him. I have no doubt that he would go through with
us and be our guide. But that would put him in bad with Don Luis,
and we have no right to expose the poor fellow to blame. Move
about without noise, and we'll eat some of the stuff that Nicolas
brought us."

This was done. It was dark by the time that the simple meal had
been finished. Tom drew out another five-dollar bill, which he
pinned to the shirt of the poor Mexican.

"Now we'll take all the food with us," Tom whispered. "Nicolas
won't need any of it, as he's less than twenty minutes' walk from
a square feed. Come along--on tip-toe."

Tom led the way through the darkness, not halting until they were
well away from the Mexican.

"Now, wait a moment, until we get our bearings from the stars,"
Tom proposed. "Then we'll make a straight, fast, soft hike to
the telegraph station."

"Only twenty miles away, over the boulders," murmured Hazelton.

"This is where our past physical training comes in finely," Tom
rejoined. He looked up at the sky, pointing to and naming several
of the fixed stars.

"Now, as we know our course, we can hardly, go astray," Reade
suggested. "Ready! Forward march!"

Tom took the lead in this, as he did in nearly everything else.
For more than an hour the young engineers trudged ahead. When
at last they halted for breath they had covered at least three
miles of their way.

"Nicolas will feel insulted when he wakes, I'm afraid," suggested
Hazelton.

"I'm afraid he will. Nicolas may have a copper skin, and be under-sized
and illiterate, but he's one of the old-fashioned, true-to-the-death
kind. But, if he helped guide us out of this wilderness, Don Luis
would probably flay the poor fellow alive afterwards."

"I wonder if we're going to make the telegraph station by daylight!"
Harry went on.

"I'm afraid not. But we ought to be there some time during the
forenoon."

"That will give Don Luis time, perhaps, to wake up to our disappearance
and send men after us," hinted Harry.

Tom's face grew long at this suggestion. He was well aware that
Don Luis Montez was a man who was both dreaded and obeyed in these
mountains.

"Oh, well, we'll do all we can for ourselves," Tom proposed.
"We'll keep cheerful about it, too--until the worst happens."

"I'm rested, Tom. Shall we start along?"

"Yes; for we're both anxious to get through!"

Once more Reade took the lead. They trudged another mile, often
without finding th