We were both pretty confident we could run sixteen miles in two hours. But we dared not run straight. We knew that if they found we were keeping a line, they would let the dog go their best pace and gallop alongside; so we had to zigzag, sometimes going almost back upon our own track. We did not do this so often as we should have done if we had had more time."
"But how did you know which way to go, Seth," Hubert asked.
"We went by the stars," Seth said. "It was easier than it would have been by day, for when the sun"s right overhead, it ain"t a very straightforward matter to know how you are going; but there would be no difficulty then to scouts like Rube and me. Well, we had run, maybe, an hour and a quarter when we heard a faint, short bark far behind."
"The brute is on our trail," Rube said; "they haven"t given us so much start as I looked for. Another half-hour and he will be at our heels sure enough."
I felt this was true, and felt very bad-like for a bit. In another quarter of an hour the bark was a good bit nearer, and we couldn"t go no faster than we were going. All of a sudden I said to Rube, "Rube, I"ve heard them dogs lose their smell if they taste blood.
Let"s try it; it"s our only chance. Here, give me a cut in the arm, I can spare it better than you can; you lost a lot to-night from that cut."
We stopped a minute. I tore off the sleeve of my hunting shirt, and then Rube gave me a bit of a cut on the arm. I let the blood run till the sleeve was soaked and dripping, then Rube tore off a strip from his shirt and bandaged my arm up tight. We rolled the sleeve in a ball and threw it down, then took a turn, made a zigzag or two to puzzle the brute, and then went on our line again. For another ten minutes we could hear the barking get nearer and nearer, and then it stopped all of a sudden. On we went, and it was half an hour again before we heard it, and then it was a long way off.
"I expect we"re all right now, Seth," Rube said.
"I guess we are," I said; "but the sooner we strike water the better I shall be pleased."
It was nigh another half-hour, and we were both pretty nigh done, when we came upon the stream, and the dog couldn"t have been more than a mile off. It was a bit of a thing five or six yards wide, and a foot or two deep in the middle.
"Which way?" says Rube. "Up"s our nearest way, so we had better go down."
"No, no," says I; "they"re sure to suspect that we shall try the wrong course to throw them off, so let"s take the right."
Without another word up stream we went, as hard as we could run. In a few minutes we heard the dog stop barking, when we might have been half a mile up stream.
"We must get out of this, Rube," I said. "Whichever way they try with the dog, they are safe to send hors.e.m.e.n both ways."
"Which side shall we get out, Seth?"
"It don"t matter," I said; "it"s all a chance which side they take the dog. Let"s take our own side."
Out we got; and we hadn"t ran a quarter of a mile before we heard a tramping of horses coming along by the stream. We stopped to listen, for we knew if they had the dog with them, and if he was on our side of the river, we were as good as dead.
"If they take the trail, Seth," Rube said, "it"s all up with us.
Don"t let"s run any more. We are men enough to shoot the four first who come up, and I only hope one of them may be El Zeres; that"ll leave us a pistol each, and we will keep them for ourselves. Better do that, by a long way, than be pulled to pieces with hot pincers."
"A long way, Rube," I said. "That"s agreed, then. When I give the word, put the barrel against your eye and fire; that"s a pretty safe shot."
As the Mexicans got to the place where we had got out, we stopped and held our breath. There was no pause--on they went; another minute, and we felt certain they had pa.s.sed the spot.
"Saved, by thunder!" Rube said; and we turned and went off at a steady trot that we could keep up for hours. "How long shall we get, do you think, Seth?"
"That all depends how long they follow down stream. They can"t tell how far we are ahead. I should think they will go two miles down; then they will cross the stream and come back; and if they don"t happen to be on the right side of the stream as they pa.s.s where we got out, they will go up another two or three miles, and near as much down, before they strike the trail. We"re pretty safe of half an hour"s start, and we might get, if we"re lucky, near an hour. We ain"t safe yet, Rube, by a long way. It"s near thirty miles from Pepita"s to the camp. We"ve come sixteen of it good--eighteen I should say; we have got another twelve to the road, and we ain"t safe then. No; our only chance is to come across a hacienda and get horses. There are a good many scattered about; but it"s so dark we might pa.s.s within fifty yards and not see it. There won"t be a streak of daylight till four, and it ain"t two yet."
"Not far off, Seth." By this time we had got our wind again, and quickened up into a fast swing; but our work had told on us, and we couldn"t have gone much over seven miles an hour. Several times, as we went on, we could hear a trampling in the dark, and knew that we had scared some horses; but though we had a la.s.so we had brought with us, we might as well have tried to catch a bird with it. In an hour we heard the dog again, but it was a long way behind. There was nothing for it now but hard running, and we were still seven miles from the road, and even that didn"t mean safety. I began to think we were going to lose the race, after all. In another quarter of an hour we stopped suddenly.
"Thunder!" said Rube; "what"s that?" Some animal, that had been lying down, got up just in front of us.
"It"s a horse! Your la.s.so, Rube!" Rube, however, had made a tremendous rush forward, and, before the animal could stretch himself into a gallop, had got close, and grasped him by the mane.
"It"s no go," Rube said, as the horse made a step forward; "he"s an old un, dead lame."
"Don"t leave go, Rube," I said. "He"ll do for our turn." He was a miserable old beast, but I felt that he would do as well as the best horse in the world for us. Rube saw my meaning and in a minute we were both astride on his back. He tottered, and I thought he"d have gone down on his head. Kicking weren"t of no good; so I out with my knife and gave him a prod, and off we went. It weren"t far, some two hundred yards or so, but it was the way I wanted him, right across the line we were going. Then down he tumbled.
"All right," said I. "You"ve done your work, old man; but you mustn"t lay here, or they may light upon you and guess what"s been up."
So we lugged him on to his feet, gave him another prod, which sent him limping off; and on we went on our course, sure that we were at last safe, for we had thrown the bloodhound altogether off our trail. For a mile or so we kept right away from our course, for fear that they should keep straight on, and, missing the scent, lead the dog across the trail, and so pick it up again; then we turned and made straight for the road.
"I don"t think, Rube," I said after awhile, "that we shall strike the road far off where we left it at Pepita"s."
"No, I expect not, Seth. We had better bear a little more to the south, for they will most likely make for Pepita"s, and day will soon be breaking now."
"We"d better not strike the road at all, Rube; likely enough, they will follow it down for a few miles in hopes of picking us up."
"I hope they will," Rube said; "and I expect so. Won"t it be a lark, just?"
"What do you mean, Rube?"
"Mean? Why, didn"t the Cap tell us to leave San Miguel before daybreak, and to ride to meet him? It warn"t likely that he meant us to ride more than ten miles or so; so that he will be within that distance of San Miguel by an hour after daybreak, and will be at Pepita"s half an hour later. If them fellows ride on, they are safe to fall into as nice a trap as--"
"Jehoshophat!" said I. "You"re right, Rube. Let"s make tracks. It can"t be more than another four or five miles to the road, and day will break in half an hour."
"How strong do you reckon them, Seth?"
"Fifty or sixty," said I, "by the regular sound of the horses."
"That"s about what I guessed," Rube said. "There are forty of our chaps, and they will be fresh. We"ll give "em goss."
"We had now long ceased to hear the baying of the dog, which had been most unpleasantly clear when we got off the old hoss that had done us such a good turn. We made sure, too, that we were well ahead, for they would likely wait an hour in trying to pick up the trail again. Daylight came at last; and when it was light enough to see we stopped and took a look from a slight rise, and there, across the plain, we could see the road just where we expected.
Nothing was moving upon it, nor, looking back, could we see any sign of the Mexicans. Away to the left, a mile or so, we could see a clump of trees, and something like the roof of a house among them. This, we had no doubt, was Pepita"s. About a mile down the road the other way was a biggish wood, through which the road ran."
"Let"s make for that wood, Rube, and wait; the Cap will be up in another half-hour, and it ain"t likely the Mexicans will be along much before that. They"re likely to stop for a drink at Pepita"s."
In another ten minutes we were in shelter in the wood, taking care not to get upon the road, in case the Mexicans should come along with the hound before our men. We hadn"t been there twenty minutes before we both heard a trampling of horses; but it was a minute or two more before we could decide which way they were coming. At last, to our great comfort, we found it was the right way. Just before they came up I had an idea I caught a sound from the other way, but I couldn"t have sworn to it. We lay till the troop came fairly up, as it might be another party of Mexicans; but it was all right, and we jumped out, with a cheer, into the middle of them.
Mighty surprised they were to see us, on foot, and all dust and sweat. Rube"s face, too, was tied up; and altogether we didn"t look quite ourselves. They all began to talk at once; but I held up my hand urgent, and when they saw it was something particular they shut up, and I said to the Cap: "Don"t ask no questions, Cap; I"ll tell you all arterwards. El Zeres with about fifty of his men will be here in about three minutes, I reckon. They"ve ridden thirty miles, and the beasts ain"t fresh; so it"s your own fault if one gets away."
The Cap didn"t waste a moment in words. He ordered half his men to ride back two hundred yards, and to charge when they heard his whistle; and he and the rest turned off into the wood, which was very thick, and screened "em from any one pa.s.sing. Rube and I, not having horses, were no good for a charge; so we went on in the wood, as near as we could guess, halfway between them, so as to be ready to jump out and join in the skrimmage. It all takes some time to tell, but it didn"t take two minutes to do, and in another minute we could hear the Mexicans close. On they came: we knew now that they had pa.s.sed the Cap, and we clutched our rifles tight and peered out through the leaves. On they came, and we could see El Zeres riding first, with the bloodhound trotting along by the side of his horse. Just as he was opposite we heard a loud, shrill whistle, and the Mexicans halted with a look of uneasiness. They weren"t left to wonder long, for in a moment there was a trampling of horses, and down came our fellows on both sides of them. Just before they got up we stepped forward with our rifles up.
"El Zeres!" Rube shouted, and startled as the Mexican was, he looked round. He had just time to see who it was, when Rube"s ball hit him in the head, and down he went as dead as a stone. The hound turned and came right at us with a deep growl of rage. I sent a ball through his chest and rolled him over, and just as I did so our fellows came down upon the Mexicans. It was a fierce fight, for the Mexicans were in a trap, and knew that there was no mercy for them. Rube and I sprang out and paid a good many of "em off for the scare they had given us. We wiped them right out to the last man, losing only six ourselves. I don"t know as ever I see a better skrimmage while it lasted. After it was over Rube and I mounted two of their horses, and rode on with the rest of them to San Miguel; but before we started off we told our story to the Cap, and he sent a couple of men back with a dispatch to the general, asking for five hundred men to destroy El Zeres" band at a blow. We stopped at Pepita"s, and I never see a girl have a much worse scare than we gave her. She made sure it was El Zeres, and came running out to see if he had caught us; and when she found that she had fallen into the hands of the Rangers, and that we were among them, she was as white as a shirt in a minute. She was plucky enough, though; for as soon as she could get her tongue she cursed us like a wild woman. I expect she made sure we should have shot her for her treachery--and a good many of our bands would have done so right on end--but the Rangers never touched women. However, she warn"t to go scot free; so we got fire, and set the house and stable in a blaze.
As we rode off Rube shouted out, "If you change your mind again about coming with me to Missouri, you just drop me a line, Pepita."
"I thought, as I looked at her, it was lucky for Rube she hadn"t a rifle in her hand; she"d have shot him if she had been hung for it a minute afterward. We rode on to San Miguel, took Colonel Cabra prisoner, with his papers, and sent him back under an escort. At dusk the same day we got on our horses and rode back to where Pepita"s house had stood, and where our captain expected the troops he had sent for. In half an hour they came up. They had a couple of hours to rest their horses, and then Rube and I led them straight to the Mexican camp. No doubt they heard us coming when we were close, but made sure it was El Zeres, and so didn"t disturb themselves; and it warn"t till we had wheeled round and fairly surrounded them that they smelt a rat. But it was too late then, for in another minute we were down upon them, and I don"t believe twenty out of the whole lot got away. It was, altogether, one of the most successful businesses in the whole war. And I think that"s about all the story."
"Oh, thank you very much, Seth. It is a most exciting story. And what became of Rube?"
"Rube married a year after we got back to the States, and took up a clearing and settled down. It was then I felt lonesome, and made up my mind to go south for awhile. I promised Rube that I would go and settle down by him after a bit, and I"ve concluded that it"s about time to do so. I"ve saved a few hundred dollars out here, and I am going to start to-morrow morning at daybreak to catch the steamer at Rosario. I shall go up straight from Buenos Ayres to New Orleans, and a steamer will take me up the river in three days to Rube"s location. Good-by, all of you. I told your father this afternoon."
There was a hearty leave-taking, and many expressions of regret at his leaving; and after a shake of the hand, and many good wishes, the young Hardys went up to the house, really sorry to part with their Yankee friend.