Which is exactly what happened.
"That won"t do us any good," said Don. "Now that we are alone, I vote that we get back to the railroad track. We won"t get lost if we follow that and a train may come along."
The advice seemed good and they started to go.
"Hold on," exclaimed Billie. "Let"s see if we can"t find some grub to take with us."
"Great head!" laughed Adrian.
"Great stomach, you mean," from Donald. "It never lets him forget."
The boys plundered through the house. The owners must have been scared away, for nothing had been disturbed. In the kitchen they found a big plate of _tortillas_, half a baked kid, and some wheat bread. This they appropriated.
"We might as well have a blanket apiece," said Donald. "It is only another case of a fair exchange. The Mexicans have our suit cases."
Each took a blanket and Adrian was so fortunate after searching all over the house as to find a shotgun and a belt full of loaded sh.e.l.ls that went with it.
"If those sh.e.l.ls were loaded with buckshot you"d be all right,"
said Billie. "They"re the----"
His speech was interrupted by a cry that fairly made their blood run cold.
"What"s that?" and the three stopped as though they had been paralysed.
Again came the cry, and with a single bound the boys were out in the open, each with his weapon ready for instant use.
They could see no one, but there was the sound of something crashing through the brush which hid the railroad from the house.
"Sounded like a wild cat," declared Donald.
"Or a coyote," said Billie.
"I"m sure it was a human voice," remarked Adrian. "Do you remember the Zunis?" referring to another adventure told in the story of the "Broncho Rider Boys Along the Border."
Even as he spoke there emerged from the brush the figure of a woman carrying in her arms a small child. Winged by fear, she was bounding along like an antelope.
A moment later, and not two rods behind her, came forth a figure which the boys instantly recognized as a mountain lion.
How the woman had succeeded in escaping it even for a moment was a mystery.
In a second the three weapons spoke. The report was followed by a scream from the beast and a cry from the woman, both of whom fell lifeless to the earth--the beast dead and the woman in a swoon.
"Take care of the woman, you two," said Adrian. "I"ll examine the beast."
No one stopped to question the order.
Billie picked up the child which the woman had let fall, while Donald stooped down and felt the woman"s pulse. Then he darted into the house and was back in a minute with a bucket half filled with water. With it he bathed the woman"s temples and poured a little down her throat.
In a couple of minutes she revived and looked around.
"Mi nina!" she gasped.
"She"s asking for her child," said Donald.
Billie carried the little one over and stood it beside her.
With a glad cry she s.n.a.t.c.hed it in her arms and burst into tears.
"She"s all right," laughed Donald. "Now let"s have a look at that animal."
They walked over to where Adrian was watching the inanimate carca.s.s.
"Where did we hit him?" asked Billie.
"I can see three places and one is big enough to throw a baseball through it."
"That"s from the shotgun," said Donald. "It"s what did the business. Must have been buckshot and we were so close it didn"t have a chance to scatter."
"I"d sure like that hide," said Adrian.
"We"ll be in luck if we save our own," remarked Billie. "Unless we can do something for the woman, we"d better be jogging along."
By this time the woman had risen to her feet and the boys could see that she was not a peon as they had supposed, but of the better cla.s.s.
"Where could she have come from?" queried Donald under his breath.
"Suppose you ask her," laughed Adrian.
Donald did so. At first she was too dazed to answer, but after Donald spoke a few words quietly and in his very best Spanish, she was able to answer his questions.
"Is this your house?" he asked.
"No, Senor; my house is down the mountain."
"What are you doing here alone?"
She gave him a startled glance and then hugged the child closer to her breast.
"You need not fear us," were the rea.s.suring words.
"The soldiers came," she said slowly. "They had already killed the others. They would have killed me."
"The soldiers?"
"Yes. They were looking for my husband. They said he was hidden in the house; but he was not. He is with Gen. Carranza."
"When was this?"