------------------
he was eating dinner at a Mexican road-house

just this side of the border.

"Do you make it out?" Maloney asked, looking over their shoulders.

Curly took a pencil and an envelope from his pocket. On the latter he
jotted down some words and handed the paper to his friend. This was what
Maloney read:

........................................
..........................................
luck............................prisoner
the notorious Jack Foster of Hermosilla
..............Jack........of.He.......a
........R.........t............s.now
................Saguache.................
locked up pending a disposition of his case.
.......succeeded in surprising him......
............................................
.............................

"Read that right ahead."

Dick did not quite get the idea, but Kate, tense with excitement, took the
envelope and read aloud.

"Luck----prisoner----Jack of Hearts----now Saguache----locked up pending a
disposition of his case----succeeded in surprising him." She looked up
with shining eyes. "He tells us everything but the names of the people who
did it. Perhaps somewhere else in the paper he may tell that too."

But though they went over it word for word they found no more. Either he
had been interrupted, or he had been afraid that his casual thumb nail
pressures might arouse the suspicion of his guards if persisted in too
long.

"He's alive somewhere. We'll save him now." Kate cried it softly, all warm
with the joy of it.

"Seems to let our friend Fendrick out," Maloney mused.

"Lets him out of kidnapping Uncle Luck but maybe not out of the robbery,"
Bob amended.

"Doesn't let him out of either. Somebody was in this with Blackwell. If it
wasn't Cass Fendrick then who was it?" Kate wanted to know.

"Might have been Soapy Stone," Dick guessed.

"Might have been, but now Sam has gone back into the hills to join Soapy;
the gang would have to keep it from Sam. He wouldn't stand for it."

"No, not for a minute," Kate said decisively.

Curly spoke to her in a low voice. "You have a talk with Mrs. Wylie alone.
We'll pull our freights. She'll tell you what she knows." He smiled in his
gentle winning way. "She's sure had a tough time of it if ever a woman
had. I reckon a little kindness is what she needs. Let her see we're her
friends and will stand by her, that we won't let her come to harm because
she talks. Show her we know