CHAPTER IV.

OVER THE RIO GRANDE.

A week later, during which there had been busy days at the mining camp, the boys received answers to their letters. They came in the shape of telegrams, for the lads had asked their parents to wire instead of waiting to write. Each one received permission to make the trip into the land of the Montezumas.

"Hurrah!" yelled Bob, making an ineffectual attempt to turn a somersault, and coming down all in a heap.

"What's the matter?" asked Nestor, coming out of the cabin. "Wasp sting ye?"

"We can go to Mexico!" cried Ned, waving the telegram.

"Same thing," replied the miner. "Ye'll git bit by sand fleas, tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, horse-flies an' rattlesnakes, down there. Better stay here."

"Is it as bad as that?" asked Bob.

"If it is I'll get the finest collection of bugs the college ever saw," put in Professor Snodgrass.

"Well, it may not be quite as bad, but it's bad enough," qualified Nestor. "But don't let me discourage you. Go ahead, this is a free country."

So it was arranged. The boys decided they would start in three days, taking the professor with them.

"And we'll find that buried city if it's there," put in Ned.

The next few days were busy ones. At Nestor's suggestion each one of the boys had a stout money-belt made, in which they could carry their cash strapped about their waists. They were going into a wild country, the miner told them, where the rights of people were sometimes disregarded.

Then the auto was given a thorough overhauling, new tires were put on the rear wheels, and a good supply of ammunition was packed up. In addition, many supplies were loaded into the machine, and Professor Snodgrass got an enlarged box made for his specimens, as well as two new butterfly nets.

The boys invested in stout shoes and leggins, for they felt they might have to make some explorations in a wild country. A good camp cooking outfit was taken along, and many articles that Nestor said would be of service during the trip.

"Your best way to go," said the miner, "will be to scoot along back into New Mexico for a ways, then take over into Texas, and strike the Rio Grande below where the Conchas River flows into it. This will save you a lot of mountain climbing an' give you a better place to cross the Rio Grande. At a place about ten miles below the Conchas there is a fine flat-boat ferriage. You can take the machine over on that."

The boys promised to follow this route. Final preparations were made, letters were written home, the auto was gone over for the tenth time by Jerry, and having received five hundred dollars each from Nestor, as their share in the mine receipts up to the time they left, they started off with a tooting of the auto horn.

"That's more money than I ever had at one time before," said Bob, patting his money-belt as he settled himself comfortably down in the rear seat of the car, beside Professor Snodgrass.

"Money is no good," said the naturalist.

"No good?"

"No; I'd rather catch a pink and blue striped sand flea, which is the rarest kind that exists, than have all the money in the world. If I can get one of them or even a purple muskrat, and find the buried city, that will be all I want on this earth."

"I certainly hope we find the buried city," spoke up Ned, who was listening to the conversation, "but I wouldn't care much for a purple muskrat."

"Well, every one to his taste," said the professor. "We may find both."

The journey, which was to prove a long one, full of surprises and dangers, was now fairly begun. The auto hummed along the road, making fast time.

That night the adventurers spent in a little town in New Mexico. Their arrival created no little excitement, as it was the first time an auto had been in that section. Such a crowd of miners and cowboys surrounded the machine that Jerry, who was steering, had to shut off the power in a hurry to avoid running one man down.

"I thought maybe ye could jump th' critter over me jest like they do circus hosses," explained the one who had nearly been hit by the car. Jerry laughingly disclaimed any such powers of the machine.

Two days later found them in Texas, and, recalling Nestor's directions about crossing the Rio Grande, they kept on down the banks of that mighty river until they passed the junction where the Conchas flows in.

So far the trip had been without accident. The machine ran well and there was no trouble with the mechanism or the tires. Just at dusk, one night, they came to a small settlement on the Rio Grande. They rode through the town until they came to a sort of house-boat on the edge of the stream. A sign over the entrance bore the words:

FERRY HERE.

"This is the place we're looking for, I guess," said Jerry. He drove the machine up to the entrance and brought it to a stop. A dark-featured man, with a big scar down one side of his face, slouched to the door.

"Well?" he growled.

"We'd like to be ferried over to the other side," spoke Jerry.

"Come to-morrow," snarled the man. "We don't work after five o'clock."

"But we'd like very much to get over to-night," went on Jerry. "And if it's any extra trouble we'd be willing to pay for it."

"That's the way with you rich chaps that rides around in them horseless wagons," went on the ferrymaster. "Ye think a man has got to be at yer beck an' call all the while. I'll take ye over, but it'll cost ye ten dollars."

"We'll pay it," said Jerry, for he observed a crowd of rough men gathering, whose looks he did not like, and he thought he and his friends would be better off on the other side of the stream, on Mexican territory.

"Must be in a bunch of hurry," growled the man. "Ain't tryin' to git away from th' law, be ye?"

"Not that we know of," laughed Jerry.

"Looks mighty suspicious," snarled the man. "But, come on. Run yer shebang down on the boat, an' go careful or you'll go through the bottom. The craft ain't built to carry locomotives."

Jerry steered the car down a slight incline onto a big flat boat, where it was blocked by chunks of wood so that it could not roll forward or backward.

By this time the ferrymaster and his crew had come down to the craft. They were all rather unpleasant-looking men, with bold, hard faces, and it was evident that each one of the five, who made up the force that rowed the boat across the stream, was heavily armed. They wore bowie-knives and carried two revolvers apiece.

But the sight of armed men was no new one to the boys since their experience in the mining camp, and they had come to know that the chap who made the biggest display of an arsenal was usually the one who was the biggest coward, seldom having use for a gun or a knife.

"All ready?" growled the ferryman.

"All ready," called Jerry. He and the other boys, with the professor, had alighted from the auto and stood beside it on the flat boat.

Pulling on the long sweeps, the men sent the boat out into the stream, which, at this point, was about a mile wide. Once beyond the shore the force of the current made itself felt, and it was no easy matter to keep the boat headed right.

Every now and then the ferryman would cast anxious looks at the sky, and several times he urged the men to row faster.

"Do you think it is going to storm, my dear friend?" asked the professor, in a kindly and gentle voice.

"Think it, ye little bald-headed runt! I know it is!" exploded the man. "And if it ketches us out here there's goin' to be trouble."

The sky was blacking up with heavy clouds, and the wind began to blow with considerable force. The boat seemed to make little headway, though the men strained at the long oars.

"Row, ye lazy dogs!" exclaimed the pilot. "Do ye want to upset with this steam engine aboard? Row, if ye want to git ashore!"

The men fairly bent the stout sweeps. The wind increased in violence, and quite high waves rocked the ferryboat. The sky was getting blacker. Jagged lightning came from the clouds, and the rumble of thunder could be heard.

"Row, I tell ye! Row!" yelled the pilot, but the men could do no more than they were doing. The big boat tossed and rocked, and the automobile started to slide forward.

"Fasten it with a rope!" cried Jerry, and aided by his companions they lashed the car fast.

"Look out! We're in for it now!" shouted the ferryman. "Here comes the storm!"

With a wild burst of sky artillery, the clouds opened amid a dazzling electrical display, and the rain came down in torrents. At the same time the wind increased to hurricane force, driving the boat before it like a cork on the waves.

Three of the men lost their oars, and the craft, with no steerage way, was tossed from side to side. Then, as there came a stronger blast of the gale, the boat was driven straight ahead.

"We're going to hit something!" yelled Jerry, peering through the mist of rain. "Hold fast, everybody!"

The next instant there was a resounding crash, and the sound of breaking and splintering wood.