tter exhaustion.

Urrea rose presently and looked at his prisoners. The moonlight was
shining on his face, and it seemed to Ned to be that of some master
demon. The boy was far from denying many good qualities to the Mexicans,
but the countenance of Urrea certainly did not express any of them that
night. It showed only savage exultation as he looked at the bound men,
and Ned knew that this was a formidable enemy of the Texans, one who
would bring infinite resources of cunning and enterprise to crush them.

Urrea said a few words to his officers and then withdrew into a small
tent which Ned had not noticed hitherto. The officers lay down in their
blankets, but a dozen sentinels watched about the open space. Ned and
the Panther crept slowly back toward the plain.

"What is our best plan, Panther?" whispered the hoy.

"We can't do anything yet but haul off, watch an' then follow. The
chaparral runs along for a mile or two an' we can hide in the north end
of it until they march south an' are out of sight. Then we'll hang on."

They found Obed standing exactly where they had left him, the reins of
the three horses in his hands.

"Back at last," he said. "All things come to him who waits long enough,
if he doesn't die first. Did you see anything besides a lot of Mexican
vaqueros, fuddled with liquor and sound asleep?"

"We did not see any vaqueros," replied the Panther, "but we saw Urrea
an' his band, an' they had among them a dozen good Texans bound fast,
men who will be shot if we three don't stand in the way. You have to
follow with us, Obed, because Ned has already promised for you."

The Maine man looked at them and smiled.

"A terribly good mind reader, that boy, Ned," he said. "He knew exactly
what I wanted. There's a lot of things in the world that I'd like to do,
but the one that I want to do most just now is to follow Urrea and that
crowd of his and take away those Texans. You two couldn't keep me from
going."

The Panther smiled back.

"You are shorely the right stuff, Obed White," he said. "We're only
three in this bunch, but two of 'em besides me are ring-tailed panthers.
Now we'll just draw off, before it's day, an' hide in the chaparral up
there."

They rode a mile to the north and remained among dense bushes until
daylight. At dawn they saw a column of smoke rise from Urrea's camp.

"They are cookin' breakfast now," said the Panther. "It's my guess that
in an hour they'll be ridin' south with th