hough they were hampered by Juarez.

"Better leave him, Captain," urged old Pete. "He is nothing but a
nuisance."

"I'll have use for that fellow yet," said the Captain. "As for the other
lad, he won't feel so lively after a few days on shipboard."

This did not have a very cheerful sound for Tom and he was in anything
but a happy frame of mind. Still he had great confidence in Jim and did
not give up hope of being rescued before the coast was reached. It was
now getting towards daybreak, and the fog began to lift somewhat so that
they could see a distance of thirty or forty yards.

Captain Broom's gang had now left the region of the level pasture and
were coming to the brush section, fringing the coast, and beyond that
they reached the sand dunes. The nearer they came to the sea the more
depressed Tom became. The only thing that encouraged him was the fact
that Juarez began to seem like himself.

Let us now return to Jo and Jim, who had been so fortunate as to make
their escape. As soon as they were sure that the pursuit was at an end,
they slowed down to a walk.

"Well, they didn't give us much of a chase," remarked Jim.

"Plenty to suit me. What are we going to do now?"

"This fog is beginning to lift," said Jim, "and then we can take our
bearings. I want to locate this ranch the first thing, and then we can
get help."

"Here's a wire fence," announced Jo, "I reckon it's the one the old
geser cut."

"It surely is and a straight course north is our direction," remarked
Jim.

"Here are hills that look like those we rode through," said Jo.

"We will soon be there now," was Jim's cheerful comment "What's that? It
sounds like a dog barking." They stopped, listening intently, as the
sound came faint, but there was no mistaking it.

"I suppose it's some big hound, that they usually keep on these
ranches," said Jo, who was beginning to feel depressed from hunger and
fatigue, "and he will jump at us because we haven't any weapons."

But in spite of Jo's fear they hurried on in the direction of the sound.
In a short time, they came to a road between two barb wire fences, which
the reader will remember that the Captain and his crew took when they
were coming through the Sebastian ranch. But the boys struck it higher
up, and were soon in the pasture that sloped down from the ranch houses
toward the road.

Jim and Jo now heard the voices of men as well as the baying of the
dogs. The men were talking excitedly a