THE BRIGANDS' HAUNT.
By daybreak on the following morning Hugh and his three companions were
far among the hills. They had halted an hour before, and intended to
wait until noon before pursuing their journey. They had already been
eight hours in the saddle, and had travelled over sixty miles. They
had halted in a little valley where there was plenty of grass for the
horses, and after cooking some food lay down and slept until the sun
was nearly overhead. Fortunately, the two miners had traversed the
country several times, and were able to lead them across the mountains,
where otherwise it would have been impossible to find a way.
After four hours' riding, on emerging from a valley the doctor said:
"There, do you see that village three miles away? That is the
village where we stopped. The gorge in which the house lies runs
from the village in this direction. You cannot see it here: it is
a sort of cañon cut out ages ago by the water. The sides are nearly
perpendicular; but at the upper end the bottom rises rapidly, and, as
far as we could see from the spot from which we looked at it, there is
no difficulty in getting down there. As you see, there are woods lying
back to the left. We have got to come down at the back of them, and
there is no chance of our being seen even if they have got men on the
lookout on the high ground above the house. They will be looking the
other way; they can see miles across the plain there. Of course they
have no reason to believe that anyone knows of their haunt; still, they
are always on the look-out against treachery."
"Well, let's go on at a trot now, doctor. We shall be in the wood
before sunset."
When they reached the trees they dismounted, and led their horses until
they perceived daylight through the trunks on the opposite side.
"Now we will finish the remainder of our dinner," the doctor said, "and
talk matters over. We are about half a mile now from the end of the
valley, and it is another half-mile down to the house. Now, what are we
going to do? Are we all going, or only one?"
Hugh was silent. These men understood matters better than he did.
"Only one, of course," Sim Howlett said. "The others can come on to the
top of the valley so as to lend a hand if he is chased; but it would
be just chucking away lives for more than one to go. Well, it is either
you or me, doc."
"Why?" Hugh asked. "I am quite ready to go, and I am sure Bill is
too. Besides, this question of the young ladies is more my affair than
yours, since you do not know them, and I certainly think I ought to be
the one to go."
"There is one reason agin it, Lightning," Sim said. "What you say is
true, and if it came to running you could leg it a good bit faster
than the doc. or me; but that don't count for much in the dark. It is
creeping and crawling that is wanted more than running. The reason why
the doc. or I must go is, you don't speak Mexican, and we do. It ain't
likely that the young ladies will be seen out in the verandah, and one
can't go and look into each of the windows till we find the right one.
We have got to listen, and that way we may find whether they are there,
and if we are lucky, which room they are in. So you see it is for one
of us to go."
"I shall go, Sim," the doctor said quietly. "I can walk as lightly as
a cat. I haven't above half as much bulk to hide as you have, and I am
cunning while you are strong, and this is a case where cunning is of
more use than strength. So it is settled that I go; but you may as well
give me your six-shooter. I may want twelve barrels."
"I shall be sorry for the Mexicans if you use them all, doc.," Sim
Howlett said, handing over his pistol to the doctor. "I would rather go
myself; but I know when you have once made up your mind to anything it
ain't no sort of use argying."
"That's right," the doctor said, putting the weapon into his belt.
"Well, there is just time for a pipe before I start. The sun has been
down nearly half an hour, and the moon won't be up over those hills
there for another hour, so we shall have it dark till I get well down
into the valley, and the moon won't be high enough to throw its light
down there afore I am back again."
"A wonderful man is the doctor!" Sim Howlett said when, with noiseless
step, he had made his way down into the upper end of the ravine. "You
wouldn't think much of him to look at him. But, you bet, he has got as
much grit as if he was ten times as big. See him going about, and you
would say he might be one of them missionaries, or a scientific chap
such as those as comes round looking after birds and snakes and such
like. He sorter seems most like a woman with his low talk and gentle
way, and yet I suppose he has killed more downright bad men than any
five men on this side of Missouri."
"You don't say so!" Hugh said in surprise.
"Yes, sir, he is a hull team and a little dog under the waggon, he
is. He ain't a chap to quarrel; he don't drink, and he don't gamble,
and he speaks everyone fair and civil. It ain't that; but he has got
somethin' in him that seems to swell up when he hears of bad goings-on.
When there is a real bad man comes to the camp where he is, and takes
to bossing the show, and to shooting free, after a time you can see
the doctor gets oncomfortable in his mind; but he goes on till that
bad man does something out of the way--shoots a fellow just out of pure
cussedness, or something of that kind--then he just says this must be
put down, and off he goes and faces that bad man and gives him a fair
show and lays him out."
"You mean he doesn't fire until the other man is heeled, Sim?"
"Yes, I mean that."
"Then how is it he hasn't got killed himself?"
"That is what we have said a hundred times, Lightning. He has been
shot all over, but never mortally. One thing, his looks are enough to
scare a man. Somehow he don't look altogether arthly with that white
hair of his--and it has been the same colour ever since I have known
him--floating back from his face. He goes in general bareheaded when he
sets out to shoot, and the hair somehow seems to stand out; not a bit
like it does other times. I heard a chap who had been a doctor afore he
took to gold-digging say his hair looked as if it had been electrified.
Then he gets as white as snow, and his eyes just blaze out. I tell you,
sirree, it is something frightful to see him; and when he comes right
into a crowded saloon and says to the man, as he always does say in
a sort of tone that seems somehow to frizz up the blood of every man
that hears it, 'It is time for you to die!' you bet it makes the very
hardest man weaken. I tell you I would rather face Judge Lynch and a
hundred regulators than stand up agin the doctor when his fit is on;
and I have seen men who never missed their mark afore shoot wide of him
altogether."
"And he never misses?" Royce asked.
"Miss!" Sim repeated; "the doctor couldn't miss if he tried. I've never
known his bullet go a hair's-breadth off the mark. It always hits plumb
in the centre of the forehead. If there is more than one of them, the
doc. turns on the others and warns them: 'Git out of the camp afore
night!' and you bet they git. He gives me a lot of trouble, the doc.
does, in the way of nursing. I have put it to him over and over again
if it is fair on me that he should be on his back three months every
year, 'cause that is about what it's been since I have known him. He
allows as it ain't fair, but, as he says, 'It ain't me, Sim, I have got
to do it; I am like a Malay running a-muck--them's chaps out somewhere
near China, he tells me, as gets mad and goes for a hull crowd--and I
can't help it;' and I don't think he can. And yet you know at other
times he is just about the kindest chap that breathes. He is always
a-nussing the sick and sitting up nights with them, and such like. That
is why he got the name of doctor."
"He isn't a doctor really then?" Hugh asked.
"Waal, Lightning, all that's his secret, and ef he thinks to tell you,
he can do it. I know he is the best mate a man ever had, and one of
the best critters in God's universe, and that is good enough for me. I
reckon he must be somewhere down among them Mexikins by this time," he
went on, changing the subject abruptly.
"I almost wish one of us had gone with him," Royce said, "so that if he
should get found out we might make a better fight of it."
"He ain't likely to get found out," Sim said quietly, "and ef he does
he kin fight his way out. I don't know what way the doctor will die,
but I allowed years ago that it weren't going to be by a bullet. I
ain't skeery about him. Ef I had thought there wur any kind of risk, I
would have gone with him, you bet."
It was two hours before the doctor suddenly stood in the moonlight
before them. They had been listening attentively for some time, but had
not heard the slightest sound until he emerged from the shadow of the
ravine.
"Well, doctor, are we on the right scent?"
"The girls are there, Sim, sure enough. Now let us go back to the wood
before we talk. We have been caught asleep once on this expedition,
when we thought we were so safe that we needn't be on the watch, and
I don't propose to throw away a chance again." They went back without
another word to the wood. As soon as they reached it the doctor sat
down at the foot of a tree, and lighted his pipe; the others followed
his example.
"Well, there was no danger about that job," he began. "It seems not
to have struck the fools that anyone was likely to come down from this
end of the gulch. Down at the other end they have got two sentries on
each side upon the heights. I could see them in the moonlight. I reckon
they have some more at the mouth of the valley, down near the village;
but you may guess I asked no questions about it. I saw no one in the
gulch until I got down close to the house. It is as strong a place as
if it had been built for the purpose. It stands on a sort of table of
rock that juts out from the hill-side; so that on three sides it goes
straight down. There is a space round the house forty or fifty feet
wide.
"On the side where the rock stands out from the hill they have got a
wall twelve feet high, with a strong gate in it. On that side of the
house they have bricked all the windows up, so as to prevent their
being commanded by a force on the hill-side above them, and all the
windows on the ground-floor all round are bricked up too. I expect
the rooms are lighted from a courtyard inside. So you see it is a
pretty difficult sort of place to take all of a sudden. I could hear
the voices of five or six men sitting smoking and talking outside the
door, which is not on the side facing the hill, but on the other side.
I guessed that when the house was built there must have been steps up
from that side, for there is a road that runs along the bottom of the
valley; so I crawled up and found that it was so. There had been a
broad flight of steps there; they had been broken away and pulled down,
still they were good enough for me. There were one or two blocks still
sticking out from the rock, and there were holes where other blocks
had been let in, and I made a shift to climb up without much difficulty
till I got my eyes level with the top.
"The moon hadn't risen over the brow, still it was lighter than I
liked; but one had to risk something; so I first of all pulled myself
up, crawled along the edge till I got round the corner, and then went
up to the house and examined the windows on the other side, and then
got back to the top of the steps and began to listen. I soon heard
the girls were there. They had brought them straight there after they
had carried them off. A man had started early the next morning with a
letter to Don Ramon demanding ransom. He was expected back some time
to-night. They had had news that so far the don was taking no steps to
raise the country, though the news of the girls being carried off was
generally known. I didn't hear what the sum named for the ransom was;
but the men were talking over what they should each do with their share
of it, and they reckoned that each would have seven or eight thousand
dollars.
"Well, there wasn't anything new about this. The matter of interest to
us was which was the room where the girls were. As the journey would
have been of no sort of use if I could not find that out, there was
nothing to do but to get up again and crawl along to the house. I had
reckoned that I should most likely want my rope, and had wound it round
my waist. There was a guard at the gate, so it was one of the sides I
had to try.
"I had learned from what the men said that most of the gang were away
scattered all over the country down to El Paso, so as to bring news
at once if there was any search for the girls going on. The chief and
his lieutenant were down in the village, and would ride in with the
messenger who brought down Ramon's answer. There was a guard inside the
house, because the men at the fire said it was time for two of them to
go and relieve them; but I guessed that otherwise the house was empty.
I threw my rope over a balcony and climbed up, opened the fastening of
the window with my knife, and went in. Everything was quiet. I felt
my way across the room to a window on the other side. I opened that
and looked down into the courtyard. Two or three lanterns were burning
there, and I saw two men sitting on a bench that was placed across a
door. They were smoking cigarettes, and had their guns leaning against
the wall beside them. There was no doubt that was the room where the
girls were.
"It was on the opposite side of the courtyard to that where I
was standing--that is, on the side of the house facing down the
valley,--and was the corner room.
"I had learned everything I wanted now, so I had nothing to do but to
shut the window, slide down the rope, shake it off the balcony, and
come back again; and here I am."
"Well done, doctor! You have succeeded splendidly. But what a pity we
didn't all go with you. We could have cleared out that lot and rescued
the girls at once."
"You might not have gone as quietly as I did," the doctor said. "Four
men make a lot more noise than one, and at the slightest noise the
seven men at the door would have been inside, the door bolted, and the
first pistol shot would have brought in the guard at the gate, the four
sentries on the height, and I expect as many more from the mouth of the
valley. It would have been mighty difficult to break into the house
with nine men inside and as many out; besides, it would never do to
run risks; and even if we had done it, and hadn't found the girls with
their throats cut, we should have had to fight our way up the valley
to the horses, and a bullet might have hit one of them. No, no; this
is a case where we have no right to risk anything. It's for the don
to decide what is to be done. Now we know all about it, and can lay it
before him. Lightning, you had better saddle up and ride with me. You
must go, because he knows you, and will believe what you tell him. I
must go, because he will want me to guide the force back here, so as
to avoid any chance of their being seen on the way. The horses have
done eighty miles since this time yesterday, so it's no use thinking
of starting to-night. Besides, there is no hurry. We will be off in the
morning."
After breakfast Sim was about to saddle the doctor's horse, when Royce
said:
"The doctor had better take my horse. He is miles faster than his own."
The girths were tightened. The doctor, as he mounted, said to Sim, "You
will keep a sharp look-out over the house, and reckon up how many go in
and come out. I expect if the don writes to say he will pay the money,
a good many of those outside will come here."
"We will keep our eyes open, doctor."
"It may be two or three days before you hear of us, Sim."
"There is no hurry, doctor. There will be a lot of talk about how the
ransom is to be paid afore anything is done."
"Do you mean to go back the same way we came?" Hugh asked the doctor as
they rode off.
"No, there is no occasion for that. We will ride thirty miles or so
along the foot of the hills, east, and then strike straight by road
for El Paso. It is about nine o'clock now. We shall be there by five
o'clock. We won't go in together. I will wait on the road and come
in by some other way after dark, or, what would be better, put up at
José's. You had better not go up to the don's until to-morrow morning.
Were you to go up directly you returned, the scoundrels who are
watching both you and the don might suspect that your journey has had
a connection with his business."
Next morning Hugh arrived at Don Ramon's, having obtained another
horse at the hotel. "Why, where have you been, Señor Hugh?" Don Carlos
exclaimed as the servant showed him into the room where they were
at breakfast. "When I rode with my father into the town to give the
alcalde notice, I went to the hotel and found that you were out. We
sent over there three times yesterday and the day before, but they knew
nothing of you. You had taken your horse and gone out the evening you
returned, and had left no word when you would come back. We have been
quite anxious about you, and feared that some harm had befallen you
also. We were quite sure that you would not have left without telling
us of your intentions."
"No, indeed," Hugh said. "I should have been ungrateful indeed for your
kindness if I had left you in such terrible trouble; but before I tell
you what I have been doing, please let me know what has happened here."
"About mid-day, the day after my daughters had been stolen," Don Ramon
said, "a horseman rode up. I saw him coming, and guessed he was the man
we were expecting. He was shown in here, and Carlos and myself received
him. He handed me a letter. Here it is. I will translate it:
"'Señor Don Ramon Perales,--If you wish to see your daughters alive,
you will, as speedily as possible, collect 200,000 dollars in gold
and hand them over to the messenger I will send for them. When I
receive the money your daughters shall be returned to you. I give you
warning, that if any effort is made to discover their whereabouts, or
if any armed body is collected by you for the purpose of rescue, your
daughters will at once be put to death. Signed Ignatius Guttiero.'"
"And what did you reply, Don Ramon?"
"I wrote that it would take some time to collect so great a sum in
gold, but that I would send up to Santa Fé at once, and use every
effort to get it together in the shortest possible time. I demanded,
however, what assurance I could have that after the money was paid my
daughters would be returned to me. To that I have received no answer."
"No, you could hardly get one before this morning," Hugh said. "You
look surprised, señor; but we have found out where they are hidden."
"You have found that out!" the others cried in astonishment.
"My companions and I," Hugh said; "indeed, beyond riding a good many
miles, I have had but little to do with the matter. The credit lies
entirely with the two miners I spoke to you of, with whom I was going
shortly to start on an expedition to a placer they know of."
He then related the reason why the miners had suspected where the gang
of brigands had their headquarters, and the steps by which they had
ascertained that the girls were really there; and then explained the
scheme that he and the doctor had, on their ride down, arranged for
their rescue.
Don Ramon, his wife, and son were greatly moved at the narrative. "You
have, indeed, rendered us a service that we can never repay," Don Ramon
said; "but the risk is terrible. Should you fail it would cost you your
lives, and would ensure the fate of my daughters."
"We are in no way afraid about our own lives, Don Ramon; there are
not likely to be more than twenty of these scoundrels there, and if we
were discovered before we could get to your daughters we could fight
our way off, I think. In that case, seeing that there were only four
of us, they certainly would not throw away their prospect of a ransom
by injuring their captives. They would suppose that we had undertaken
it on our own account as a sort of speculation, and though, no doubt,
they would remove your daughters at once to some other place, they
would not injure them. You see, our plan is that the force we propose
shall be at hand, shall not advance unless they hear three shots fired
at regular intervals. That will be the signal that we have succeeded in
entering your daughters' apartment, and that they are safe with us; in
that case you will push forward at once to assist us. If, on the other
hand, you hear an outbreak of firing, you will know that we have been
discovered before we reached your daughters, and will retreat with your
force silently, and return to El Paso by the same route by which you
went out, and you would then, of course, continue your negotiations for
a ransom."
"At any rate," Don Carlos said, "I claim the right of accompanying you.
It is my sisters who are in peril, and I will not permit strangers to
risk their lives for them when I remain safe at a distance. You must
agree to that, señor."
"I agree to that at once," Hugh said. "I thought that it was probable
that you would insist upon going with us; it is clearly your right to
do so."
"It must not be attempted," Don Ramon said gravely, "if in any way
I can recover my daughters by paying the ransom. The risk would be
terrible, and although two hundred thousand dollars is a large sum,
I would pay it four times over rather than that risk should be run.
The question is, what guarantee the brigands will give that they will
return their captives after they have received the money. I shall know
that soon; we will decide nothing until I receive the answer."
"Would it not be well, señor, for you to go over to arrange with the
officer in command of the fort for twenty or thirty men to start with
you at a moment's notice. If you decide to make this attempt to rescue
your daughters the sooner we set about it the better, that is, if you
intend to take troops instead of a party of your own men."
"I have already seen the commandant," Don Ramon said; "he is a personal
friend, and rode over here directly he heard the news, and offered to
place the whole of his force at my disposal should I think fit to use
it."
At this moment a servant entered, and said that a man wished to see
Don Ramon. The Mexican left the room, and returned in a minute with a
letter. It was brief: "Señor, if you want your daughters back again you
must trust us; we give no guarantees beyond our solemn pledge. You will
tell my messenger on what day you will have the money ready, and do not
delay more than a week; he will come again to fetch it. See that he is
not followed, for it will cost your daughters their lives if an attempt
is made to find out where he goes. Your daughters will be returned
within twenty-four hours of your sending out the money."
"We will try your plan, señor," Don Ramon said firmly. "I would not
trust the word of these cut-throats, or their oaths even, in the
smallest matter, and assuredly not in one such as this. What shall I
say in reply to this letter?"
"I should write and say that, although their conditions are hard, you
must accept them, but that you doubt whether you can raise so large a
sum of gold in the course of a week, and you beg them to give ten days
before the messenger returns for it, and you pledge your honour that no
attempt whatever shall be made to follow or to ascertain the course he
takes."
Don Ramon wrote the letter, and took it down to the hall, where the
messenger was waiting, surrounded by servants, who were regarding him
with no friendly aspect.
"There is my answer," Don Ramon said as he handed the letter to the
man. "Tell your leader I shall keep my word, and that I trust him to
keep his.
"Now, Señor Hugh, will you give me the details of your plan. How do you
propose that the troops are to be close at hand when required without
their presence being suspected?"
"The doctor's idea was this, señor. That you should this morning send
a letter by a servant to the commandant. Will you tell him that you
believe you have a clue to your daughters' hiding-place, but that
everything depends upon the troops getting near the spot without
suspicion being excited. Will you beg him to maintain an absolute
silence as to any movements of the troops until to-night, and to issue
no orders until the gates are shut and all communication closed. Will
he then order an officer and twenty men to be ready at four o'clock in
the morning to start under the guidance of a miner who will to-night
arrive at the fort bearing your card.
"This will, of course, be the doctor. Request the officer to place
himself absolutely in his hands. Our plan is that they shall keep
the other side of the river, travel some thirty miles up, and then
halt until nightfall. At that point they would be as far off from
the brigands' hiding-place as they are here, and if the fact that a
detachment has started becomes known to the friends of the brigands,
it will not be suspected that there is any connection between their
journey and the affair with your daughters. After nightfall they will
start again, cross the river, and meet you and myself at one o'clock,
near the village of Ajanco. Thence we shall go up into the hills, rest
there all day, and come down upon the gulch where the brigands' haunt
lies."
"That sounds an excellent plan, señor; but how do you propose that we
shall get away without being noticed to-morrow evening?"
"The doctor and I agreed that the best plan you could adopt would be to
ride over and see your banker the first thing in the morning. That will
seem perfectly natural. Then in the evening, after dark, you and Don
Carlos should again ride down to him. You will naturally take at least
four of your men down with you as a guard. You will leave your horses
with them when you enter the banker's. You will then pass through his
house, and at once leave by the back entrance, wrapped in your cloaks.
You will then proceed to a spot half a mile out of the town, where
Juan, who you say knows the country, will be waiting with your horses,
and I also will be there.
"The people who are watching you--and you will certainly be
watched--will naturally suppose that you are at the banker's. At ten
o'clock he will come to the door and tell your men to return home with
your horses and to bring them back at ten in the morning, as you and
your son will sleep there. Even should anything be suspected--which
is hardly likely--the scoundrels would have no clue whatever as to the
direction you will have taken, as, at any rate, you will have had two
hours' start before they can begin to think that anything is wrong."
"That is a capital plan, señor. You keep on adding to our already deep
obligations to you."
Everything was carried out in accordance with the arrangements. Hugh
returned at once to El Paso, and in the evening the doctor mounted his
horse and rode to the fort. The next day passed quietly, and as soon as
it became dark Hugh went out to the stable, saddled his horse without
seeing any of the men about the yard, and rode off in the direction
of Don Ramon's, and then, making a circuit of the town, arrived at the
spot where Juan was waiting with the horses. They had been placed in a
thicket a short distance from the road so as to be unobserved by anyone
who might happen to pass. Hugh took his post close to the road, and
an hour later Don Ramon and his son came up. The horses were at once
brought out, and they mounted and rode off, Juan riding ahead to show
the way.
They maintained a fast pace, for at one o'clock they were to meet the
troops at the appointed place. They arrived a quarter of an hour before
the time, and ten minutes after the hour heard the tramping of horses.
The doctor was riding ahead, and halted when he came up to the group.
"Has all gone well, Lightning?" he asked.
"Excellently, as far as we know."
"This is Lieutenant Mason, who is in command of the troops," the doctor
said as a figure rode forward. "Lieutenant Mason, this is Don Ramon
Perales."
"You are punctual, señor," the officer said. "I have orders to place
myself and my men entirely at your disposal. I think we had better have
half an hour's halt before we go further. We have ridden fast, and you
must have ridden faster, as your guide told me you were not to leave El
Paso until eight o'clock, and I presume we have a good deal farther to
go to-night."
"Another twenty miles," the doctor said. "The moon will be getting
higher, and we shall want all her light. It will do no harm if we halt
an hour, lieutenant, and eat our supper while the horses are eating
theirs."
During the halt the doctor had a long talk with Juan, who came from
this part of the country, and knew it well. When they mounted, instead
of riding through the town, they struck off by a by-path before they
reached it.
Three hours later they were deep among the hills, and then again
halted, after turning off from the track they had been following,
into a ravine. The girths were loosened, and the horses allowed to
graze, and the men, wrapping themselves in cloaks or blankets, were
soon asleep, a sentry being placed at the entrance to the ravine. At
ten o'clock all were on their feet. Fires were lighted and breakfast
cooked, and then, following mountain paths, they rode until two in the
afternoon, at which time they reached the valley from which the party
had before made their way down to the wood near the ravine. At dusk
they again mounted and rode on to the wood. They were met at the edge
of the trees by Sim Howlett and Royce.
"I was expecting you to-night, boys," Sim said. "We looked out for you
last night, but didn't reckon as you could possibly do it."
"Have you any news of my daughters?" Don Ramon asked eagerly.
"Nary a word," Sim replied. "Bill and me have never had our eyes off
the house from sunup to sundown. Lots of fellows have come and gone
on horseback. Of course we cannot answer for what has been done after
nightfall, but we reckon there is about thirty men there now, not
counting those they may have in the village and the sentries down by
the mouth of the valley. I calkilate the best part of the gang is there
now. The chiefs would like to keep them under their eye. They will
think the only thing they have got to be afraid of is treachery. I
suppose matters stand as they did when you left, doc.?"
"Just the same. We four and Don Carlos are to go on and get at the
ladies. When we are in there safe three pistol shots are to be the
signal. Then Don Ramon and the soldiers are to come down and surround
them."
Don Ramon had been very anxious to accompany the party, but the doctor
had positively refused to take him with them. "It would add greatly to
our risks," he said, "and do no good. If we can get to your daughters,
Don Ramon, we five can keep the fellows at bay until you come up,
easily enough. I believe we could thrash the lot, but it is no good
taking chances; but anyhow, we can keep them off. I would rather have
gone without your son, but as Lightning has passed his word, there is
nothing more to be said. On a job like this the fewer there are the
better. Each man after the first pretty nearly doubles the risk."
By this time the troopers had dismounted and fastened their horses
to the trees. Meat that had been cooked in the morning, and biscuits
were produced from their haversacks. When the meal had been eaten the
soldiers lit their pipes, while their officer proceeded with Hugh and
the others to the lower end of the wood and walked on to the head of
the ravine.
"There are the lights!" Hugh said. "Ah! I see they have lighted a fire
on the terrace, Bill."
"I expect they are pretty crowded in the house," Bill said; "but they
go in to sleep. Sim and I have been down near the house twice, and
though we were not quite close we were able to make pretty sure that
except one sentry there and another at the gate, the rest all go in."
"How far are we to go down?" the officer asked.
"Well, I would rather you did not go down at all," Sim Howlett said.
"You can get down there from here in ten minutes after you start if you
look spry, and I am desperately afraid some of your men might make a
noise, which they would hear certain if everything was quiet. There is
no fear of their being heard when the firing once begins down there;
but if one of them fell over a rock and his gun went off before we
had done our part of the affair, there would be an end of the whole
business."
"That is what I think, Sim," the doctor agreed. "We have said all along
we might get the ladies out by ourselves, but again we mayn't be able
to get them off at all. But we can defend them easy enough if we can
get into their room. Five minutes won't make any difference about that,
and it is everything to avoid the risk of noise until we get at them.
If they discover us before we get there we just fall back fighting.
They will think that we are only a small party, and the ladies will be
none the worse."
"If you think that is the best way we must agree to it," Don Ramon
said; "but we shall have a terrible time until we get to you."
"Don't you be afeard," Sim Howlett said. "The doctor, me, Lightning,
and Bill could pretty well wipe them out by ourselves, and we reckon on
our six-shooters a sight more than we do on the soldiers."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]