The Broncho Rider Boys with the Texas Rangers Part 11

"Frijolles!" exclaimed Billie. "They look pretty good. I'm sure I can eat them," and eat them he did.

"Are you Don Rafael's mozo?" he asked as he finally finished his meal.

"Santiago is no man's servant," was the soft but dignified reply.

"Santiago belongs to Mexico."

"I wonder what he means by that?" thought Billie, but he didn't think it wise to ask, so he simply said: "Oh!" But after a few minutes he ventured to ask:

"How do you come to speak English?"

"So that everyone who hears me will not understand. Don Rafael is the only one here who understands English. It is a foreign tongue."

Again Billie replied "Oh!" to himself. He thought: "Funny, isn't it, that English is a foreign language. I never thought of it before."

"Do you wish to get up?" Santiago finally asked.

"After a little. If you don't mind, I think I'll lie here a while longer."

"Very well. I'll be back soon."

For a long time Billie lay with wide-open eyes, looking at the ceiling.

"I wonder why I don't feel like getting up?" he asked himself. "I guess I must have had a hard b.u.mp. I wonder where Donald and Adrian are, and if they really do know what has become of me. Of course they'll come and get me after a while; but where do you suppose I am? It must be some sort of a cave, I guess."

He looked at the grated window in the ceiling, through which came the sunlight as the leaves which almost covered it on the outside were blown backward and forward by the breeze.

"I wonder where that opening leads to," he thought. "If I could only get through that, I'd be all right; but I reckon that's impossible."

Still he kept on looking and wishing he were on the other side of the grating.

All at once something shut off the light.

"h.e.l.lo!" exclaimed Billie. "I wonder what's happened?"

In another second the obstacle was removed and the sun shone in again, only to be shut out a minute later.

"By George!" exclaimed Billie, sitting up in bed, "there's something looking in at the window. I believe it's a dog."

He got out of bed, and stood directly under the opening, looking upward.

"It is a dog," he declared. "I wonder whose?" Then all of a sudden: "It might be Pedro's. Suppose it is! Tanto! Tanto!" he called.

The animal gave a low whine, as of recognition.

"By George, I'm right!" declared Billie, becoming much excited. "There must be somebody with him. They must be looking for me. Tanto! Tanto!"

he again called.

At this the dog gave a sharp bark and immediately disappeared.

For a long time Billie watched the opening for him to reappear, but he did not come back, and Billie finally went and lay down; but not for an instant did he take his eyes from the little window in the ceiling. He could tell by the way the glints of light moved about that fully an hour had pa.s.sed, when again the opening was darkened and a face appeared at the grating.

"Don Guillermo! Don Guillermo!" a voice softly called, and then Billie recognized that his caller was Pedro's sister, Guadalupe.

CHAPTER IX.

GUADALUPE IN DANGER.

In order to explain Guadalupe's presence at the grated window in the top of Billie's prison-house, it is necessary to recount the happenings at the Hacienda del Rio and vicinity since the hour that Billie plunged from the top of the rock into the midst of Don Rafael's band.

It was shortly after noon when Billie's accident happened, and Donald and Pedro were on their way to send for the rurales. As we have seen, Adrian and Don Antonio ran to Billie's a.s.sistance, but were too late to discover his whereabouts. They did, however, find his hat, and, in searching more closely, also discovered the print of many feet on the sand along the bank of the creek.

Upon making this discovery, Adrian led the way up the creek for several hundred yards, and finally arrived at a place where the creek seemed to flow right out from under the side of the mountain.

This solved the mystery. There was undoubtedly a cave under the mountain, which was entered by means of the stream. Adrian was for getting one of the small boats he had seen on the banks of the Concho, and going immediately to Billie's rescue, but Don Antonio advised that nothing be done until the rurales arrived and there was a sufficient force to arrest Don Rafael and his band.

Adrian finally agreed to the plan, and, after a careful survey of the location, he and Don Antonio returned to the house.

When Donald heard what had happened he was even more insistent than Adrian had been that they should proceed at once to examine the cave. If they found it was in possession of Don Rafael and his band, Donald was in favor of forcing their way in, no matter what the opposition.

"I am sure that would be very unwise," declared Don Antonio. "Our messenger is already on his way to Presidio del Norte to summon the rurales. They will certainly be here by daylight tomorrow morning. Then we can go in force and will be sure to succeed. If only four of us go, we will probably be overpowered by numbers and your friend may suffer.

Let us have patience."

"Well," replied Donald slowly, "I'll agree to wait until morning; but, if the rurales are not here by that time, I shall go after Billie, if I have to go alone."

"You won't have to go alone," said Adrian. "You know that."

"Indeed you won't," chimed in Pedro. "I remember what you did for me."

The night pa.s.sed slowly to our boys, and they were up the following morning at sunrise. Coffee was served soon after, and still the rurales had not arrived.

A few minutes later the messenger sent to summon them returned to say that, owing to a report that a quant.i.ty of arms were to be run across the river lower down the Rio Grande, most of the rurales had been sent thither, and would not return till morning. This meant they could not possibly reach the Hacienda del Rio before noon.

"That settles it," declared Donald. "I'm going to find Billie."

"And I, too," said Adrian. "I'll bet the place the rurales have gone is at the same place we lost old Bray."

"Where was that?" asked Don Antonio.

"At the _hacienda_ of old Pablo Ojeda," replied Adrian, and he told of their experience.

"I have heard of him often," said Don Antonio. "He has always been suspected of smuggling across the border-not only cattle, but liquor, ammunition, and all dutiable goods."

"I should think the rurales would lock him up," said Pedro.

"They have, several times, but he has always managed to escape punishment. He has some sort of political influence, which has helped him escape."