hed crossed the mountains in a terrible storm I just
hed to go on. I made straight for old Sanchez', who has a hacienda and
raises grapes just this side of the river. He was drunk as usual, but
his servants hedn't seen nothin' of you, and then I was seriously
alarmed. That was at night, and I couldn't do nothin' until daylight,
so I got a good sleep and the next mornin' I started for Mojave. I know
it pretty well, and there was no danger of gittin' lost. At nightfall I
found your horses and ponchos--the horses was dead, poor things. I
slept on the desert that night, and the next mornin' rode back as hard
as I could put, suspicionin' that you would have sense enough to strike
west. I went round the corner of that there cactus wood, never thinkin'
ye were in it, and I expect I got well to this side before you was out.
When I got to this creek I rode up and down it, then crossed over,
thinkin' ye might hev gone on. It was only when I saw smoke that I said
to myself for the fust time: 'There they be.' And you bet it did me
good, for I was powerful worried."

"Don Jim," said Roldan, "you are a kind and good man. I love you, and I
will always be your friend."

"So. Well, I'm powerful glad to hear that. You ain't much like 'Merican
kids, but you're pretty clever all the same, and I like ye better 'n
any boy I ever know'd, hanged if I don't. Don't be jealous, sonny"--to
Adan--"I like ye too--but Rolly--well!"

"You would not like Roldan half so well if it were not for me," said
Adan, whose face expressed nothing.

"So. Well. Now, be ye rested? We want to git to old Sanchez' fur a good
supper and a soft bed to-night."

The boys rose with alacrity. Hill bade them mount his powerful horse,
and walked beside them.

Sanchez' house was only three miles away, but the road lay through
chaparral which sprang across in many places. It was heavy dusk when
they emerged. For some time past they had heard wild eccentric cries,
and their three pistols were cocked. As they rode through a grove of
trees beyond the chaparral, they saw a dark something rolling toward
them. In an instant Hill had snatched the boys from the horse and swung
them to the limb of a tree.

"Hide yourselves among the leaves," he said, "and don't even breathe
mor' 'n you kin help."

He gave the horse a sharp cut with his switch and it galloped on; then
he climbed a neighbouring tree with the agility of a wildcat, and
crouched.

The boys gazed into the dusk wi