ong am I to wait for you?" asked Threewit.

"We'd ought to be back inside of an hour and a half--if luck's with us.
But we may be delayed by some one hanging around. Give us two hours or
even two and a half--unless hell begins to pop." Steve looked at his
watch in the moonlight. "Say till twelve o'clock. Of course, when you
go, you'll leave the other horses here on the chance that we come later.
You'd better ride that round-bellied bay."

"Am I to follow the star right up the hill?"

"No. Better take the draw. The sentinels will be on the hill. Likely
they'll see you and shoot at you. But don't stop, even if they're
close. Keep a-going. They can't hit a barn door."

"Neither can I," lamented the director.

"Then you'll all be safe." Yeager turned to Farrar. "Come on, Frank."

The two crossed the pasture to the river and waded through the shallow
stream to the other side. They remained in the shadows of the bank,
following the bend of the river as it circled the village. Through the
cottonwoods they crept toward the rear of the two-story house where
Pasquale lived and Ruth was held prisoner.

From a sandy spot at the foot of a cotton wood tree Yeager dug a rope
ladder.

"Been making it while I was night-herding the remuda," he told Farrar in
answer to a surprised question.

"Beats me you didn't make an auto for us to get away in," answered his
admiring friend with a grin.

"Wait here," whispered Steve. "I'm going forward to look the ground
over. Keep your eyes open in case I give a signal."

The range-rider snaked his way toward the house, moving so slowly and
noiselessly that Farrar lost sight of him entirely and began to wonder
where he had gone. It must have been nearly twenty minutes later that he
caught a glimpse of him without his rifle. Yeager was engaged in
confidential talk with a guard in uniform. Frank saw the bottle pass
from his friend to the Mexican, who took a pull at it. A second guard
joined the two presently. He also took a drink.

The three disappeared together into the shadowy darkness of the house
wall. Farrar was wondering what had happened when a single figure
emerged into the moonlight and made a signal for him to come forward.

Yeager did not wait for him, but climbed up the post of the back porch
as he had done once before. The camera man was on hand by the time Steve
reached the roof. He looked up silently while his friend reached across
and rapped on the window of a lighted room