hly, "ef you want ter pass in
yer chips ye'll hev ter stand up an' let me put a few more holes in yer.
I can't find a place whar you're touched by a bullet an' I'm blowed ef I
'low you broke a bone when ye tumbled from ther hawse."

The professor sat up with a sudden snap.

"What's that?" he cried. "I'm not shot? I'm not all broke up? Is it
possible? Can I believe you?"

"Yah," nodded Hans, gravely; "I can belief me. You vas all righdt
brofessor, und dot is sdraight."

"Wow!" shouted Scotch, bounding to his feet like a rubber ball. "That's
what I call great luck! Why, I thought I must be killed sure! I don't
know how I escaped all those bullets. And then the fall! Providence must
have been with me."

"Vell, I don'd know apoudt dot pefore you come der town in," said Hans;
"but you vos alone mit yourself when we saw you, brofessor."

The landlord of the hotel came bustling up in a perfect tumult of
terror, wringing his hands and almost weeping.

"Oh, senors!" he cried, in Spanish, "what have you done? You have ruined
me! You stopped at my house, and you shoot the ladrones. Ah, senors, you
know not what that means to me. Pacheco will come down on me--he will
raid my house; I am a ruined man, and you are responsible for it. You
must leave my house without delay! If you remain here, the whole town
will rise against me! All the people will know this must make Pacheco
very angry, and they will know he must take revenge on the place. They
will be angry with me because I allow it. Carramba! How could I help it?
I could do nothing. It came, and it was all over before I know what was
doing. Senors, you must have pity on me--you must leave my house
immeditely."

Bushnell caught enough of this to translate it to the others.

"Ther best thing we kin do is ter git out instanter," he said. "Ef we
wait, ther outlaws will watch every road out of ther town, an' we'll hev
trouble in gittin' away."

"Then let's get away immediately," fluttered the professor. "If I fall
into their hands again, I'm a dead man!"

"Yes, we will get out immediately," decided Frank; "but we'll do it as
secretly and silently as possible."

Bushnell nodded his satisfaction, and, thirty minutes later, the party
was ready to move. They left the hotel by a back way, and, guided by the
landlord, made their way along dark and narrow streets, creeping
cautiously through the town till the outskirts were reached.

There Frank gave the landlord some money, a