Ned spun around in his saddle and looked closely. Two men were crossing an open space toward the house, taking care to keep as much as possible in the shadows. Gaining the side of the house they crept to a window and one of them reached up and pushed it. Instantly it swung open.
“Are those fellows her ranchmen?” asked Terry.
“I don’t think so,” said Ned. “That is the library window they just opened. By George, I think they’re going in that window!”
“I suppose that’s what they are opening it for,” nodded Jim.
Ned dug his heels into the flank of his horse. “Then come on,” he shouted, as the first man slipped through the window. “We’ve got to see what is going on in Senorita Mercedes’ ranch!”
CHAPTER VII
SACKETT’S RAID
They galloped down the long sloping hill rapidly, unobserved by the two men who were entering the Mercedes ranch. The second man had leaped lightly in the window and disappeared from sight. It was evident that they feared no interruptions for they did not even glance out and the party of boys arrived in the yard without having warned the men of their coming.
But once in the yard the ring of the horses’ hoofs on the hard packed soil reached the ears of the men inside the house. Two heads appeared swiftly at the window, at the same time that a candle flickered upstairs. The men, seeing the party of boys, jumped from the window with one accord.
“Sackett and Abel!” cried Don, as he jumped from his horse.
All the boys had dismounted, which was precisely the wrong thing to do, for the two men began to run swiftly for a small patch of trees and bushes which stood at the edge of the senorita’s property. Ned rushed forward and seized Sackett, who promptly felled him with a blow on the chin, while Abel kept on going and entered the grove several yards ahead of his pursuers. Sackett soon joined him, and before Terry, who was in the lead, could reach him, he had joined Abel, who was already on horseback with a second rein in his hand. Sackett tumbled into the saddle and the two men thundered away across the plains.