THE TABLES TURNED.
How the hours after that dragged themselves on, the boys never could
recollect exactly. The great danger through which they had just passed
had thrown them into a sort of coma. Ralph actually slept a part of
the time. An uneasy, troubled slumber, it was, frequently interrupted
by outcries of alarm. Walt Phelps sat doggedly at Ralph's side, and,
between them, the two came to the conclusion that, come what might,
they would have to abandon the cave before long.
In the first place, the Mexicans might take it into their heads to make
a second search, in view of the fact that they could not discover the
boys anywhere else. In the second, there was no water or food near at
hand, and if they did not take the trail pretty soon, there was grave
danger of their being too exhausted to do so.
It was almost dusk when the three lads emerged from their retreat.
Jack had previously made a careful reconnoiter, without, however,
seeing anything to cause alarm. As quietly as they could, considering
the nature of the ground, they descended the steep side of the gulch
and gained the bottom without mishap.
So far, not a sign had they been able to detect of the insurrectos, and
their spirits rose accordingly. Gauging their direction by the sinking
sun, the fugitives struck out for the east. That, they had concluded,
would be the best general direction. Toward the east, they knew, lay
the railroad and the more cultivated part of the province. Westward
were nothing but sterile, arid plains, without water or inhabitants,
supporting no vegetation but thorny bushes and the melancholy, odorous
mesquite bush.
Halting frequently, to make sure that they were not being followed or
spied upon, the lads pushed steadily forward, climbing the opposite
slope of the gulch, and finally emerging into a close-growing tangle of
pinon and spiny brush of various kinds. Through this tangle--at sad
cost to their clothes, they pushed their way--disregarding the
scratches and cuts it dealt them, in their anxiety to get within
striking distance of their friends, or, at any rate, of the Mexican
army. From camp gossip, they knew that the regulars were devoting most
of their attention to guarding the railroad line, inasmuch as the
insurrectos had hitherto concentrated most of their attacks on the
bridges, tracks and telegraph lines.
For half an hour or more they shoved steadily forward without
exchanging more than an occasional word. It was rapidly growing dark
now, and the light in the woodland was becoming gray and hazy.
Suddenly, Jack, who was slightly in advance, halted abruptly, and
placed his finger to his lips.
It needed no interpreter to read the sign aright.
Silence!
Tiptoeing cautiously forward behind their leader, the other two lads
perceived that they had blundered upon a spot in which several horses
had been left unguarded by the search parties, while they pushed their
way on foot through the impenetrable brush. But it was not this fact
so much that caused them to catch their breaths with gasps of
amazement, as something else which suddenly became visible.
To the boys' utter dumfounding, they beheld, seated on the ground,
bound hand and foot with raw-hide--the professor and Coyote Pete! Both
looked dismal enough, as they sat helplessly there, while three
soldiers, who had been left to guard the halting-place, rolled dice on
a horse-blanket.
So intent were these men on their game, that they had laid aside their
arms, and their rifles lay temptingly almost within hands' reach of the
three lads crouching in the brush. To make any sudden move, however,
would be to attract attention, and this was the last thing they desired
to do, naturally.
Suddenly, and before Jack could withdraw his eager, gazing face from
its frame of brush. Coyote Pete looked up. His eyes met Jack's in a
startled, incredulous stare. But the old plainsman was far too
seasoned a veteran to allow his amazement to betray him into an
exclamation. Nor did he apprise the professor by even so much as a
look of what he had seen. The man of science was staring abstractedly
before him, at the gamblers, perhaps, as he watched the rolling dice,
working out a calculus or other abstruse problem. Such a mental
condition, at any rate, might have been assumed, from the far-away
expression of his benevolent countenance.
Without making a move, Pete rolled his eyes toward the rifles. To
Jack, this motion read as plain as print:
"_Nail them_."
This, of course, was just what the lad desired to do, but how to
accomplish it without arousing the gamblers, who, despite their
absorption in their game, every now and then cast a glance around, was
a problem.
Suddenly Pete threw himself to the ground. Apparently, he had been
seized by some terrible pain. Groaning, in what appeared to be agony,
his bound figure rolled about on the earth, while his legs, which below
his knees were free, kicked vigorously.
"Oh--oh--oh!" groaned Pete.
"What's the matter?" cried the gamblers, springing up in consternation
at this sudden seizure.
"Oh, oh! mucho malo estomago!" howled Pete.
So well was all this simulated, that even the professor came out of his
reverie and looked concerned, while the gamblers, laying down their
dice for an instant, hastened to the struggling, writhing cow-puncher's
side.
It was the moment to act.
Silently, almost as so many serpents, Jack and his comrades wriggled
out of the brush, and, in a flash, the coveted rifles were in their
possession. As Ralph seized his, however, the boy, in his eagerness,
tripped and fell with a crash against some tin cooking pots.
Like a flash, the soldiers, who had been bending over Pete, wheeled
about. But it was to look into the muzzles of their own rifles they
did so.
Too dumfounded at the sudden turn events had taken to move, the
insurrectos stood there quaking. Evidently the mestizos expected
nothing better than instant death.
"Ralph, take your knife, and cut loose Pete and the professor, quick!"
Jack gave the order without averting his eyes from the three scared
insurrectos.
While he and Walt kept the fellows covered, Ralph hastened to Pete's
side, and in a few seconds the cow-puncher and the professor were free,
although almost too stiff to move. The professor was, moreover, lame.
With a groan, he sank back on a rock, unable, for the time being, to
move.
Pete, however, gave himself a vigorous shake, and instantly made a dart
for the saddle of one of the horses. He returned in a jiffy with two
lariats, with which he proceeded to "hog-tie" the Mexicans with
neatness and despatch, as he himself would have expressed it.
This done, he turned to Jack.
"Thank the Lord, you're safe, boy," he breathed, and for a minute Jack
saw something bright glisten in the rugged fellow's eyes. But the next
instant he was the same old Pete.
"Waal," he said, looking about him, "I reckon the next move is to stop
these gents frum any vocal exercise, and then we skedaddle."
"That's the program, Pete," assented Jack, hastening to the professor's
side. The old man was almost overcome.
"My boys! My boys!" he kept repeating. "I never thought to see you
again."
"Nor we you, for a while, professor," said Jack hastily, while Pete,
not over-gently, stuffed the Mexicans' mouths full of gags made from
their own shirts.
"But, my boy, you will have to leave me again," went on the man of
science dejectedly, "my ankle pains me so that I cannot move."
"But you can ride, can't you, sir?" asked Ralph.
"Yes! yes! I can do that. But where are your horses?"
"Right thar," said Pete, coming up. He waved his hand in an eloquent
gesture at the animals standing at the edge of the little clearing,
"take yer pick, gents. Thet little sorrel jes' about suits me."
So saying, the cow-puncher picked out a wiry, active looking little
beast, and selected four others for his companions. The professor was
aided into the saddle somehow, and, once up, sat clinging to the horn
desperately.
"They'll never take me alive, boys," he assured them.
"That's the stuff, sir," cried Pete lustily; "you'll make a
broncho-busting plainsman yet. Now, then, are we all ready?"
"All ready here," sung out Jack, who, like the others, was already in
his borrowed saddle.
"All right, then. We're off, as the fellow says."
Pete dug his heels into his active little mount's sides, and the cayuse
sprang forward in a way that showed Pete he was bestride of a good
animal for their purposes.
Followed by the others, he plunged forward into the darkling woods,
while behind them in the clearing three of the most astonished Mexicans
across the border stood raging inwardly with seething fires, but
outwardly voiceless and helpless as kittens. Thus, by an astonishing
train of circumstances, were our adventurers once more together.
"But how in thunderation----?" began Pete, as they rode forward.
"We'll tell you some other time," broke in Jack. "The main thing now
is to get away from here, for I've a notion that in no very short time
it's going to be mighty unhealthy for gringoes."
"Guess you're right, lad. How're yer makin' out, perfusser?"
"Except for a pain in my ankle, I am getting along very well, thank
you," was the reply.
"Say, he's all wool and a yard wide, even if he does look like a
softy," declared Pete, to himself.
Threading their way through the wood, the fugitives emerged, after some
hard riding, upon the bare hillside. Below them, and some distance
ahead, could be seen the twinkling lights of the village Jack had
noticed the night before, while on their right hands gleamed the
firefly-like lights of the insurrecto camp.
"That must be ther road down thar," said Pete, pointing. "What d'ye
say, ef we cut inter it below ther camp?"
"And ride into the village?" asked Ralph.
"Not to any vast extent, lad," rejoined the cow-puncher. "I'll bet
Ramon and Muddy-hairo, or whatever his name is, hev thet greaser
community purty well tagged with our descriptions by now. No, we'll
hit ther road below the camp, and then swing off afore we hit ther
village. It will beat wanderin' about on these hills, and, besides,
we've got ter hev water an' food purty soon. I'm most tuckered out."
This reminded the others that they, too, were almost exhausted, and it
was agreed by all that Pete's plan was a good one. By keeping to the
road, they might find a hacienda or native hut where they could obtain
refreshments without being asked embarrassing questions.
As they rode along, talking thus in low tones, Coyote Pete suddenly
drew rein. On the dark hillside he loomed for an instant, as fixed and
motionless as an equestrian statue.
"What's the trouble?" asked Ralph.
"Hush, lad. Do you hear something?"
Faintly, very faintly, out of the west came a sound full of sinister
significance.
_Clickety-clack_! _Clickety-clack_! _Clickety-clack_!
"They're after us!" exclaimed Jack, reading the night-borne sounds
aright.