e a shout.

"They've missed their bridles!" said Dick.

A louder yell!

"No guns!" shouted Bud. "Oh, this is one time we put it all over Del
Pinzo!"

Forward rode the outfit from Diamond X.

CHAPTER XIII

WEARY CAPTIVES

"Rosemary, are you able to stand it?" Floyd put this question to his
sister as the weary captives were urged along the trail by the Yaquis.

"We've just _got_ to stand it, Floyd," was the brave answer. "Help
must come to us, and we must bear up until it does come."

"Oh, I can stand it all right--I really don't mind. But for you--it
must be terrible! And the worst of it is I can't do a thing to help
you."

"Not now, no, Floyd," Rosemary answered, with a brave attempt at a
smile. "But we must watch our chance. These Mexican Indians aren't
like our own--or like our own used to be. They aren't half as smart.
We ought to be able to escape from them if we get half a chance."

"Well, maybe, Rosemary. But they're bad enough if they aren't smart."

Floyd spoke with all the evidence on his side. For a more
disreputable, unsavory, desperate and wicked band of men it would be
almost impossible to find. Repulsive in face, dirty, tattered and
torn, wearing all sorts of cast off garments, a few in blankets,
astride bony and broken horses, most of them, but each one armed with
gun, revolver or knife, it was a crew of pirates, cut-throats,
highwaymen to be carefully shunned.

"Well, I'm glad to see you keeping your courage up, Rosemary," remarked
her brother, trying to ease himself in the saddle. It was not very
feasible, as the captives were partly tied to prevent their escape, and
they could not shift about as they pleased.

"Oh, we have to make the best of it, Floyd," his sister told him.
"They haven't treated us roughly yet."

"No, and I wonder at it."

"It's because they have taken us for a ransom, I'm sure. They know if
they don't hand us over in good shape there will be no ransom money for
them."

"Who do you think they count on getting it from?"

"Our relatives, of course. Or maybe they think Uncle Sam will
intervene on our behalf."

"I wish to goodness he would--that he'd send a band of U.S. regulars
after this bunch of pirates. Golly! How the Yaquis would scatter; eh,
Rosemary?"

"Maybe we'll see that soon, Floyd. And maybe the boys from the Diamond
X will come to our rescue. You know Bud's mother wrote that he and his
two eastern cousins had a ranch of thei