"Is he far from here?" he asked.
"No, not de very far. You come to heem? Mebbe you do for heem some good. Weel you come?"
She had her brown hands clasped and was looking most beseechingly into Frank's face.
"Of course I'll come," he said. "You shall show me the way. My horse will carry us both."
He assisted her to mount behind him, and told her to cling about his waist.
Frank continued to question Gonchita, who sometimes became almost unintelligible in her excitement and distress. They passed through the valley and turned into a rocky gorge. Frank asked if it was much farther.
"We be almost to heem now," assured Gonchita.
Almost as the words left her lips the heads of four or five men appeared above some boulders just ahead, and as many rifles were leveled straight at Frank's heart, while a well-known, triumphant voice shouted:
"I've got you dead to rights, Merriwell! If you tries tricks you gits soaked good and plenty!"
At the same moment the girl threw her arms about[Pg 106] Frank's body, pinning his arms to his sides, so that he could make no move to draw a weapon.