CHAPTER XVIII.
THE TABLES TURNED.
How the hours after that dragged themselves on, the boys never couldrecollect exactly. The great danger through which they had just passedhad thrown them into a sort of coma. Ralph actually slept a part ofthe time. An uneasy, troubled slumber, it was, frequently interruptedby 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 makea second search, in view of the fact that they could not discover theboys anywhere else. In the second, there was no water or food near athand, and if they did not take the trail pretty soon, there was gravedanger 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, consideringthe nature of the ground, they descended the steep side of the gulchand gained the bottom without mishap.
So far, not a sign had they been able to detect of the insurrectos, andtheir spirits rose accordingly. Gauging their direction by the sinkingsun, the fugitives struck out for the east. That, they had concluded,would be the best general direction. Toward the east, they knew, laythe railroad and the more cultivated part of the province. Westwardwere nothing but sterile, arid plains, without water or inhabitants,supporting no vegetation but thorny bushes and the melancholy, odorousmesquite bush.
Halting frequently, to make sure that they were not being followed orspied upon, the lads pushed steadily forward, climbing the oppositeslope of the gulch, and finally emerging into a close-growing tangle ofpinon and spiny brush of various kinds. Through this tangle--at sadcost to their clothes, they pushed their way--disregarding thescratches and cuts it dealt them, in their anxiety to get withinstriking distance of their friends, or, at any rate, of the Mexicanarmy. From camp gossip, they knew that the regulars were devoting mostof their attention to guarding the railroad line, inasmuch as theinsurrectos had hitherto concentrated most of their attacks on thebridges, tracks and telegraph lines.
For half an hour or more they shoved steadily forward withoutexchanging more than an occasional word. It was rapidly growing darknow, and the light in the woodland was becoming gray and hazy.Suddenly, Jack, who was slightly in advance, halted abruptly, andplaced his finger to his lips.
It needed no interpreter to read the sign aright.
Silence!
Tiptoeing cautiously forward behind their leader, the other two ladsperceived that they had blundered upon a spot in which several horseshad been left unguarded by the search parties, while they pushed theirway on foot through the impenetrable brush. But it was not this factso much that caused them to catch their breaths with gasps ofamazement, 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! Bothlooked dismal enough, as they sat helplessly there, while threesoldiers, who had been left to guard the halting-place, rolled dice ona horse-blanket.
So intent were these men on their game, that they had laid aside theirarms, and their rifles lay temptingly almost within hands' reach of thethree lads crouching in the brush. To make any sudden move, however,would be to attract attention, and this was the last thing they desiredto do, naturally.
Suddenly, and before Jack could withdraw his eager, gazing face fromits frame of brush. Coyote Pete looked up. His eyes met Jack's in astartled, incredulous stare. But the old plainsman was far tooseasoned a veteran to allow his amazement to betray him into anexclamation. Nor did he apprise the professor by even so much as alook of what he had seen. The man of science was staring abstractedlybefore him, at the gamblers, perhaps, as he watched the rolling dice,working out a calculus or other abstruse problem. Such a mentalcondition, at any rate, might have been assumed, from the far-awayexpression of his benevolent countenance.
Without making a move, Pete rolled his eyes toward the rifles. ToJack, this motion read as plain as print:
"_Nail them_."
This, of course, was just what the lad desired to do, but how toaccomplish it without arousing the gamblers, who, despite theirabsorption in their game, every now and then cast a glance around, wasa problem.
Suddenly Pete threw himself to the ground. Apparently, he had beenseized by some terrible pain. Groaning, in what appeared to be agony,his bound figure rolled about on the earth, while his legs, which belowhis knees were free, kicked vigorously.
"Oh--oh--oh!" groaned Pete.
"What's the matter?" cried the gamblers, springing up in consternationat this sudden seizure.
"Oh, oh! mucho malo estomago!" howled Pete.
So well was all this simulated, that even the professor came out of hisreverie and looked concerned, while the gamblers, laying down theirdice for an instant, hastened to the struggling, writhing cow-puncher'sside.
It was the moment to act.
Silently, almost as so many serpents, Jack and his comrades wriggledout of the brush, and, in a flash, the coveted rifles were in theirpossession. 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, wheeledabout. But it was to look into the muzzles of their own rifles theydid so.
Too dumfounded at the sudden turn events had taken to move, theinsurrectos stood there quaking. Evidently the mestizos expectednothing 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 scaredinsurrectos.
While he and Walt kept the fellows covered, Ralph hastened to Pete'sside, 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, tomove.
Pete, however, gave himself a vigorous shake, and instantly made a dartfor the saddle of one of the horses. He returned in a jiffy with twolariats, with which he proceeded to "hog-tie" the Mexicans withneatness 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 Jacksaw something bright glisten in the rugged fellow's eyes. But the nextinstant he was the same old Pete.
"Waal," he said, looking about him, "I reckon the next move is to stopthese gents frum any vocal exercise, and then we skedaddle."
"That's the program, Pete," assented Jack, hastening to the professor'sside. The old man was almost overcome.
"My boys! My boys!" he kept repeating. "I never thought to see youagain."
"Nor we you, for a while, professor," said Jack hastily, while Pete,not over-gently, stuffed the Mexicans' mouths full of gags made fromtheir own shirts.
"But, my boy, you will have to leave me again," went on the man ofscience 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 eloquentgesture 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 littlebeast, and selected four others for his companions. The professor wasaided into the saddle somehow, and, once up, sat clinging to the horndesperately.
"They'll never take me alive, boys," he assured them.
"That's the stuff, sir," cried Pete lustily; "you'll make abroncho-busting plainsman yet. Now, then, are we all ready?"
"All ready here," sung out Jack, who, like the others, was already inhis borrowed saddle.
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"All right, then. We're off, as the fellow says."
Pete dug his heels into his active little mount's sides, and the cayusesprang forward in a way that showed Pete he was bestride of a goodanimal 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 Mexicansacross the border stood raging inwardly with seething fires, butoutwardly voiceless and helpless as kittens. Thus, by an astonishingtrain 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 nowis to get away from here, for I've a notion that in no very short timeit'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, thankyou," was the reply.
"Say, he's all wool and a yard wide, even if he does look like asofty," declared Pete, to himself.
Threading their way through the wood, the fugitives emerged, after somehard riding, upon the bare hillside. Below them, and some distanceahead, could be seen the twinkling lights of the village Jack hadnoticed the night before, while on their right hands gleamed thefirefly-like lights of the insurrecto camp.
"That must be ther road down thar," said Pete, pointing. "What d'yesay, 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 betRamon and Muddy-hairo, or whatever his name is, hev thet greasercommunity purty well tagged with our descriptions by now. No, we'llhit ther road below the camp, and then swing off afore we hit thervillage. 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 itwas agreed by all that Pete's plan was a good one. By keeping to theroad, they might find a hacienda or native hut where they could obtainrefreshments without being asked embarrassing questions.
As they rode along, talking thus in low tones, Coyote Pete suddenlydrew rein. On the dark hillside he loomed for an instant, as fixed andmotionless 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 sinistersignificance.
_Clickety-clack_! _Clickety-clack_! _Clickety-clack_!
"They're after us!" exclaimed Jack, reading the night-borne soundsaright.