CHAPTER XVIII

PRISONERS

Before Jo Ann could spring to her feet, Carlitos was crouching behind her crying piteously, “_El jefe! El jefe!_”

Jo Ann immediately recognized the name “_el jefe_” as meaning the boss. She was right. That man was the mean boss!

Just then the boss broke into a burst of coarse derisive laughter that sent shivers down her spine. “Ah, the señoritas _muy bravo_! They bind the peon who thinks he’s a man but has not the strength of a woman.”

It seemed to Jo Ann that the boss’s huge body almost filled the narrow opening as he stood there with Florence’s gun aimed directly toward them. What could she do now? How could they save themselves and Carlitos? Oh, why hadn’t she taken Florence’s advice and waited for José before coming in here! If only José would come now!

A sudden idea flashed into her mind. When the boss stooped over to untie the peon, maybe she’d have a chance to slip his gun out of his holster; then she’d watch her chance to take him by surprise.

Her thoughts were broken into by the boss seizing Florence roughly by the arm and starting toward her.

“Here’s my chance to get his gun,” Jo Ann thought, feeling sure that he was going to untie the peon now.

To her consternation, instead of untying the peon, he kicked him viciously and snarled, “You no good—you let the señoritas bind you up—now I leave you here for the wild beasts to gnaw on your bones.”

Although Jo Ann could not understand all that he said, she realized immediately that he was going to leave the peon here to die. “What a beast that man is,” she thought.

“Get on out—all of you,” the boss growled, pushing Carlitos roughly in front of the girls and pointing his gun menacingly.

When the peon saw them all starting out of the cave, leaving him there alone, bound and helpless, he began struggling and rolling about, trying to free himself.

“Don’t leave me here! You can’t leave me! I did what you told me. I brought the boy back. Where is the money you promised me?”

“The wild animals cannot eat money,” the boss flung back, then laughed callously.

Jo Ann gasped in horror as she caught the meaning of his cruel words. “That man isn’t human. No wonder José with his family had fled from the mine.”

With the peon’s piteous cries ringing in their ears the two girls silently walked on in front of the boss.

“Go and get on your horses—_pronto_,” the boss ordered.

As Carlitos whimpered softly, Jo Ann caught hold of his hand to silence and comfort him.

Too terrified even to speak to each other, the three stumbled along in the darkness around the ledge. Instead of three horses, they found four.

“One must belong to the boss,” Jo Ann thought. “I wonder if he has guessed that José came with us.” She caught her breath as a new fear overwhelmed her. Had he already found José and made away with him—pushed him over the precipice, perhaps?

“Go on, _pronto_!” the boss growled.

In a brilliant flash of lightning Jo Ann saw Carlitos struggling to reach the horn of his saddle. She leaned over quickly and half lifted, half pushed him up on the horse.

“_Infante!_ Can you not ride without Pancho?” the boss growled tauntingly.

“He must think that the peon and Carlitos came here on a horse,” Jo Ann thought with a feeling of relief, as she mounted one of the other horses. “That means he must not have seen José or know that he’s with us. But where can José be now? Could he have slipped on the trail and fallen over a precipice?”

“_Andale—mas pronto!_” ordered the gruff voice again.

“He’s in a big hurry to get away from here,” thought Jo Ann. “He evidently has some strong reason for rushing us this way. I’m going to delay him in every way I can so Dr. Blackwell’ll be sure to be at the mine before we get there. If he isn’t there——” She shuddered at the thought of what might happen to Florence, Carlitos, and herself.

Just then the boss broke into such a rapid flow of Spanish that Jo Ann could catch only a word or two.

At his threats Florence shook so she could hardly get on her horse. He would kill all of them, he had said, if any one of them tried to escape.

“We no _sabe_,” Jo Ann spoke up. “We _Americanos_—no _sabe_.”

The emphasis Jo Ann had placed on the word “we” made Florence understand at once that she did not want her to let the man know that she could speak or understand Spanish. Though she could not guess Jo’s reason, she decided to pretend not to understand him.

Just as they were about to start off down to the trail Jo Ann heard the faint but heartrending cry of the deserted peon.

“Suppose the boss should tie us and leave us to die of thirst and starvation like that,” she said to herself. “Perhaps that’s what he did to Carlitos’ father, José said no one knew what had become of him.”

“I’m glad I’m first,” she thought a moment later. “That’ll give me a better chance to delay him.”

On reaching the trail, she deliberately turned her horse back in the direction from which they had just come. That would delay them a little bit.

The horses of both Carlitos and Florence followed her lead.

No sooner did the boss realize that they were going in the wrong direction than he roared out angrily, “Wait! That’s not the direction to go!”

Jo Ann paid no attention to this gruff command but kept on.

A few moments later her horse was stopped by being crowded against the rocky wall. Then she felt her arm seized in a vise-like grip and heard the boss’s shouts in her ear. A flash of lightning showed her his anger-contorted face only a few inches from her own.

Though she was terrified, she controlled herself enough to cry out, “No _sabe_. No _sabe_.”

“I make you _sabe_!” He blocked the trail in front of her with his horse, then leaped off and grabbed her horse’s bridle and turned him around. As he struck him sharply with his quirt, the animal leaped forward.

Instantly she realized the danger of pushing one of the other horses off the narrow trail and drew back on the reins in time to avert a disaster.

With Florence in the lead they set off toward the mine.

“At least I made him waste a little time,” Jo Ann thought, “but if he finds out I’m deliberately trying to delay him there’s no telling what he’ll do. He’s the meanest man I ever saw.”

Having come to an unusually slippery stretch she could think only of the danger of riding on the treacherous winding mountain trail in the darkness. One thing lifted her flagging spirits. The storm was abating—abating almost as rapidly as it had begun. “Now if only the moon’ll come up,” she thought.

Shortly afterwards she noted a light shining from behind the fast-sailing storm clouds. Even as she looked, the moon came into full view, lighting up the mountain side.

“Thank goodness!” she exclaimed to herself. At least they could see where they were going now. It would be safer traveling for José, too. But where was he? Would they meet him soon? But if they did, what would the boss do to him? He might treat him as badly as he had the peon.

Even as she was wondering, José was struggling up a steep bank not far below the cave. In his haste to get back to the girls he had, Indian fashion, left the trail and had struck straight up the mountain side, scaling almost perpendicular rocks and pulling himself up by anything that offered a finger hold.

Just before reaching the rocky ledge under which he had left the girls and the horses, he heard a wailing sound that made him stop as rigid as if frozen. Who was that? What was the matter? The señoritas! He must get to them at once.

Cautiously but rapidly he crawled up to the ledge. As soon as he saw there was no sign of the girls or the horses there, his eyes widened in horror. What had happened to them? That cry—but that was a man’s voice.

All at once it flashed through his mind that it might be the very man he had been hunting. Was Carlitos there with him? The señoritas——

Just then the cry, half wailing, half groaning, sounded again.

Silently José started in the direction of the cry. That might be only a trap, and he must not be caught.

When he neared the cave he saw through the opening the dying embers of a fire. By its faint glow he could make out the figure of a man struggling and rolling about on the ground.

As soon as José saw that the man was tied and that there was no one else in the cave, he called out, “What is your trouble? Who are you?”

At the sound of José’s voice the man instantly stopped struggling. “Come and release me! Release me!”

José made no move to enter, “Who are you?” he demanded again. “Who tied you?”

“Two señoritas tie me up. Then that man take them away—and leave me here to die. Release me! I kill him!”

Immediately José knew that this must be the man who had stolen Carlitos. “Where is the boy—Carlitos? What have you done with him?” he demanded sharply.

“_El jefe_ take him. Release me and I go kill _el jefe_. He no give me the money he promised. And he leave me here for the animals to eat.”

“Did he take the señoritas to the mine?”

“Sí—I think so.”

After José had asked him a few more questions the man promised to show him a short cut to the mine so they could overtake the boss and his prisoners. “I help you get the señoritas and the boy.” Convinced, finally, that the man was in earnest, José quickly untied the rope that bound him and coiled it over his arm.

A few minutes later the two men set off together down the steep, rocky mountain side.