lent
before the fire for a long time and then motioned to Fremont.

"You're a good lad!" he said.

"Not long ago you were accusing me of crime," the boy said.

"Gather the boys around," the man said, then, "I want them to hear what
I am going to say. You may write it down if you want to."

The wounded man did not speak again for a long time, and while the
watchers waited a call came from outside of the hut--a long, wavering
scream, as of some one in dire distress.

"Some one lost on the mountain!" Frank exclaimed.

Nestor opened the door between the two rooms so that the light of the
fire might show through the open window from which Fremont had escaped.
The candle used by Big Bob had long since burned out.

The cries continued, seeming to come no nearer, and Frank went out into
the storm with the flashlight, watched by the others from the window.
They saw him force his way against the wind until he came to the end of
the gentle slope which terminated at an outcropping of rock, then they
saw him halt and stoop over.

In a moment more he was back at the hut, his face paler than before,
his eyes showing terror.

"There's some one out there with a broken leg," he said, "and we must
go and get him in."

"Who is it?" asked Jimmie.

"I don't know," was the reply. "It seems to me that I have seen him
before, but I can't place him now."

"What hurt the man?" asked Jimmie. "Is he shot?"

"He says he fell down the mountain," was the reply. "He heard the
shooting, and made his way here. Come on. Let's go and bring him into
our hospital!"

Three minutes later Fremont sprang to his feet as the man's face showed
in the light.

"The night watchman!" he cried, and Jimmie echoed the identification.

CHAPTER XXIII.

SOME UNEXPECTED ARRIVALS.

Nestor gazed into the pain-drawn face of the newcomer with a feeling
akin to awe. There seemed something uncanny in the fellow being there
at all. Had there come some new and unexpected development, in
consequence of which he had been released by the secret service men? Or
had he managed to elude their vigilance? If the latter, had Don Miguel
and Felix also gained their freedom?

And how had the man succeeded in crossing the mountain in the weakened
condition he was in? He was now so weak and faint from loss of blood
and long suffering that he dropped to the floor like a dead man. Had
he escaped, or been released soon after the departure of the party for
San