CHAPTER XIX

A DARING PLAN

In spite of all Jo Ann’s efforts to slow their progress down the trail, she met with little success. Every time she slowed her horse the boss would ride up close behind and strike her horse with his quirt.

When the first faint rays of dawn were tingeing the eastern sky, the boss suddenly ordered them to stop. Pointing down into a dark ravine, he indicated by signs that they were to leave the trail and ride into it. Involuntarily Jo Ann gasped. The steepness of the sharp descent terrified her. Even more alarming was the thought that this was the place where he had planned to leave them as he had the peon back in the cave.

If Dr. Blackwell or José should come along this trail they never would think of hunting down there for them. “Unless I leave some clue up here on the trail,” she told herself.

When both Jo Ann and Florence kept repeating, “No _sabe_—no _sabe_,” to all of his commands, the boss, with an angry, “Follow me, _pronto_,” started his horse down into the ravine. He glanced over his shoulder to see if they were following.

In the short interval in which he was not looking at them, Jo Ann jerked off her belt and tossed it back on the trail. “If José or Dr. Blackwell sees that, they’ll search all around here,” she thought.

Slipping and sliding over sharp rocks and scrubby mesquite bushes they finally succeeded in reaching the bottom of the ravine.

After they had ridden some distance out of sight of the trail, the boss leaped off his horse and ordered them to follow his example.

For an instant it seemed to Jo Ann that her heart had stopped beating; then it began pounding away so rapidly that she had difficulty in breathing.

Was this to be the end? Was this silent dark ravine the spot where Florence and Carlitos and she were to be left to die?

As soon as they had all dismounted, the boss gestured to them to take the saddles off their horses.

“No _sabe_—no _sabe_,” Jo Ann began repeating.

The next instant the boss growled and raised his quirt threateningly.

Without another protest she pulled the saddle off and then helped Carlitos remove his.

“_Mas pronto_,” the boss kept commanding.

As soon as they had removed the saddles, he indicated some bushes near by under which they were to hide them; that done, he had all three tie their horses a little farther down the ravine.

“He’s trying to cover up all trace of us,” Jo Ann thought, shaking. “He must be going to make away with us now. Poor Florence! Poor Carlitos! What can I do? Isn’t there something I can do?”

To her amazement just then the boss gestured to them to climb back up on the trail. What was he going to do with them now? Where was he taking them?

On reaching the trail he urged them on forward as fast as they could walk. Not long afterward they came to a little rise in the trail from which they could see in the valley below a huge white stone house outlined against the dark gray background of the mountains. Involuntarily the girls stopped to stare down at it in surprise.

“Who’d ever think of seeing such a palace as that way out here!” Jo Ann exclaimed.

For once the boss forgot to urge them on. He pointed down proudly to the house. “My _casa_. It cost me _mucho dinero_,” he bragged, then gestured to some tiny shacks on the mountain side. “I no live like the peons.”

“No wonder he can have such a fine house,” Jo Ann thought. “He stole the mine from Carlitos’ father in the first place and makes the peons live in little old shacks.”

By this time the boss had leaped off his horse and had tied it to a near-by bush. He turned back to the girls and Carlitos. “Move along. _Pronto!_” he ordered, gesturing up to a narrow path cut into the steep mountain side.

Jo Ann intuitively realized that this path led to the mine. A feeling of terror swept over her again. This must be the end! He was taking them up to the mine to make away with them there so no one would know what had become of them. That was why he was hurrying them so fast—so he’d get rid of them before it was daylight and the men came to work. What would he do with them? If he left them bound as he had the peon in the cave, some of the workmen would be sure to find them.

A sudden thought flashed into her mind that left her panic-stricken. In nearly all mines, she’d heard, there were old, deep unused shafts. Was it possible that he was going to leave them in one of those old shafts? If he did, no one in the world would ever find a trace of them. She must fight to the very last. There must be something she could do. Dr. Blackwell—where was he? He had said he would get here ahead of them. He might be down there in the valley waiting for them this very minute, she told herself.

By this time they had reached a spot in the path directly above the house. “One could almost throw a stone down into the patio of that house from here,” she thought. “If I could only attract the attention of someone down there. He seems to be trying so hard to get us up here without anyone’s seeing us.”

A daring plan darted into her mind. She’d risk the boss’s anger. No matter what he did, it could not be as bad as what awaited them at the mine. The next instant she began to put this plan into action.

She stumbled and with a piercing shriek fell prostrate, pushing several large stones over the edge of the trail. As they rolled down the mountain side, loosening other stones on their way, they made a terrific crashing noise.

“Oh, my foot! My foot!” she groaned, grabbing her ankle.

Florence was at her side the next moment. “Oh, Jo Ann! Are you hurt badly?”

Before Jo Ann could answer, the boss was standing over her, shaking his quirt threateningly. “What you mean? You make too much noise. Move on—_pronto_.”

Jo Ann shook her head, crying again, “My foot!”

As he started to strike her with his quirt she turned over and began crawling on hands and knees.

“Oh, if only Dr. Blackwell or someone heard those rocks and would come to our rescue,” she thought. “My crawling this way will delay us some. I wish, though, that I dared tell Florence that I’m not hurt. She’s so worried because she thinks I’ve really sprained my ankle.”

Every few moments she kept looking back toward the boss as an excuse to get a view of the valley.

“Surely, if Dr. Blackwell’s down there and heard all that noise, he’d look up here and see us,” she thought. “If I don’t see somebody soon, I’ll risk knocking some more stones over.” She slowed her crawling pace.

“_Mas pronto!_” came the growling command, then she felt a sharp lick across her back. Only her thick sweater kept her from being cut by the boss’s quirt.

In spite of this, she ventured to look around again a few moments later. To her unbounded relief she caught a glimpse of three men on horses riding rapidly toward the foot of the trail. They were not dressed like Indians, she noticed. The rider ahead looked as if he might be Dr. Blackwell. Oh, if only he were! If he could only get to them right away. “That black hole up ahead on the path—that must be the opening to the mine,” she thought.

Just then Carlitos exclaimed in a frightened voice, “_La mina_ [The mine]!”

Terrified at the sight of this black yawning hole so close above them, Jo Ann cried out frantically, “Florence, stop! Don’t go any farther.”

At her sharp command Florence halted, white-faced and trembling. The next instant she reached out to catch hold of Carlitos.

The boss burst forth in such a rapid flow of Spanish that neither one of the girls could understand a word. His face was so distorted with rage that Florence and Carlitos huddled together against the rocky wall, frozen with fear.

As the boss raised his quirt to strike her, Jo Ann caught a glimpse of a white-clothed man stealthily slipping along the trail close behind him. Instantly she recognized the man as José. “I must keep the boss from knowing José is behind him,” she thought quickly.

“No, I won’t go on!” she cried, and jumped to her feet just in time to dodge a blow from his quirt.

As he lurched forward to strike again, she saw a coil of rope sail through the air and fall over his head and shoulders. The next instant his arms were pinioned to his sides.

Before the boss could realize what had happened, José and the peon sprang forward and threw him down on the ground. With deft fingers they bound him securely.