CHAPTER XXV—HOW WAS IT DONE?
CHAPTER XXV.
HOW WAS IT DONE?
What had happened to Dick? Intentionally he had permitted Felicia to keep the lead in the race through the chaparral. It is possible he might have overtaken her had he tried. He had no thought of danger, and he was wholly unprepared when out from the shadows of the chaparral shot a twisting, writhing coil, the loop of which fell over his shoulders and jerked him like a flash from the saddle. The shock, as he struck the ground, drove the breath from his body and partly stunned him. Before he could recover he was pounced upon by two men, who quickly dragged him into the edge of the thicket, where a third man—a half-blood Mexican—was coiling the lariat with which the boy had been snatched from the horse’s back.
These men threatened Dick with drawn weapons.
“Make a sound or a cry, kid,” growled one of them, “and we sure cuts you up!”
The boy’s dark eyes looked fearlessly at them, and he coolly inquired:
“What’s your game? I have not enough money on me to pay you for your trouble.”
“Ho, ho!” laughed one of the trio. “We gits our pay, all right, younker. Don’t worry about that. Tie his elbows close behind him, Mat. Mebbe we best gags him some.”
“No, none of that,” declared the one called Mat. “If he utters a cheep, I’ll stick him sure.”