grant me, and that is to step upstairs with my men and see
how you like the room the American boys have just vacated. You will find
it quite comfortable. Our accommodations are a little overtaxed just
now. Don't forget to leave your key at the office when you go out, and
don't blow out the gas. Now boys, show the new guest to his room."

O'Connor laughed until he was forced to hold his sides as his men,
delighted with their task, roughly hustled the astonished and fuming
officer along the corridor and up the steps. They heard an iron door
slam and the men returned and saluted with grinning faces.

"Always find it a good thing to let your men have a little enjoyment
mixed in with their work. Come on now, let's say good-bye to Monte and
go. It only lacks an hour of midnight and when the watch changes it will
not be long before our little game is discovered."

As he spoke, O'Connor walked to the door of the officer's room and
looked in, followed by the boys.

"Good-bye, Mr. Interpreter," said Harry, "what are the quotations on
glory to-night?"

Villamonte wagged the ends of his waxed mustache in an effort to speak.
O'Connor laughed and turning to the door, unlocked it, and slipping back
the bolts, gave a low whistle, like the one the boys had heard from
their cell window. In a moment the answer came.

"Come on," said O'Connor, "the coast is clear."

They passed silently out into the night. The eight men joined their
comrades and the next moment, one by one, they darted across the streak
of moonlight and disappeared in the deep shadow of the building at the
corner of the square. O'Connor stopped and looked around to see if they
had been observed, but the streets were deserted.

"Aren't you afraid that General Serano will yell through the window and
give an alarm?" asked Harry, looking up to the bars of the cell they had
so recently occupied.

"My men never leave a prisoner so that he can yell," said O'Connor,
chuckling. "We have about an hour's start, and if we make the best of
that we should be well out of the woods before the escape is
discovered."

O'Connor walked rapidly and they soon reached the outskirts of the
little straggling town without meeting anyone to question them. Now and
then Harry saw dark forms ahead gliding along in the shadows of the low
buildings or darting swiftly across patches of moonlight, and he knew
O'Connor's men were within call. O'Connor, himself, walked openly, with
a boy on each