to see. He noiselessly took the back trail,
thinking over the best course to pursue. He would have liked nothing
better under ordinary circumstances than to fight it out with the
outlaws and to capture the hunchback. But their first object must be the
rescue of Tom and Juarez.

Was there not some way by which they could get to the South without
going through this bandit infested Pass?

"Well brother, what didst thou find?" inquired Jo, who was at times
pleased to be dramatic.

"Very few specimens in the way of bandits," replied Jim.

"As I said, Senor," remarked the Spaniard, "they have become good
citizens."

"Not yet, I am sure, because they are alive."

"That is a good one, Jim," remarked Jo, appreciatively, but the Spaniard
was politely mystified. "Same as Indians."

"I found one thing out," said the diplomatic Jim, "and that is, that the
Pass is a hard one on horses. Are you sure, Senor, that there is no
easier way than this to get through?"

"Positive," briefly responded the Spaniard.

Jim who was seated on a rock digging his heel into the soft earth,
looked up as a sudden idea struck him,--but without knocking him out.

"How far is it from here to the sea, Senor?" he asked.

"Not over five miles."

"Can we not get around that way?" Jim inquired eagerly.

"Why, yes," replied the Spaniard slowly, "if the tide is not coming in.
In that case we should be drowned." Jim glanced hastily at his watch.

"We can try for it and make it, if we do not waste any time," he said.
"The horses have had a good rest."

"Very well, Senor," said the Spaniard resignedly. He regarded Jim as an
amiable hurricane whom it was not worth while battering to resist. Jim
hastily swallowed his coffee and a hunk of bread and in five minutes the
three musketeers were in the saddle again.

CHAPTER XXII

RACE WITH THE TIDE

In spite of the rough going, they made good time for the five miles,
spurred on by the constant anxiety lest they should not reach the beach
before the tide began coming in. There were several gathered to see them
off when they left the mouth of the Pass, but not to give them a send
off.

A short explanation will prove this. It is not to be supposed that the
hunchbacked Mexican and the bandits did not know that the three horsemen
were coming over the plain of the mustard growth. Indeed, their scout,
the Mexican dwarf, saw Jim, Jo and the Spaniard when they first landed
in the entrance to the cany