They had made their way about a mile down the mountain side when an officer stepped out of the bushes in front of them and saluted O'Connor.
"Well, what is it?" asked the captain in Spanish.
"A scout has brought in a prisoner."
"Who is he?"
"A boy. He is apparently faint from exhaustion."
"A boy?" said O'Connor, wonderingly. "I wonder if they can have escaped?" He repeated the man's words to Mason who despite his own fatigue, leaped and capered wildly.
"It's Hal Hamilton, I'll bet," he said joyfully. "They must have escaped. Trust Hal to fool the Dons."
"He knows the countersign and your name, sir, and he keeps repeating them in a dazed way. That's why the captain thought you might want to see him."
"I guess it's one of the boys all right, but I wonder where the other is. If I know them as I think I do one would not leave without the other. Where is he?" he asked turning again to the man.
"About a mile below, sir. We found him lying in a little clearing."