the boat
presented itself before they were hastened out of the exit of the
tunnel, their situation would be just as bad as ever. Ramon would, of
course, lose no time in following them up, either by a spare boat,
which he might have had concealed in the vaulted chamber, or else on
his fast, coal-black horse which he might ride across the rocky range,
far above the subterranean stream.

In the event of their falling once more into the hands of Ramon, Jack
could not repress a shudder as he thought of what the probable fate
would be. Ugly stories had from time to time floated across the border
concerning the manner in which Ramon, in his cattle-rustling days,
dealt with his prisoners,--stories of torture and suffering that made
one shudder even to listen to. If the apparent leader of the
insurrectionist gun-runners had cause for animosity against the boys
before, it was surely redoubled now. Not only had they accidentally
penetrated the secret of the Haunted Mesa, but they had toppled the
former leader of the cattle-rustlers ignominiously into the water, an
insult which Jack knew the man's nature too well to suppose he would
easily either forgive or forget.

In such gloomy reflections was he occupied when a sudden shout from the
others roused him from his reverie, and, looking up, he saw that the
tunnel through which the river flowed was growing higher, broader, and
lighter. The darkness had now been exchanged for a sort of semi-gloom,
in which the almost black rock gleamed wetly where the hurrying current
of the stream had washed its base.

"We're near the end!" shouted Walt to the others.

Jack nodded. Suddenly his eye fell on Ramon's revolver, which lay at
the bottom of the boat as it had fallen when he toppled overboard. One
cartridge had been discharged, leaving but four good shells in the
chamber, but in an emergency those four, the lad knew, would be better
than no weapons at all. He regarded this as distinctly a piece of good
luck--this finding of the pistol. He examined it and found that it was
a heavy weapon of forty-four caliber.

Hardly had he had time to observe all this before the boat, without the
slightest warning, shot out into daylight, very much as a railroad
train emerges from a tunnel. A swift glance at their surroundings
showed Jack that they had floated into a sort of natural basin amid
some wild, bare-looking hills. The banks of this basin were clothed
with a sort of wild oat and int