CHAPTER XXVII.
HUSTLING FOR EVIDENCE.
After what seemed an age to Billie, although the time actually consumedcould not have been more than fifteen minutes, the boat reached theshore at a spot with which he was most familiar. It was the end of thetrail leading from the river to Don Pablo's _hacienda_.
As soon as the boat touched the beach, Don Pablo sprang ashore andpulled it up onto the land and made it fast to a post. The oarsmanfollowed more slowly, while Billie remained in the water until both menstarted up the trail.
Then he came ashore and silently followed after. He was barefooted andbareheaded. He was wet through and had no weapon; still he wasundaunted.
He kept as close to the two men as he dared, fearing he might lose sightof them in the dark. He had no idea of what time it was, but figuredthat he must have been away from General Sanchez' headquarters at leastthree hours. This gave him only three hours to finish his mission andreturn. His heart sank, as he thought what might happen in case heshould fail, and a great sob welled up in his throat, as the faces ofhis chums came to his thoughts.
"I can't fail!" he declared to himself. "I have just got to win."
The men ahead of him walked rapidly, and in a comparatively short timereached the _hacienda_. Billie remembered it well--every spot he hadnoticed upon his first visit to the _hacienda_ had impressed itself uponhis memory.
Reaching the big gate, Don Pablo knocked lustily and the gate wasquickly opened.
Here was Billie's first real difficulty. How was he to enter? Once thegate was shut, he knew it might take him hours to find a way in.Something had to be done and done at once.
Picking up a good-sized stone, Billie let it drive with all his might atthe boy who stood in the gateway holding the light. It was a good shotand struck the boy on the shin. With a cry of pain he dropped the lampand grabbed the injured member.
"_Caramba_, what is that?" exclaimed Don Pablo, as he drew his revolver."Are we attacked by thieves, or is the spirit of evil in the air?"
"It is neither," replied the boy who had been hit. "It must be Juanitowho threw the stone. He is jealous because I have a better place thanhe."
"What is Juanito doing outside the _hacienda_ at this time of night?"demanded Don Pablo. "Go bring him in, and do you, Luis," turning to theoarsman, "give him a good beating. Then take three men and go and bringthe body of Emilio to the _hacienda_."
As soon as he had thrown the stone Billie had glided quickly to theadobe wall which surrounded the _hacienda_, and, as the boy and Luiswent in search of the supposed Juanito, and Don Pablo passed within thegate, Billie darted in behind him and hid himself behind one of thebushes which he remembered seeing in one corner of the _patio_.
Stopping only for a moment to take a drink from a jar, which stood atthe foot of the stairs, Don Pablo ascended to the second floor. A momentlater, seeing that the way was clear, Billie followed, just in time tosee Don Pablo enter one of the rooms which opened out onto the greatcorridor, for it must be said that the _casa_ of Don Pablo was a largeand handsome one.
Having located the room, Billie sat down in the dark to wait.
He did not have to wait long, for in a few minutes Luis and the boyreturned, much chagrined over their inability to locate little John.
"What's that?" asked Don Pablo, coming to the door in his shirt-sleeves,"can't you find him?"
"No, _senor_," was the reply. "It is too dark."
"Well, let him go until morning. Then give him a good beating."
"Who is that you are going to whip?" called a woman's voice fromsomewhere down below.
"Juanito. He threw a stone and made us a lot of trouble."
"Why, he couldn't," replied the woman. "He is here with me and hasn'tbeen out tonight."
"What," queried Don Pablo, "hasn't been out tonight? Then there issomething wrong! Quick, Luis, call some of the men and make a thoroughsearch."
The servant hastened to obey, while Don Pablo went back into his room.Through the open door Billie saw him take an envelope from the pocket ofthe coat which he had thrown over a chair and place it in the drawer ofa great secretary. Then, seizing his hat, he ran quickly downstairs,closing the door behind him.
"I thought I would stir things up," mused Billie, as he crept silentlytoward the room which Don Pablo had just vacated. "Now, if I can getthat envelope and get out of here while the men are hunting for me, I'llbe all right!"
Reaching the door, he waited until the voices below told him that themen had gone out. Then he softly pushed open the door and entered.
It was a larger room than he had thought from the glimpse he had fromwithout, but it lay just as he expected. Quickly he opened the drawer ofthe secretary and took therefrom the envelope. By the light of the oillamp that hung from the ceiling he saw that it bore the name of a NewYork bank and he had no doubt it contained the evidence he sought.
He closed the drawer, and as he turned to leave the room caught sight ofDon Pablo's cartridge belt and revolver hanging on the back of a chair.
"I might need something like this," he thought, and without a singlequalm of conscience he buckled the belt around him, drew out therevolver, and loaded the empty chamber which Don Pablo had fired whilein the boat.
With the revolver in his hand he was about to leave the room, when asoft voice--a voice which he never could forget--said quietly:
"Don't you think, _senor_, that you are making yourself almost too muchat home?"
At the sound of the voice, Billie turned as though shot.
"Santiago!" he exclaimed. "Where did you come from?"
If Billie had been surprised by the sound of the voice, Santiago waseven more surprised when he recognized the visitor.
"Don Guillermo!" he cried. "Is it really you? I did not recognize you inthat attire!"
"You mean in this lack of attire," replied Billie quizzically, as heregarded his bare feet and drabbled condition.
"But why are you here?" asked Santiago.
In just as few words as possible Billie explained.
"And you have seen Pancho Villa?" queried Santiago.
"Yes, and things are just as I tell you. Don Rafael and Don Pablo areboth enemies of Mexico. They are both working for their own advancement.You know that a war with the United States is the last thing honestMexicans desire."
"Undoubtedly. And you think the possession of these drafts will aid youin preventing it?"
"Unquestionably," was Billie's emphatic reply.
"Then go! I shall make no attempt to detain you, although I am powerlessright now to aid you. This shall be a part of the reward I promised you.When you can come to me and tell me that Don Rafael is no more, youshall have the rest. Now go, before the men return. They are a wild lot.and now that the revolution has broken out, there is no controllingthem."
Billie started for the stairs; but, before he reached them, he couldhear the men coming in, grumbling at their ill luck and in finding noone.
"Wait," said Santiago. "I will go down and attract their attention, sothat you may come down. Be careful."
Suiting the action to the word, Santiago ran quickly down the stairs, asthough just awakened.
"What is all the trouble?" he asked. "Have the Maderists attacked us?"
"Maderists," laughed one. "_Caramba_, no! Don Pablo has been frightenedby a shadow."
"By his guilty conscience, more likely," muttered another. "The idea ofgetting honest men up at this time of night to hunt goblins."
"Look out! There he comes!" whispered another. "If he hears you, youwill think of something besides goblins!"
While this conversation had been going on, Billie had managed to slipdown stairs, and again took his place behind the bush in the _patio_.Then, as the men went back to the servants' quarters, he edged aroundnear the gate, watching an opportunity to slip through.
While he stood there waiting, he heard a clock strike midnight.
"It is not as late as I thought," he said to himself. "There is stilltime if
I am not detained."
He glanced around and no one was in sight but Santiago. Outside all wasdark, and he decided now was his chance.
Grasping the revolver tightly in his hand, he darted for the gateway,and bumped squarely into Don Pablo, who entered at the same moment.
For a moment the collision stopped Billie and sent Don Pablo reelingagainst the wall. Billie was much the heavier, but the old man was abunch of sinews. Both gathered themselves for a spring as Don Pablo gavea cry that sounded like a wild beast and could be heard all over the_hacienda_.
"Gringo dog!" he exclaimed. "Now I have you!" and he made a dash at theboy.
Billie raised the revolver in his hand as though to fire, and thenchanged his mind.
"He must be unarmed," he thought, "and I don't want to kill him."
He shoved his arm out sharply and the barrel of the revolver struck DonPablo full in the face, knocking him to the ground.
With a yell which he had learned from the Wyoming cowboys, Billie sprangover the prostrate form and dashed away in the darkness.