blue -shirt showed that he was, for him, considerably startled. - -Suddenly, and without the slightest warning, the old plainsman -crouched low, and then dashing straight at the nearest Mexican, seized -him by the legs, and before the others had recovered their senses, -he had hurled the fellow backward by an expert wrestling trick. The -astonished Mexican alighted in the midst of the campfire, overturning -the spider, from which he was plentifully sprinkled with scalding bacon -fat. - -In this way Coyote, cut off from reaching his own weapons, managed to -possess himself of a rifle. - -“Now,” he shouted, “the first varmint that fires at me gets some of -this lead. I may only have one shot, but I’ll make that one tell.” - -A storm of bullets was the result, but Coyote with that quick foresight -which was his characteristic, threw himself flat behind a large rock, -with the result that the leaden hail spattered against the solid stone. - -Suddenly a figure on a black horse rode into the little clearing. It -was Ramon himself. Without the slightest hesitation Coyote threw up -his rifle to his shoulder, and, disregarding his own danger, fired -point blank at the outlaw leader. - -But for once Coyote Pete’s aim was at fault. Ramon was not even -scratched by the missile. - -“Gosh!” exclaimed Pete, “I begin ter think thar is suthin’ in that -story that he bears a charmed life arter all. I had a plum bead on him -and——” - -In his astonishment at his missing such an easy shot, the cow-puncher -had not noticed several forms creeping through the dark woods behind -him. Before he had a chance to defend himself, he was dealt a mighty -blow on the back of the head by a “clubbed” rifle in the hands of one -of the outlaws whose head was encircled by a big bandage. - -“Take that for the blow you struck me at the rancho,” grunted the -fellow, as Pete, spreading his arms, fell forward like a stunned ox. -The man who had dealt the blow was the same whom Pete had knocked off -the ladder on that memorable night at the lonely rancho. - -“Pick him up and place him with the others,” ordered Ramon, without the -slightest trace of any emotion whatever showing on his copper-colored -face. - -This order was swiftly carried out, and the consternation of the others -may be imagined when they saw the cow-puncher’s lanky form being -carried by two of the raiders. They had heard the shots and at first -they feared that Pete was dead, but to their relief, the next minute, -they overheard Ramon remark: - -“Throw him upon his horse when you bring it up. He’ll be all right in a -short time.” - -Presently the boys, with eyes that flamed with indignation, saw the -Mexicans leading up their stock, not forgetting the pack burros, whose -burdens had been hastily hitched on. - -“Caramba, but I would like to lay my hands on that other one, that -Merrill boy, more than all the rest,” snarled Ramon through his yellow -teeth. “Take the gag out of that boy’s mouth yonder, and ask him where -Jack Merrill is,” commanded Ramon of one of his men, none other in -fact than the Acosta for whom Jack had been mistaken. - -Ralph was the prisoner designated by Ramon, and not a little relieved -was he to have the not-over clean bit of cloth, with which his mouth -had been stopped, removed from his teeth. - -“Now then,” blustered Ramon, “where is Jack Merrill?” - -“Far from here and on a mission to Santa Anita,” retorted Ralph boldly. -He was an honest lad, but in such a case deceit was the only course -possible. If he had told the truth, the bandits were quite capable of -hiding and waiting for the boy, thus enmeshing the whole party. - -“What has he gone there for? Be careful, boy, and speak the truth.” - -“To get the Mexican Rangers to run down all such rascals as you,” was -the bold reply, and one which an instant later Ralph wished he had -bitten out his tongue before he made. - -“Well, that being the case, forewarned is forearmed, as you say in -your country,” rejoined Ramon. Then in Spanish he gave orders to mount -immediately. First, however, he presented Jack’s pony Firewater to -Acosta, as a recompense, presumably, for the loss of the latter’s own -animal. - -The boys and the professor were hustled into saddles and their legs -tied together under the ponies’ bellies. Ramon stood by looking on -sardonically while this was being done. - -“You are not at the lone rancho now,” he chuckled, “but in the heart -of the most lonesome range of mountains in Mexico. That was a clever -trick of yours to escape with the senorita, but now you are going to -pay for it. Ah, yes, I shall have a revenge, and such a revenge it will -be, too!” He showed his long yellow fangs as he spoke, and chuckled -hideously. In spite of their determination to be calm, the lads -shuddered a bit. But the professor stared stonily at the ruffian. - -“Am I to understand that it is your intention to abduct us?” he -demanded. - -“It is,” was the rejoinder, “I mean to make you useful to me in many -ways. As my slaves in Trembling Mountain I’ll make you wish every hour -of the day that you had never tried to thwart Black Ramon. Forward!” - -At the command the band dashed off. Coyote Pete, still unconscious, -tied to the saddle of his horse. The boys’ gags had been removed, as -had the professor’s of course, and as the rush of hoofs drowned other -sounds, Walt found an opportunity to say to Ralph: - -“Thank goodness, old Jack’s still at large. Depend upon it, he’ll find -some way to get the Mexican Rangers and help us out of this.” - -But Ralph shook his head. - -“We’re at the last ditch now, Walt,” he replied. “I don’t see a chance -for us.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -WHAT COYOTE DID. - - -Coyote Pete, as Ramon had prophesied, came out of his swoon before -long. His return to consciousness was enlivened by some of the most -picturesque language the Mexicans had ever heard. But as Coyote had -been tied to the saddle he could not relieve his mind otherwise -than by using all the opprobrious names he could select from a -copious vocabulary. Now it was a peculiarity of Pete’s that he never -swore,—that is, actually used bad language,—but he had invented a -language all his own to express his feelings when angry. Set down -on paper it would look tame, but as Coyote Pete used it, it was -tremendous,—exterminating almost. - -But after his first outbreak, Coyote remained unusually calm. He was -thinking with all his might, but all his thinking did not bring him -any nearer to a solution of their difficulties. They were in the -hands of the most bloodthirsty band of rascals in Mexico. Even if they -escaped, they would be bound to perish miserably in those rugged wilds -without food or the weapons to procure any. The nearest settlement, -Pete knew, must be at least two hundred miles away, and probably more. - -Truly, it was not a cheerful predicament. In fact, as Ralph had said, -it looked very much like the last ditch. But Coyote was not of the kind -of human that gives in and throws up its hands just because on the -surface of things it seems time to abandon hope. Far otherwise, as the -readers of other volumes of this series know. There probably was not -a cooler head nor a better one along the border than Coyote Pete, but -even he had to own that, for the present anyhow, he was “stumped.” - -At noon a halt was made for a few minutes, and frijoles, corn bread -and muddy black coffee (cold) was given the prisoners. The professor -could not eat, he was in such a state of mind. But the others fell to -heartily enough; the boys, because they were boys, with appetites that -nothing could upset, and Coyote Pete, with the idea of “firing up” with -nourishment in case he might find some way out of it for all of them. - -All the afternoon they traveled, reaching higher and higher altitudes. -Every now and again Ramon would consult earnestly with the red-haired -outlaw of unmistakably American origin, who had, as Jack felt certain, -left the warning notes on two occasions,—once at the camp in the -canyon, and again at Don Alverado’s fete. But on the latter occasion, -unless it was one of the band that hurled the sombrero at Firewater’s -head, the outlaw’s plans did not seem to have materialized. - -But if this man was friendly to the boys he did not give any sign of -it. Instead he glared at them as malevolently as did any of the others. - -“You’re the kind of American that looks best decorating a tree,” -thought Pete, who was now allowed to sit erect on his pony, although, -like the boys and the professor, his feet were tied underneath. - -On and on they traveled throughout the afternoon, Ramon urging his -followers up to a terrific pace considering, that is, the nature of the -country they were traversing. Now they would plunge down into dark and -gloomy defiles where perpetual purple twilight reigned, and again on -mounting some crest they would see, spread out before them, a panorama -of much the same sort as had so delighted Jack on the cliff summit -before he fell in with the Mexican Rangers. - -“If I don’t miss my guess,” said Pete, when he found a chance to -exchange a word with the boys, “we are getting into the Trembling -Mountain country. See that big peak over thar? It’s smokin’ away like -old man Jones with his corn cob evenin’s.” - -This was a fact. The smoking mountains, smoldering volcanoes that -the boys had observed in the distance on their trip into this wild -country, were in fact getting closer. And splendid sights they -were, too. Some of them shot up into the blue sky to a height of -fully seventeen thousand feet. The walls of the canyons they began -to traverse now were different, too, from those they had left behind -them. Instead of being composed of dull gray or slate colored rocks, -these great rifts flamed with red and yellow strata, intermingled with -gorgeous bands of purple and sometimes wavy strata of green. Evidently -the internal fires of the earth had been busy here in the youth of the -globe. - -Occasionally, boiling springs sending up jets of sulphurous-smelling -steam and bordered by brilliant green plants, were encountered. It was -the most impressive country the boys had ever traveled through, and had -a few fiends, all dressed in red, with hoofs, horns and tails complete, -suddenly appeared from behind a mass of rocks, they would hardly have -been surprised. The place seemed a fitting setting for an Inferno. - -By dusk they were on a sort of plateau at the mouth of one of these -mountain canyons. Trees and rocks of normal shapes and hues stood -about in almost park-like fashion. Wild oats and plenty of bunch grass -offered good and abundant feed for the horses, and from a cliff side -of this little oasis in that land of gloomy horrors bubbled a crystal -spring of cold water. - -No wonder Ramon, with his countrymen’s instinct for selecting good -camp sites, elected to halt there. As for the boys, even in their -predicament, they could not help admiring the soft intimate character -of the scenery, coming, as it did, after their experiences in the -gloomy abysses and profundities behind them. - -The prisoners were taken from their horses and then carefully rebound, -although so stiff were their limbs from their long confinement that it -is doubtful if they could have run just then, even had they found an -opportunity. Supper was the same rough meal as the midday refection had -been. To add to the unpalatable nature of the food, the boys had the -doubtful pleasure of watching Ramon and his followers dine sumptuously -on the contents of the Border Boys’ packs. - -As night fell sentries were posted about the camp, and the prisoners -could not but admire the caution which led Ramon, although in a -presumably uninhabited part of the country, to post his outguards as -carefully as if an immediate attack was to be expected. One by one the -outlaws threw themselves on their blankets and were soon wrapped in -that heavy slumber characteristic of the hardy dwellers of the open -places. Only Ramon did not sleep. For hours he strode up and down in -front of the fire with his head sunk on his breast. He seemed lost in -thought. Once or twice he paused and seemed to listen intently. Was it -possible that with his half-wild instinct he sensed the peril that was -even then drawing in upon him through the night? - -At last, however, even he sank off into slumber, and then, with the -exception of an armed outlaw posted to guard the captives, the camp was -enveloped in dense silence. The guard hummed softly to himself some -old Spanish riding songs as he sat by the blaze, the firelight playing -on his almost black features. - -There was some tall grass at the back of the spot in which the boys -and their elders had spread themselves out to snatch uneasy slumbers, -and before long Pete’s quick ear detected a stirring in it. Suddenly a -voice spoke softly: - -“Don’t say a word or appear surprised, I’m going to help you out, just -because I’m a Yankee myself and I know Ramon means to kill you all when -he gets a chance.” - -Coyote kept a hold on himself, and hardly moving his lips, rejoined in -the same cautious tones: - -“Who are you?” - -“That doesn’t matter,” replied the other, who was the man we know as -Canfield, the former friend of Ruggles the miner, “it’s enough to say -that I was once decent, back north; but that’s long ago, and no use -crying over it. Look out, I’m going to cut you loose.” - -As the words were spoken, Coyote felt the unseen Samaritan slash his -bonds, but the cow-puncher prudently did not at once draw his hands -from behind his back. Instead, he darted a furtive look about. The -sentry, crooning by the fire, seemed to be half asleep. Doubtless he -didn’t see much sense in giving too vigilant a watch to such helpless -prisoners. - -“I tried to keep you out of this, you know,” came the voice again; -“I got one note to you and got shot for my pains. Then again at Don -Alverado’s fete I despatched another one. It was Ramon’s intention to -shoot Jack Merrill that day, but the vengeful Mexican, Jose, took the -task out of his hands.” - -“Was Ramon in the crowd?” gasped Coyote in astonishment. - -“Yes. But he is as skillful in disguise as he is in most other things. -He was disguised as an old peddler of sweetmeats. But in his basket he -had hidden a carbine, which if he had ever used it, would have put that -young Merrill out of the way forever.” - -“Great bob cats! he——” - -But a sudden rustling in the grass behind him apprised Coyote at that -juncture that he was alone. With another quick glance about he set to -work on his leg-thongs. So intent was he on his work that perhaps he -relaxed his vigilance a trifle, for when he looked up, directed by some -strange instinct to do so, it was to see the form of Ramon standing -over him with a revolver pointed grimly at the cow-puncher’s head. - -In this terrible emergency Pete’s mind was made up in a flash. With -one quick slash he finished freeing himself, and then, shooting up -like an uncoiled spring, he rocketed forward just as Ramon fired. -The ball grazed his cheek, but before Ramon could pull the trigger a -second time, Pete had rushed in between his legs upsetting him with a -crash. So heavily did the Mexican chief fall that he was stunned for -the instant, but the drowsy guard by the fire suddenly galvanized into -action, and sent a bullet flying after the cow-puncher as he vanished -in the darkness. - -The uproar awakened the other captives, who realized as soon as they -saw that Coyote had gone, what must have occurred. Their hearts beat -fast with apprehension for the brave plainsman, as Ramon, coming out of -his swoon, ordered the now aroused camp to saddle at once and scatter -in pursuit of the refugee. The outlaw chief himself took part in the -search, leaving only three men in the camp to guard the captives. -As the sound of the pursuing hoofs grew faint and far the boys -interchanged gloomy looks. If Coyote had not seized a horse the chances -were all against his making good his escape, however he had managed it. - -“I fear we are worse off than ever, now,” moaned the professor, shaking -his head gloomily. - -Coyote, meanwhile, who had familiarized himself with the nature of the -country as they rode through it in the afternoon, made at once for -the tall scrub and brush at the lower end of the valley. Through this -he glided like a snake, and had put half a mile between himself and -the outlaws’ camp before he heard the clatter of horses’ hoofs. He -listened a minute and then shook his head grimly. - -“Bad!” he muttered, “they’re doing just what I thought they would, -spreading out in fan-shaped formation. The only chance fer me ter -escape that human fine comb is to outflank ’em and double back.” - -Crouching low he darted along once more, heading this time, however, in -a direction sideways from his former course. If he could reach the end -of that line of horsemen before they encroached on his line of progress -he might escape them yet. He found himself hoping that they were riding -in open formation. If that were the case,—although the starlight was -pretty bright,—he might be able to slip in between two of the riders. - -On and on he dashed and was just deeming that success had come to him -when he was brought to an abrupt halt. Before him yawned blackly a -chasm of some sort, and Coyote had seen it only just in time to avoid -plunging over its brink into the unknown depths below. The thought -chilled him. He shuddered apprehensively. - -“One more step and it would have been ‘goodnight, Coyote,’ fer sure,” -he soliloquized. - -Suddenly there came a loud shout behind him. It was followed by a -fusilade of bullets whistling about his ears and pattering against -the rocks. In his shock at finding how near he had been to a terrible -death, Coyote had thoughtlessly stood erect. Thus he offered a target -that could be seen for some distance against the stars. That this had -been the case, he could not doubt as the shouts grew closer. - -For one of the very few times in his life that such had been the case, -the old plainsman was at a loss. In front was the chasm. Behind, the -Mexicans. But suddenly he saw something that he thought might serve at -a pinch. - -It was a log, decayed and hollow, that lay near the edge of the gulf -into which he had so nearly fallen. The instant he perceived it, -Pete dived into it. Not that he did not feel some repugnance to such -a thing, for it was punky and rotten and might, for all he knew, have -sheltered snakes. But there was nothing else for it. Hardly had he -crawled inside it, carefully drawing in his legs, before Ramon and the -advance guard of the pursuers rode up. - -Coyote Pete lay perfectly still. He hardly dared to breathe, and -heartily wished that he could suspend his heart-action. - -“Caramba! He was here an instant ago!” exclaimed Ramon, glaring about, -“where is the accursed Gringo now?” - -“Possibly struck by a bullet,” put in Canfield, the red-headed man, -who, having aided Pete to escape, was now compelled to assume a -bloodthirsty role once more. - -“Not likely. Perhaps he dropped over the edge of the cliff and has -escaped,” put in another of the outlaw band who had just ridden up. - -“But that would be suicide. The gully is deep and he would be dashed -to pieces in its depths,” struck in another. - -“Hold on!” shouted Ramon suddenly, “I have it!” - -“What, you see him?” the query came from a dozen throats. - -“No, but I can guess where he is.” - -“Where?” - -“Here!” Ramon tapped the log with his foot, while Coyote Pete fairly -perspired in rivers. - -“Let’s make sure,” cried the voice of Canfield. He was about to -dismount when Ramon checked him. - -“No. I have a better way.” - -A kick on the log emphasized the Mexican’s statement, and a sharp shock -passed through Coyote at the thought of the awful fate in store for -him. Had he had time at that moment he would have emerged from the log -and risked all. But before he could move, a dozen hands laid hold of -the timber and began to roll it toward the cliff edge. - -“Stop!” shouted Pete. - -“Ha!” exclaimed Ramon, “then I was not mistaken. Good! Go to your -grave, you Yankee pig, in the coffin you have made for yourself!” - -Faster and faster the log rolled, while cries of real fear and entreaty -broke from Coyote’s lips. In vain he tried to extricate himself. - -All at once, the log gave a clumsy leap, and, amid a brutal shout from -the Mexicans, it spun over the edge of the gulch and shot sheer over -into the black void that yawned below. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -WITH THE MEXICAN RANGERS. - - -Coyote Pete felt that he was passing through the most critical moments -of his adventurous life. At the very least, he estimated the drop to -the bottom of the gully must be several hundred feet. - -Obviously it was impossible for him to extricate himself from the -hurtling log, yet to remain in it was to doom himself to almost certain -destruction. Yet, as the log shot down like an object dropped from a -balloon, he realized that when it struck the earth he would be battered -into annihilation. - -But even in a situation which would have caused most men to swoon with -terror, Coyote could think, and think coolly, too. - -Suddenly, though, there came a sudden interruption to the downward -progress of the great log with its human freight enclosed. - -Crash! - -Every nerve in Coyote Pete’s frame seemed to be ripped asunder. Every -tooth in his head was jarred. He lay still, feeling pounded and -stunned, like a boy who has just had a hard fight with some school -tyrant. - -“The log has landed, evidently,” he exclaimed, “but how? Where? Why -aren’t I dead?” - -Suddenly he became aware that the wood encasing him like a coffin had -become easier in its pressure on him. He moved, and with a tearing, -rending sound the log burst asunder. - -Like a butterfly from its cocoon,—if Coyote will forgive me for -comparing his rugged form to a butterfly,—the cow-puncher, bruised, -wounded and sore in every limb, peered forth. Where was he? - -All at once he felt the portion of the log which remained beneath -him gently swaying like a boat on rippling waves. In a short time, -by cautious feeling about him, he found that the log had, by some -providential miracle, landed on a sort of island of trees growing, -apparently, right straight out from the cliff face. As he realized his -position the cold sweat burst out in great drops on his brow and all -over his body. If this was the case his fate was to be worse than if he -had been dashed to pieces and mercifully killed outright. - -Hung where he was between heaven and earth, he would have to die -miserably of starvation, unless madness intervened and he leaped -crazily to his own destruction. All at once, as he made his -investigations, his foot slipped, and with a cry of actual terror the -cow-puncher felt himself beginning to dart downward through space. By a -desperate, despairing effort he clutched the branches as he fell, and -drew himself, with infinite pains, back upon his precious perch. Once -there he lay trembling and nauseated at the thought of the narrowness -of his escape from a plunge into the abyss. - -Of all the tight places he had ever been in, Coyote Pete was surely now -in the very worst. He felt the wall behind him when he had somewhat -recovered from his attack of deadly sickness. It was smooth as glass. -No chance of climbing up. He would have examined his surroundings at -greater length, but he dared not risk another slip like the one that -had so unnerved him. - -It was many years since Coyote Pete had prayed, but he did so then, -commending his soul to his Maker, for that he would ever escape from -his frightful predicament he did not dare to hope. Somewhat calmer -after his devotions he lay still, not daring to move lest the motion of -his body might dislodge some of the rotten wood, and he could not bear -to think of hearing it go dropping down into that awful gorge beneath, -finally losing all sound in the dread profundities. - -It was unlikely in the extreme that he would ever be found, for in that -unfrequented part of the mountain fastnesses it was most improbable -that anyone ever passed. It was only the thirst for gold that had -brought Ramon into the rugged place. - -There came no sound from above, and Coyote concluded that the outlaws, -hearing the crash of the landing, had concluded that he was dead, and -departed. - -“What a story fer the boys and the professor to hyar,” groaned the -unhappy man, burying his face in his hands. - -So the dark hours rolled away and daylight came. But those hours of -terror had unnerved Coyote terribly. With the coming of day he dreaded -more than ever to look beneath him. He felt that if he ever dared to -gaze into the voids which he felt must lie beneath his fragile perch, -that he must be impelled by a crazy desire to leap into space. - -So strong did this feeling become that he lay there, not daring to look -about him, until a sudden sound smote on his ears,—the sharp rattle -of hoofs, coming apparently from the canyon above which his log was -perched in such a precarious condition. - -The sound in arousing Coyote’s hopes of rescue,—though how they were -to rescue him he did not know,—had likewise temporarily banished his -keener fears. Cautiously he peeped over the edge of his eyrie and then -gave vent to a shout of astonishment that went echoing and roaring off -among the canyon walls. - -“Mother of all the bob cats!” he howled, “here I’ve bin lying all night -ez scared ez a sick puppy and not ten feet above the ground!” - -Such, in fact, was the case. The trees in which the log had so -fortunately landed, grew out from almost the base of the great cliff. -Coyote, glancing up, saw that they were the only ones on its hundred -and fifty feet of height. - -“Coyote, you old idjut, ain’t you never goin’ to larn?” the cowboy -admonished himself. “Why didn’t you drop suthin’ down ter see how far -you was above the ground, you consarned, double-barreled old chump? -You’d hev saved yourself some gray hairs ef you hed.” - -Reproaching himself thus, the cow-puncher dropped lightly from one of -the lower branches of the trees to the ground. - -“Wish I’d done that when I slipped last night,” he said. “Hold on, -though, on second thoughts, I don’t. I’d have bin dead o’ fright afore -I touched the ground in that case.” - -But now the hoof beats which had attracted his attention were coming -nearer. The floor of the canyon was so strewn with Titanic rock masses, -though, that it was impossible to see more than a few yards in either -direction. - -“Wonder if that ain’t thet Ramon and his bunch come ter look at ther -remains?” thought Pete. “Guess I’ll be on the safe side and jes’ duck a -’hind this yar rock till I make sure.” - -So saying, he slipped between two boulders into a small natural cave in -which he felt he would be secure from observation, and yet be able to -see what was going forward. He had not long to wait. Suddenly, around -the corner of one of the huge rock piles, there swung a troop of gaily -caparisoned riders; Mexicans, beyond a doubt. Their serapes streamed -out behind them in the wind like gaudy streamers. - -“Now, what bunch of pesky greasers is this yar?” Pete was beginning to -himself, when suddenly he broke off in amazement: - -“Jack Merrill’s among ’em, by ginger. He’s a prisoner! No, he ain’t! -He’s talking ter that chap in front with ther silver-mounted rifle. Bob -cats! I have it now. It’s a troop of rurales, and they’re on the trail -of Ramon! - -“Yip-yip-yee-ee-ee!” - -Giving vent to the long-drawn cow-puncher yell, Coyote Pete dashed from -his place of concealment, and a more astonished lad than Jack Merrill -I can assure you, you never saw, when he perceived the old plainsman -suddenly bob up out of a great rock mass in that lonely canyon. - -In his excess of joy Coyote fairly flung his arms about Jack’s neck. - -But scant time could be given to greetings. Explanations were in order. -Exclamations of indignation and of fury ran like wildfire among the -Rangers, as the old plainsman told his tale. Then Jack related how he -had fared, and how they had trailed the marauders, being much delayed -at times, though, by faulty tracks where the party had passed over hard -ground. - -“By ginger, I never noticed till now, that we are in the same canyon -we came through with that outfit of Ramon’s late yesterday!” exclaimed -Pete. “Gloomy place, ain’t it? And it seemed pretty glum to me last -night, I can tell you.” - -He gazed at the cliff and shuddered a little. He could not help it. - -“Say, Jack, hez my hair turned white?” he asked suddenly. - -“No,” laughed the boy, “why?” - -“Arter what I went through, I hearn tell of such things. Me for a nice -snug place in a stampede, or the front rank in a shooting scrape arter -this. I’ve no more use for exciting sports.” - -“Senors,” interrupted the leader of the Rangers presently, “we had -better be proceeding. Ramon may have broken camp and gone on by this -time, and again he may have——” - -“May have what?” asked Jack, for the capitano paused and seemed -unwilling to proceed. - -“I do not wish to alarm you unduly, senor,” said the young officer, -“but I know the character of that notorious outlaw well. It is possible -that if we do not hurry we may arrive too late to save your friends -from a terrible fate.” - -The thought was maddening to Jack. - -“Oh, that we have been fooling away time here!” he exclaimed -impatiently; “Pete, you can mount behind me. There. Are you all right? -Yes? Then forward!” - -“Forward!” shouted the officer, and the bugle rang shrilly out. - -Amidst a cloud of dust the Mexican Rangers swept on down the canyon, -intent on their errand of vengeance. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -THE CAPTAIN PLAYS A TRICK. - - -All at once, as they reached a part of the canyon where it narrowed -into a mere defile, something came rattling down the side of the -steep wall to the right. It was a dislodged pebble, but it caused the -advancing corps to look up swiftly. - -Above them, outlined against the sky, were several figures,—those -undoubtedly of the men of whom they were in search. As they were still -looking upward, the men on the cliff summit began to pump down lead, -the bullets singing and droning and pattering about them like a leaden -hail storm. - -“Hot work,” grunted Pete, noting with enthusiasm the absolute -collectedness of the leader of the Rangers. He gave a sharp command -and his men swung into single file and pulled their ponies over till -they were riding so close to the rock wall of the canyon that it was -necessary for the riders to throw one leg up on the saddle. This made -it impossible for the marksmen on the summit to pick them off, for the -cliff hung outward a little. - -“As I thought, the rascals were prepared for us,” said the young -officer, “how far is it now, Senor Coyote, to the camp?” - -“Ten minutes should bring us thar,—ah!” - -A big rock hurled from above struck the ground in front of and a little -to one side of the advancing cavalcade. It split to pieces from the -force of its impact. - -“If that had hit anyone his troubles would hev bin over,” snorted Pete -without turning a hair. - -Jack paled a little, though. In a few seconds they would reach a part -of the canyon where they could no longer crowd in under the slightly -overhanging cliff. At this point they would be exposed to the full fury -of any rifle fire or stone volley which the brigands above might pour -down on them. - -But the officer of the Rangers had, it seemed, anticipated this. He -ordered one of his men to dismount and remove his regimentals. This -done, the empty garments were filled with brush and leaves, and the -sombrero was tied securely to the upper part of the dummy, which, at a -distance, and particularly from above, would resemble pretty closely a -real man. - -The dummy was then mounted on a pony, a lame animal and not good for -much. After its “rider” had been securely fastened in place, the -pony was given a couple of whacks with the Rangers’ long quirts, and -frenzied with excitement it plunged forward. - -These operations had all been carried on in the shadow of the -overhanging cliff, and those above had no knowledge of the trick that -was to be played on them till they saw the apparently daring rider -suddenly dash from the shelter. Instantly a volley of rifle shots was -poured down upon the dummy, and a veritable avalanche of mighty rocks -and boulders were hurled downward. The luckless pony galloped bravely -down through this inferno of bullets and missiles, only to have its -life exterminated by a quick-killing bullet after about five minutes of -flight. - -“Now, senors!” - -The young officer, his eyes aflame, dashed forward, followed by -his Rangers and our adventurers. The Ranger, whose pony had been -sacrificed, was carried on the back of another trooper’s saddle. In a -minute they were in the open and a howl of fury from above testified -how thoroughly the outlaws had been tricked. Their fire had been drawn -and they had exhausted the available supply of large rocks on the dummy! - -As the column dashed across the unprotected space, a scattering fire -whistled about them, but no more injury than a few punctured saddles -and a damaged hat or two was done. The next instant the cavalcade swept -out of the canyon and into the small plateau where the camp of the -night before had been made. - -A delighted shout burst from Jack’s lips, and was echoed instantly by -Coyote Pete as they perceived, still tied and bound, their companions -in adventure. A feeble cry answered them, and an instant later the -reunited party was furiously shaking hands, slapping backs and jumping -about in a thousand ecstatic antics, while the Rangers looked on, -shrugging their shoulders at the mad Gringoes, and rolling cigarettes. - -“Shall we pursue the outlaws?” asked Jack, after the first transports -were over and comparative quiet had settled down. - -The officer shook his head. - -“It would be useless now. We have scattered them and let us hope that -we have heard the last of them. It will be my duty, however, to keep a -constant lookout for them.” - -To the boys’ delight, their stolen stock was all there, too. Firewater -whinnied delightedly as he saw his young master, and even the burros -seemed to take part in the general rejoicing. While the brigands had -made some inroads on the boys’ provisions, there still remained enough -food to last them, with care, on the remainder of their dash for the -Trembling Mountain. - -After the tension of the last few hours it was delightful to feel a -sense of security once more. Their enemies were scattered and it was -unlikely that the band would attempt any more high-handed methods. -Should they do so, however, it would be too late, for before they set -forward on the last stage of their journey the adventurers arranged -with the captain to meet him and his Rangers at a spot near the -Trembling Mountain in three days’ time. - -The young officer willingly agreed, but expressed some curiosity as -to the nature of their quest. He was informed that the object of the -expedition was a scientific one, to investigate the reports of the -relics of a forgotten race that lay within the bowels of the mountain. - -Jack parted with the Rangers with regret. He had come to admire them -for their dash, courage and resource. They were ideal troops for the -rough country they patrolled and kept in order by rough and ready -methods. The young officer, too, felt much regard for Senor Jack, as he -called him. - -So a few hours after the reunion in the outlaws’ abandoned camp, the -two parties set out in different directions. The Rangers followed the -course they assumed that Ramon had taken in his flight, while our -adventurers struck out for the smoking peaks which were now much nearer -than when they had had their first sight of them. They traveled the -rest of that day at a good speed, and sunset found them camped in a -pleasant little valley where the broad-fronded banana tree grew, whose -fruit afforded a welcome addition to their menu. - -The next day, at noon, the professor, after making an observation, -announced that they were then within a few hours’ travel of the -Trembling Mountain. This announcement was, in fact, hardly necessary, -for all day a mighty peak, from whose snow-covered summit there issued -a lazy roll of smoke, had overshadowed their way. Everybody guessed -that the frowning acclivity was the mountain for which they had come so -far in quest. - -Late afternoon brought them to its base, and with his measuring -instruments the professor, an hour after camp had been pitched, located -the entrance which no other American, assuredly, had ever passed. Their -pulses beat swift and hard, as the lads and Coyote followed the old man -over the rock-strewn slopes to the spot. - -Amid a grove of dark, sombre trees,—somehow suggesting a sacrificial -grove,—lay the entrance to the Trembling Mountain. All felt a sense -of mystical awe as they stood in the solemn shadows. It was as if they -had come under the spell of some tremendous brooding presence. Quite -unconsciously they spoke in whispers. - -It was the same feeling that overcomes one in the aisle of some mighty -cathedral. As if to accentuate the similarity of impression, the wind -sighing softly in the dark, dome-shaped trees, sounded like a solemn -chant, now high and tremulous, now low in a rumbling diapason that -thrilled. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -THE DWELLING OF A VANISHED RACE. - - -“Gee, it’s kind of lonesome, ain’t it?” said Pete, expressing exactly -what they all felt. - -Although they now stood in the presence of the long-sought goal, -somehow each one of the party felt uncomfortably impressed. A nameless -fear hung about the place. It was with difficulty that they shook off -the feeling and examined the surroundings further. - -The entrance to the cave itself must have escaped observation had one -not known it was there. It was square, with a mighty cross-bar of -unhewn stone supporting its summit. In this cross-bar were cut some -rude hieroglyphics, but even the professor, savant though he was, could -not hazard a guess at their meaning. - -The professor, alone, seemed unimpressed by the gloomy majesty and -mystery of the place. His eyes burned with a scientific fire and he -rubbed his hands briskly together. - -“At last!” he breathed, as if in an ecstasy, “who knows what unknown -treasures we may reveal to the world, beyond that portal!” - -“Shall we go inside?” asked Jack presently. - -“We might as well now as at any other time,” said the professor, -“Ralph, will you and Walter go back to the camp and get the torches?” - -The lads at once hastened off on their errand. Truth to tell, they were -each rather glad to get, for a short time only, out of the spell of -that somber spot. - -The torches referred to were of the kerosene variety, but specially -made to burn for twenty-four hours continuously. They had been made to -the professor’s order for the expedition. - -The boys returned shortly with the illuminants. Ralph also brought a -supply of matches and a canteen of water, and both boys had stuffed -their pockets full of what food they could hastily get together. The -professor praised their foresight and then, from his own pocket, -produced a huge spool of coarse, strong thread. - -“I took the hint from the classics,” he said, “you all recollect the -tale of the labyrinth? Well, we will make this thread fast at the -entrance, and as we go along we will unwind it. In that way if we get -lost we can find our way back by feeling along the thread.” - -“That’s a splendid idea,” cried Jack, “I tell you I shouldn’t much -fancy the idea of going in there, unless I was pretty sure how I was -going to get out again.” - -“I don’t blame you,” said the professor, “and now are we all ready?” - -“All right!” came in a chorus, and led by the man of science, the -adventurers crossed the mystic threshold. A thrill shot through even -Coyote Pete, the least impressible of the party, as they did so. How -long had it been since the race of ancient dwellers of the Chinipal had -swarmed those subterranean corridors, now as silent as midnight? - -The torches soon became necessary for the passage sloped abruptly -downward from the portal. The smoky light showed them that they were -in a sort of corridor, seemingly hewn out of the rock. It was about -ten feet in width and some eight or nine in height. The floor was worn -almost concave by the constant tread of the feet that had passed and -repassed in the bygone ages. - -For some distance the sloping passage ran on, and then they suddenly -found themselves in a vaulted chamber where their footsteps rang -echoingly. Great stalactites hung from the roof glittering whitely as -the torch light fell upon them. - -“This is magnificent!” breathed the professor, “a wonderland of -science.” His voice, raised a little in his enthusiasm, went booming -and reverberating hollowly through the place. From the remotest corners -there came rumbling back echo-like the last words of his exclamation. - -“I guess we had better not talk so loud,” said Ralph, shivering a bit -at this uncanny manifestation. - -“No, somebody might hear you,” scoffed Walt, who was putting on an air -of great assurance. Suddenly he emitted a yell and jumped about four -feet. Something had crept up behind him in the darkness and laid a cold -hand on the back of his neck. It was Coyote Pete who had noted the -boy’s arrogance and wanted to give him a lesson. After that Walt was as -quiet as a lamb. - -Pressing forward, their torches showed them the entrance to another -dark passage on the other side of the vaulted chamber. - -“Shall we keep on?” asked the professor of his young charges. - -“By all means, so far as I am concerned,” was Jack’s reply. “I don’t -know about Walt, though,” he added a trifle maliciously. - -“Oh, I’m all right. Don’t worry about me,” the ranch lad assured him. - -“Then forward it is,” announced the professor, plunging once more into -the narrow confines of a subterranean corridor. - -But suddenly an alarming thing happened. A great rush of wind beat -against their faces accompanied by a roaring, rushing sound, somewhat -like the voice of the cloudburst on the never-to-be-forgotten night -when they had lost their equipment. - -In a flash their torches were extinguished and they were plunged into -total darkness, something soft and clammy brushed by Jack’s head and -then a perfect avalanche of the same unpleasant things was upon them. -They were knocked down like ten pins by the charge, and badly scared, -too, as you may imagine. - -Presently the noise and the turmoil ceased, and the passage was quiet -once more with the roar of the mysterious creatures dying away in the -distance. - -“Let’s get out of this!” cried Walt tremblingly. - -“Nonsense,” said the professor. “We might have expected some such -thing. Those were bats. Thousands of them, I guess, who have made their -home here undisturbed for centuries.” - -“Wonder if they are of the kind that suck your blood?” shuddered -Ralph, with the horror of the contact of the clammy bodies still upon -him. - -“Vampires, you mean?” asked the professor. “No, at least I don’t think -so. We are too far north for that. The vampire is found in South -America, in Brazil and so on. But let us light up the torches again.” - -Ralph produced the matches and a cheerful red glow soon radiated upon -the stone walls and roof. A sickly, musty smell, the trace of the bats, -was still in the air, however, as a reminder of their passing. - -The passage soon ended, and the professor’s feet encountered a steep -flight of steps cut in the stone, or so it seemed. - -“Be careful, boys,” he warned, “a slip here might prove fatal.” - -Very cautiously, therefore, they descended into what at first appeared -to be a bottomless pit. Suddenly their torches glittered on something -that shone like molten metal beneath them. - -“Water!” cried the professor. - -“A lake,” added Jack, raising his torch so that the light illumined -what appeared to be a considerable body of water. - -“Water, sure enough,” echoed Pete, “maybe it’s another subterranean -river like that one at the Haunted Mesa.” - -“This is no river,” said the professor. “See, its surface is as smooth -as glass.” - -By this time they had descended to the rocky shelf which ran all around -the edge of the subterranean lake, while above their torch-light fell -redly on a domed roof of dark stone. - -“Look! Look!” cried Walter suddenly, “Fish!” - -Sure enough, they could now see shoals of white-tinted fish swimming -near the surface. - -“Can it be that the light attracts them?” wondered Jack. - -“Not likely,” said the professor, “I guess they are blind. It is not -unusual to find fish in these subterranean lakes. Specimens have been -found in our own country and in many places in Europe which boast -similar bodies of water.” - -Walt had been leaning over the edge of the lake intent, apparently, on -trying to catch one of the blind fish. Suddenly he gave a sharp outcry, -which was immediately followed by a splash. - -“He is overboard!” cried Pete, rushing to the spot and throwing himself -on his stomach so as to catch Walt when he rose to the surface. But at -that instant a startling thing happened. - -Simultaneously almost with the splash of the unlucky ranch boy, there -came a sound as of some great body rushing through the water from some -remote corner of the cave to which their light did not penetrate. The -next instant a cry of real horror broke from all their throats as a -terrible misshapen head with blind eyes reared itself above the water -and darted at Walt as he rose to the surface. - -It was apparently a might eel, a creature of undreamed of dimensions. -Its slimy, whitish-colored body was thick as a barrel and its lothsome -head and sightless slits of eyes gave it a hideously repulsive -appearance. - -“Pete! Pete! Save me!” shrieked Walt. - -But in another instant it would have been too late had it not been for -the old plainsman’s coolness. Stretching out one hand to Walt as he -struggled in the water, the cow-puncher’s other hand slid to his waist. -The next instant a shot rang out sharply, and they saw the monster’s -head sink, a stream of red blood crimsoning the water where their -torches gleamed upon it. - -Trembling in every limb at this narrow escape, Walt was dragged out. -The professor had had the foresight to carry with him some stimulating -medicine, and a portion of this he poured down the half-fainting lad’s -throat. Under its influence the naturally strong lad soon revived, but -there was still a scared look in his eyes. - -“What could that monster have been?” asked Jack with a shudder in his -tones. - -“Undoubtedly a creature of the eel or giant conger tribe,” rejoined the -scientist, “I have read that some of the ancient races used to keep -such creatures, and in some cases worshipped them even to the horror -of nourishing them on human lives.” - -“Ugh!” exclaimed Jack, “I’m glad that Coyote’s shot killed the beast. -But it could hardly have been one of the original ones.” - -“Hardly,” said the professor, with a smile, “but there is no reason why -such creatures should not multiply, and, as we know, there are plenty -of fish in the lake for them to feed upon.” - -“Then there may be others in the water?” asked Ralph. - -“I see no reason why not. In fact, I—but, good gracious, what is that?” - -The water became suddenly violently agitated as the body of the dead -eel, fully forty feet in length, arose lazily to the surface. The -reason was an onrush of its brethren gathering to a cannibal feast. -It was a fearsome sight to see their jaws clamping and tearing, while -their long white tentacles waved. - -“Let’s get away from here,” said the professor presently. “See there -is another passage. Let us find out what that leads to.” - -As he spoke there came a startling interruption. - -A rumbling sound, somewhat as if a heavy train were passing overhead, -filled the cavern. It shook violently and the waters of the lake became -wildly agitated. The monsters at once left their feast and sank into -the lake, leaving the mangled body of their dead mate floating on the -surface. - -The rumbling grew louder and the cavern shook till the lake was lashed -into little wavelets. - -“It is the voice of the Trembling Mountain,” said the professor -solemnly; “somewhere the mighty forces of nature’s forges are at work.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -THE HEART OF THE MYSTERY. - - -“Sounds more to me as if Mrs. Nature had a tummy ache,” said the -unromantic Coyote Pete. - -But nobody laughed at this remark. The sounds were too awe-inspiring. -Suddenly they ceased as abruptly as they had begun, the rumblings dying -out like a sharp clap of thunder. - -“Is there any danger?” inquired Jack. - -“I don’t think so,” rejoined the professor, “this must have been going -on for centuries, and, as we know, the force of a volcano wanes instead -of waxing stronger as the centuries pass by.” - -“Hope so, I’m sure,” put in Walt, “I can tell you, I’ve had quite -enough excitement for one day.” - -“Well, I guess that is the case with all of us,” was the rejoinder, -“but amid all these natural wonders and alarms we must not forget that -we came here on a definite mission,—namely to carry back with us what -we can of the reputed treasure.” - -“That’s right,” agreed Coyote, “and so far as I’m concerned, I’m for -pushing on.” - -That seemed to be in accordance with the wishes of the entire little -company, so, forward it was. - -They plunged into the passage that the professor had indicated and -traversed it for some distance before they struck anything out of the -ordinary. - -It was perhaps half an hour before they began to notice that the tunnel -was beginning to be irradiated by a light far stronger than that -thrown by their torches, a bright piercing glare that seemed to burn -like white fire. It grew very much warmer, too, and the perspiration -streamed down all their faces. - -“We are approaching the subterranean fires,” said the professor, “in -all probability some titanic flame of natural gas. By the roaring sound -I hear, I believe that to be a correct statement of the facts.” - -[Illustration: In the midst of a rock chamber, there arose a great -flame of an almost white hue.] - -“Sounds like a blast furnace in full swing,” said Ralph. - -Suddenly the passage widened and a dazzling scene broke upon their -gaze. In the midst of a rock chamber even larger, as well as they -could judge, than the cave of the lake, there arose a great flame of -an almost white hue. It was blue at the base like an ordinary gas -flame and roared straight up with terrific force as if fed by great -reservoirs of natural gas. - -“In all probability it was ignited at the time that the volcano was -active and has burned ever since,” opined the professor. “Young men, if -we found nothing else within this cavern we have already experienced -more than falls to the lot of even exceptional men in their lifetime. -Such sights as these we shall never forget.” - -“It’s a Flower of Flame!” exclaimed Jack poetically. - -“If you could corner that light and sell it, there’d be a pile of -money in it,” said the practical Ralph. - -“Well, as time is precious, let us be pressing on,” said the professor, -“for, speaking of money, we must recollect that we have, as yet, found -no trace of the treasure.” - -After converging upon the chamber of the Flower of Flame, the passage -once more plunged into the innermost regions of the mountain. For a -space it twisted and turned, and then, without the slightest warning, -the adventurers experienced a sharp shock. They faced a blank wall. - -“Well, here’s the finish,” announced Walt, holding up his torch. - -“Looks like it,” agreed Jack, “yet it seems odd that those old tribes -would have gone to all the trouble to drill that passage if it ends -right here.” - -“Just what I think, my boy,” said the professor, “and by the same -token, look here!” - -He indicated a big ring of some yellowish metal that hung directly in -the center of the seeming blank wall. - -“I’ll experiment,” he said, giving it a twist. - -But nothing occurred. - -Then he tried tugging it. Again no result followed. - -“Look,” cried Ralph suddenly, “there’s a metal plate under your feet, -professor. Perhaps if you stand on that and then tug you will have some -results.” - -“That sounds reasonable,” said Professor Wintergreen, doing as the boy -had indicated. - -This time, amid a cheer from the boys, something did happen. The door -slowly swung on invisible hinges and beyond it their torch-lights fell -on a scene of almost overwhelming grandeur. - -It was a chamber, seemingly of gleaming white marble. Around the walls, -at regular intervals, were ranged the figures of what appeared to be -idols, but which they presently discovered were perfectly embalmed -bodies of past rulers of the mountain dwellers. At one end of the -chamber on a raised dais was a hideous figure which they readily -guessed to be the deity of the forgotten race. - -The face of this image was spread into a monstrous expression of -malignant cruelty. But it was the eyes that startled them. They blazed -in the torch-lights like two balls of fire. - -“They are rubies!” cried the professor, rushing forward. As he did -so, his eye fell upon a heap of golden ornaments and jeweled vessels -at the foot of the huge statue. Evidently they had been left there as -offerings on the day of the mysterious occurrence that had wiped out -the tribe. - -But as the man of science made his dart toward the pile, a strange -thing happened. The gaping mouth of the statue opened wide, and from -it there poured a puff of gas so baleful in odor that the boys reeled -back. But the professor, upon whom the full force of the blast had -concentrated itself, gave a few staggering footsteps and then plunged -to the marble floor in a senseless condition. - -“So that is the way those old fellows protected their treasure,” -snorted Pete. “Wall, it was a good one, too, and no mistake. Come on, -boys, and drag the professor out of that.” - -“Isn’t there danger of our being poisoned by that gas, too?” asked -Walt, still shaken by his previous experience in danger. - -“Even if there was, it ’ud be our duty ter get the professor out of -that,” said Pete severely, “but I noticed that the professor stepped -on a particular stone as he reached for them treasures. I guess it is -only that stone, behind which the stuff is piled, that works the gas -consarn.” - -And so it proved. By carefully avoiding the stone which was of a dark -blood-color, they dragged the professor to a place of safety, and with -water from the canteen and some of his own stimulant, they soon had him -on his feet again. - -“I should have been upon the lookout,” he said, “I ought to have known -that the priests of the tribe would have taken some precautions to -protect the offerings from marauders.” - -“But the gas only works when you step on that particular stone,” -objected Jack. - -“I suppose with the ignorant folk with whom they had to deal, one -lesson of that sort was quite sufficient. That is the logical stone to -step upon, and having once tested it, nobody was likely to try again,” -rejoined the professor. - -“And now to gather up the treasure, or what we can of it,” said Jack. - -Pete produced a big roll of sacking which, on being distributed, proved -to consist of burlap bags, one for each member of the party. - - “Here we are, on Tom Tiddler’s ground, - Picking up gold and silver!” - -So sang the boys, as sacks in hand they rushed forward. - -“This girdle for me!” cried Jack, holding up a belt of golden coins -with great, rough rubies encrusting it. - -“This goblet takes my eye,” quoth Ralph, stowing a golden vessel, -likewise jewel-encrusted, into his receptacle. - -Besides the wrought gold there were ingots of gold in the rough, silver -articles of all sorts, and all gem-studded. The heap blazed and flashed -with a hundred fires as the torches gleamed upon it. They all worked -like beavers and before long the sacks were full with a burden that was -quite heavy enough for any of the party to wish to carry. - -“Well, this will be all for this trip,” decided the professor when -their task was completed, “and now for the open air.” - -With the scientist leading the way, his long legs fairly sagging under -his burden, they began to retrace their footsteps, fingering the thread -as they went. - -“What should you estimate the value of this haul at?” Ralph asked, as -they once more passed the portal. - -“At a rough guess at least $500,000, apart from the value of the -collection as antiquities,” said the professor. “It is without doubt -the most valuable archeological collection ever stumbled upon.” - -Past the Flower of Flame and past the lake of the blind, monstrous eels -they retraced their steps, their hearts beating triumphantly at the -magnificent conclusion of their long and adventurous quest. - -But as they reached the Cave of the Stalactites the subterranean -chambers were filled with a sudden terrifying sound. It seemed to -drive the ear drums in with its fierce impact. The adventurers felt -themselves lifted from their feet and then violently hurled to the -ground again. A rush of nauseous smelling gas enveloped them, splitting -their heads with its pungent fumes. - -The earth shook and trembled and a reverberating roar as of the -explosion of a powder magazine filled the whole atmosphere. - -Some terrific catastrophe had occurred within the confines of the caves -in the heart of the Trembling Mountain. Following the explosion there -came a sound like that of a landslide. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -THE DEATH TRAP. - - -“What can have happened?” - -It was Jack who spoke some ten minutes later. - -“In my opinion some cataclysm has occurred,” said the professor. - -“Meaning by that, that there’s bin a most almighty bust-up?” inquired -Pete. - -“In colloquial language that was the idea I intended to convey,” said -the professor, with dignity. - -“Well, what do you think this catty—what-you-may-call-’em has done?” -asked Jack. - -“Sealed forever the treasure caves,” said the professor promptly. “That -explosion we heard was either the ignition of gas from the mouth of the -idol or it marked the birth of a new Flower of Flame. In any event the -roar and tremble which followed was pretty good evidence that there -had been subsidence of the rock in that neighborhood, which, of course, -means that the passageways must have caved in. - -“Well, we got our share out of it,” said Ralph philosophically. - -“Yet it is a great pity that such a thing has occurred,” said the -professor sorrowfully, “I had been in hopes of making this cave the -Mecca of scientists the world over. This explosion has blasted my -dreams of such a thing.” - -“Wall, don’t feel too bad about it, professor,” comforted Pete, “we got -enough stuff to start a show of our own with, anyhow.” - -As there was nothing to be gained by remaining in the cave, they -decided to get out to the open air as soon as possible. As they went -Jack spoke up suddenly: - -“Has it occurred to you fellows that we are carrying a bait that might -tempt less dangerous fellows than that band of Ramon’s to plunder us?” - -“That’s right,” agreed Pete, “but I guess we won’t be bothered. Nobody -but Ramon had wind of our mission, and I don’t imagine that after the -lesson the Rangers gave him that he’ll come back in a hurry.” - -“I’m not so sure about that,” said Jack, “from what I know of him he’s -not the sort of man to let go of a good thing if he can help it, and -he’d certainly have a good thing in us, providing he could get the -treasure away from us.” - -“Always provided,” said Ralph, “but I’ll bet we’d give him a sharp -tussle for it.” - -“Let us hope nothing of the kind occurs,” said the professor, “we have -had difficulties enough on our mission, and now that it is over let us -hope we can bring it to a peaceful conclusion.” - -“Amen to that,” agreed Pete, “but in time of peace prepare for war, you -know. Have you any plans for the return home?” - -“Yes,” said the man of science, “the city of Hermosillo on the Mexican -West Coast Railroad is not many miles from where we now are. My idea -is to make for that and take the train back home.” - -“Hooray for the good old U. S. A.!” shouted the Border Boys in chorus. - -Conversing cheerily in this manner they reached the mouth of the -passage and were about to step out into the starlight, when Pete, who -was in advance, held up his hand in a signal that they all had no -difficulty in interpreting. - -“Stop!” - -The keen eyes of the cow-puncher had detected several dark forms -skulking in the shadows of the grove about the portal of the cave. From -their manner of pacing about, Pete immediately guessed that they were -sentries posted there by somebody, whom he concluded could be no other -than Ramon. - -Retreating down the passage, Pete told the others of his suspicions and -a council of war at once followed. - -“We’re hemmed in beyond a doubt,” said Jack finally. - -“And the question is, how to get out,” put in the professor, as -solemnly as if some question had been raised about the matter. - -“Wall, if we don’t git out afore long, we’re gone coons,” was Pete’s -gloomy contribution. - -Suddenly Jack spoke up. - -“Do you think the sentries saw or heard us, Pete?” - -“No, I don’t. If they had, we’d uv heard of it by now. My idea of the -situation is this: Ramon outwitted the Rangers and back tracked on us. -Arriving at our camp and finding it deserted, he guessed we’d gone -arter the treasure. The rascal thinks to himself that we will make fine -cat’s-paws to draw his chestnuts out of the fire, and so, knowing he -has us bottled up, he sets those sentries on duty arter he’s tracked us -up the mountain side.” - -“I guess that’s about it,” rejoined the boy; “the question is, what are -we to do?” - -“Wait till I go and look the land over a bit,” said Coyote. “In the -meantime, put out those torches. If one of those greasers should come -snooping into the passage, he might see the glow and nose us out.” - -So they waited in total darkness while Coyote departed on his scouting -errand. It was a long time before he came back. When he did he was -chuckling to himself. - -“They’re the worst scared bunch you ever saw,” he said, “I laid behind -a rock and listened to ther talk. They think that at any moment some -spirits or ghosts is likely to pop out of this hole. They likewise -opine that we shall never be seen again because the bogies in the -mountain have gobbled us up.” - -“But what good does that do us?” asked Jack. - -“I dunno,” admitted Pete, “except that it sounded funny to hyar a bunch -of grown men so scared of spooks.” - -“Light up a torch, Ralph,” said Jack the next minute, “it makes me feel -creepy to sit here in the dark.” - -Ralph reached into his pocket for the bundle of sulphur matches. As he -drew his hand out, his fingers, moistened with perspiration, gleamed -greenly with the phosphorus which had adhered to them. - -“Gee, look at that stuff blaze!” he exclaimed, “you’d think I was on -fire!” - -But Jack was on his feet doing a sudden ecstatic war dance. - -“Hooray! Hooray! I’ve got it!” he cried. - -“The extinguisher?” inquired Walt anxiously. - -“No, a plan. A great plan! Those greasers outside are all half -frightened out of their lives already. We’ll finish the job!” - -“How?” the question came in chorus. - -“We’ll smear our faces with that phosphorus from the matches, and then -rush out looking like a lot of green ghosts. If that won’t stampede -them, we’ll have to fight. We can’t stay mewed up in here.” - -“By hookey, boy, you’ve got it all right!” cried Pete in a voice -vibrant with excitement. “We’ll try it. As you say, we can’t stop hyar -and starve, and that’s what it amounts to if we don’t git out.” - -“So it’s scare them or fight them,” said Ralph. - -“That is, with the odds in favor of the former,” laughed Jack. - -Each of the party wet his face with water from the canteen, and then -rubbed the matches over his features till they glared greenly in the -darkness with a truly terrifying expression. Then they gave their hands -similar treatment. - -“Gee, I’ll bet I’d be scared of myself if I could see myself,” laughed -Ralph, “you fellows look hideous enough to frighten a pack of brass -monkeys.” - -“Now to see if it will work on those other monkeys outside,” said Jack. - -In single file, Pete first, Jack second, and the others coming behind, -they softly approached the end of the passage. In the starlight they -could see the dark forms of the sentries huddled pretty close together, -for companionship doubtless. - -“Now!” whispered Pete suddenly, “and the more hoorendously you yell, -the better it will be!” - -With a series of the most unearthly screeches, the Border Boys and -their companions dashed from the cave mouth. Truly they must have -been a terrifying spectacle with their glaring green faces and hands, -emerging as they did from a cave which the superstitious Mexicans -firmly believed to be haunted. - -As the first shrill cries rang out, the sentries gave an answering -series of yells. Only their cries, instead of being menacing and -uncanny like our adventurers’, were shrill screams of terror. - -“Caramba! The ghosts of the caves!” they shrieked. - -“Santa Maria! They are after us!” - -“Run for your lives, hombres!” - -Without stopping to collect their rifles, which they had carelessly -piled against the trees, the Mexicans dashed off at top speed, -stumbling and then struggling to their feet again and dashing on in -their wild panic. - -The adventurers at once possessed themselves of the rifles and then -came to a halt. But Pete addressed them: - -“We must foller up our advantage. We have ’em on the run. Foller ’em -while we’ve got ’em going!” he cried. - -Once more off dashed the green ghosts, hotly pursuing the fleeing -Mexicans, whose yells resounded everywhere. In the camp was Ramon -himself. He was suddenly aroused as his terrified band came stumbling -in, imploring aid from all the saints in the calendar. - -“What is this, you dogs!” he bawled, “what does this mean?” - -“Oh, the ghosts! The ghosts with the green faces that burn, and the -fiery hands!” screamed the panic-stricken Mexicans. - -The shrewd outlaw at once guessed what had occurred. But even his iron -nerve was shaken as he saw the green-faced spectres sweeping down the -mountain side toward him. He stood his ground, however, and by his side -stood Canfield, the red-headed American. But the two, unsupported -by the band, were no match for the well-armed Border Boys and their -companions, and they knew it. - -“Surrender or be shot down like a dog!” cried Coyote Pete in Spanish, -as they rushed into the camp. In the distance could be heard the yells -of the scared Mexicans as they leaped to their horses and dashed off, -deserting their leaders. - -Ramon’s reply was to fire point blank at the cow-puncher. The bullet -grazed his cheek and caused a temporary halt. In that brief instant -Ramon and Canfield turned and dashed away at top speed. They scrambled -upon their horses bareback, and in a jiffy the thunder of hoofs told -that they, too, were off. - -The adventurers instantly saddled their own stock and set off in -pursuit. They had no intention of losing such an advantage as they now -possessed. But their animals were no match for the fleet black, and -daylight found them far to the rear of the chase. - -But in the meantime Destiny, which had overtaken Ramon at last, had -arranged a fitting finale for his tempestuous career. The Rangers, true -to their promise, were on their way to meet our party at the place -agreed upon, and at daybreak Ramon and Canfield, white faced, dust -covered and desperate, encountered the rough and ready cavalry in a -narrow defile. Ramon at once swung his black and dashed off like the -wind, leaving Canfield on his exhausted beast to fall an easy prey to -the Rangers. Leaving a file of men to guard the prisoner, the captain -of the Rangers dashed off in hot pursuit of Ramon and his fleet steed. -But the great horse easily outdistanced his followers, and had it not -been for the hands of Destiny, Ramon might once more have escaped his -end. - -But as he shot out of the defile he spied, coming toward him, the -Border Boys. The rascal was fairly trapped. Behind him were the -Rangers, in front the Border Boys. As he hesitated, Coyote Pete cried -in a loud voice: - -“Do you surrender?” - -The Mexican’s reply was to dash back once more. Perhaps he hoped to -ride and trample his way through the Rangers. But what desperate -thoughts raced through his mind in those last moments we shall never -know, for presently, as the Rangers approached, a volley came whizzing -about the cornered desperado. - -One chance of escape only, had he. On the opposite side of the defile -lay a narrow ledge running to the top of the sheer cliff. Could he -gain that he might stand a chance of escape. Before they realized what -he was about to do, Ramon saw the desperate loophole and gathered his -horse for the impossible leap across the chasm. - -The gallant black, true as steel to his unworthy master to the last, -never faltered. Straight out into the air he shot, while the Border -Boys and the Rangers alike sat spellbound by the scene. - -The horse’s forefeet touched the opposite ledge, but the hold was -too weak. With a shrill whinny of terror, with which mingled a -terrible scream from Ramon, the beautiful and gallant animal went -crashing backward, down, down into the depths of the abyss,—while the -horror-stricken onlookers sat paralyzed in their saddles! - - * * * * * - -The next day a happy party set out from the region of the mystic caves, -carrying a freight of treasure and escorted by the Mexican Rangers, -who, by Don Alverado’s wish, were to offer them all the protection -possible. - -An examination of the caves had shown that the professor’s guess that -they had been sealed for all time by the explosion of the natural gases -was correct. Beyond the first great chamber the foot of man would never -more penetrate. - -At evening on the second day of their journey, the roofs of Hermosillo -came in sight. And then the captain of the Rangers turned to our party. - -“Our duty is done, senors,” he said, saluting, “yonder is the end of -your journey.” - -“One moment,” said Jack, reddening a little and lowering his voice, -“here are two letters I will ask you to deliver when you reach Santa -Anita once more. And a packet,” he added, handing the officer the -articles. - -“I shall see that they reach their destination safely,” said the -officer, taking them and thrusting them into the bosom of his coat. -“And now, adios!” - -“Adios!” The cry was caught up by the Rangers and went echoing out -along the mountain side. - -At the same instant, as though moved by a common impulse, the Mexicans -swung their wiry ponies and dashed off toward the East. The Border Boys -stood watching them till in a cloud of dust they vanished from their -sight forever. Then turning in silence they rode down into Hermosillo. -Here telegrams were despatched telling of the success of their quest, -and the next day they boarded the train for home. The ponies traveled -less luxuriously than their masters, in a stock car, while in the -express coach, guarded by shotgun messengers, were the precious -trophies of the cave. - -“Say, Jack, if I’m not too curious, what was in that package that you -handed the officer yesterday?” - -The question came from Ralph. - -“A present of gems for himself and his men,” was the rejoinder. “I knew -you would think I did right in giving it to them. In fact, I had the -professor’s permission to do so.” - -“And the letters?” asked Ralph. - -“Well,” said Jack, “one was to Don Alverado thanking him for all he had -done, and bidding him good-bye. The other was to—somebody else.” - -For a time the boy sat silent, gazing from the windows at the flying -landscape,—and seeing nothing of its details! - -But the past was behind them, and Jack was not the boy to waste time -on moonshiny thoughts. In fact, while all the party lingered long in -memory among the strangely varied scenes of their recent experiences, -life was full of a new zest, and the future beckoned them. - -Ere long, to share with you our prophetic knowledge, the keenest -faculties of the Border Boys were to be called into action. In Texas, -the Lone Star State, some work, play and adventure lay in front of -them, and those who have hitherto followed our Border Boys through -their careers of incident and excitement, may find more about them in -another volume, which will be called “The Border Boys With The Texas -Rangers.” - - - THE END. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Border Boys with the Mexican -Rangers, by Fremont B. 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