"How about me?" asked Pedro.
"You can either stay with us, or follow Don Antonio."
"I think I"ll stay with you. As you say, you seem to have a faculty for getting mixed up in things and this is one of the things I want a hand in."
The boys had hardly reached the place they had selected, when a shot from the river front told that the flanking party had taken its position and a minute later the boys could hear the blows that were being rained upon the door to force it from its place.
"It isn"t quite as easy a job as the captain thought," said Donald after the battering had continued for several minutes.
"I should say not!" declared Adrian. "He never will get in that way. Why doesn"t he blow it open?"
"Maybe he doesn"t know how!"
"Then we"d better go and show him! He"s wasting time."
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the air was rent by a terrific explosion and great pieces of rock and a cloud of dust and dirt were thrown high into the air, almost burying the Broncho Rider Boys and their companion in the debris.
The smugglers had fired a mine which had been arranged for just such an attack.
As soon as the boys could gain their feet and free themselves from the pile of dirt which had been thrown up, they turned their attention to the rurales to see what might have been the damage done. Fortunately it was slight. Two men had been killed and three wounded, but not seriously. The worst feature of the explosion was that the rear entrance to the cave had been so blocked with the falling rock, that an entrance was impossible without much digging and clearing away of the rubbish.
However, if the rurales could not get in, neither could the smugglers get out, except by the river entrance. That they had no desire to do so was soon evident, for before the main force, accompanied by the boys, could reach the river front, the smugglers-or as many as could be loaded into three skiffs-emerged from the cave on the river side.
That they had not expected to meet any resistance in that quarter was evident from the fact that they were not at all prepared to fight, nor did they take any precaution to defend themselves until greeted by a volley from the rurales stationed on the opposite side of the creek.
But no sooner had they received the first volley, than they turned sharply up stream and a minute later replied with a well directed fire.
Immediately thereafter the ten men who had been posted behind the big rock clambered up to the top and from this position of vantage poured a volley into the boats. Almost at the same moment the captain led the main force around from the other side, thus taking the boats between two fires.
Seeing their hopeless position and realizing that they were greatly outnumbered, the smugglers threw down their arms and surrendered. The boats were quickly drawn ash.o.r.e and the captured smugglers landed and placed under a guard.
"There must be at least as many more," said Donald to the captain, when he had counted the prisoners and found there were only twenty-four.
"During our scouting we have seen fully forty."
"Is that true?" the captain asked one of the prisoners.
"_Quien sabe_" was the unsatisfactory reply.
"You don"t know, eh?" said the captain.
"No, _senor capitan_."
"Perhaps I can help you," said the captain. Then turning to one of his men: "Here, corporal, stand this man up against that rock, and if he doesn"t answer by the time I count ten, shoot him."
Without a word the corporal obeyed and told off six men as a firing squad. The smuggler"s hands were tied behind him and he was placed with his back to the rock, while the rurales with carbines leveled stood ready to fire.
"Look, you," said the captain as he took his position a little to one side. "At the word ten the men will fire and I shall not count very slowly either. Ready. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight--"
"There are forty-five besides the captain and Santiago," broke forth the smuggler.
"Nine, ten, fire," finished the captain, and at the word the carbines cracked and the smuggler pitched forward and lay motionless!
An exclamation of horror burst from both the American boys.
"Captain!" cried Donald. "It"s murder."
"How could you after he had spoken!" exclaimed Adrian.
The captain shrugged his shoulders and lighted a cigarette.
"It had to be done sooner or later. It might as well be now as later."
"But you broke your word!"
"Not at all. I told him if he did not speak I would shoot. I did not tell him I would not shoot if he did. You Americans are too tender-hearted."
"I shall report the case to your superior officer," declared Donald.
Again the captain shrugged his shoulders.
"I shall report it myself," he said. "The man simply tried to escape and we shot him. It is the _ley de fuga_."[2]
"Can such things be?" queried Adrian.
"You can see that they are," answered Don Antonio, who had come up in time to hear the conversation. "In dealing with men of this cla.s.s, when revolution is plotted on every hand, things are done in Mexico which would not be done could a stable government be established."
"Before we are through with this band, you may wish that more of them could be thus disposed of," declared the captain. "Remember that you have a companion in there who has not yet been rescued."
The boys started as though they had been stung. In the excitement of the tragedy they had just witnessed Billie had pa.s.sed entirely from their thoughts.
"We"re a nice pair of chums, ain"t we?" exclaimed Adrian. "No knowing what is going on inside that cave. Let"s get busy."
Without waiting to see what the others might be going to do, Adrian started on a run for the window in the cave.
"If I can"t do anything more," he thought, "I can at least tell Billie to keep up his courage! I wish I was in there with him."
As he climbed up the mound, he noted that a little volume of smoke was coming out of the window, which now served as a chimney for the cell in which Billie was confined.
"Powder smoke!" he exclaimed as he drew near enough to get a whiff. "It must be from the explosion."
He bent over the hole and tried to look into the cell, but could see nothing.
"Billie!" he called; but there was no response.
Again he called, this time more loudly, but still there was no answer, and Adrian"s heart fairly stood still with apprehension.
"I wonder what can be the matter?" he gasped. "By George, I wish I was in there!"
He had hardly uttered the words, when the place on which he was standing seemed to give way beneath his feet and he felt himself slowly falling.