given my word."

"Say, young feller, hev yer found a gold mine up thar?" shouted Rafter.

"What is detaining you, Senor Harding," came Madero's voice.

"Nothing, sir," rejoined Harding, diving out of the bushes once more,
and standing erect on the hillside; "that cave was quite deep, and it
took me some time to make sure it was empty."

"Empty! By chowder, them _wuz_ horses, I hearn up ther canyon, then,"
ejaculated the lanky Rafter.

"You found no traces of those lads there, senor?"

It was Ramon who spoke now, all his sinister character showing in his
face.

"Not a trace of them," rejoined Harding, scrambling down the hill,
grasping at bushes, as he half slid on his way, to steady himself.

"Well, gentlemen, they cannot be far off. We will have them ere long,"
General Madero assured his followers, as Bob Harding mounted once more,
and they rode off, pressing forward hotly in the direction of the
tramplings Rafter had heard, and which came, as my readers have
guessed, from the horses the boys had turned loose.

"Say," whispered Walt, as still a-tremble with excitement the lads
listened to the departing trampling of the insurrectos' horses, "that
was a decent thing for Harding to do."

"The first decent thing, I imagine, that he ever did in his life,"
rejoined Jack.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE TABLES TURNED.

How the hours after that dragged themselves on, the boys never could
recollect exactly. The great danger through which they had just passed
had thrown them into a sort of coma. Ralph actually slept a part of
the time. An uneasy, troubled slumber, it was, frequently interrupted
by outcries of alarm. Walt Phelps sat doggedly at Ralph's side, and,
between them, the two came to the conclusion that, come what might,
they would have to abandon the cave before long.

In the first place, the Mexicans might take it into their heads to make
a second search, in view of the fact that they could not discover the
boys anywhere else. In the second, there was no water or food near at
hand, and if they did not take the trail pretty soon, there was grave
danger of their being too exhausted to do so.

It was almost dusk when the three lads emerged from their retreat.
Jack had previously made a careful reconnoiter, without, however,
seeing anything to cause alarm. As quietly as they could, considering
the nature of the ground, they descended the steep side of the gulch
and gained the bottom without mishap.