No need, indeed, to tell this ruffian what would happen. At that moment the thought of what was in store for him was uppermost in his brain. His teeth grated again in a manner which made Dudley's blood run cold. He strove frantically to free his hands, and then, as if determined to make one more effort, he gave vent to a third shout, his voice rolling across the pampas. Almost instantly there came an answering call, one of those long hallos so common with the gauchos. It was repeated again and again, and then, as Dudley turned pale and swung round to face the direction from which the calls came, some twenty horsemen came into view, galloping madly towards them across the pampas.

It was Antonio's turn to grin and smile. His lips curled back from his fine white teeth, and he glared away at the oncoming horsemen and then at his captor with such a malevolent expression that Dudley shivered. He was caught. The tables had been suddenly turned, it seemed, and already flight was almost out of the question. Still, while there was life there was hope, and at once, gathering up the reins again, he set the horses in motion, and, swinging them round, set off at a rapid gallop, determined to escape himself if it were possible, and to carry his prisoner with him.

CHAPTER XX
BROUGHT TO BOOK

"Hallo! Hallo! Stop there! Dudley! Harold!"

It was no ordinary man who sent those words rolling over the moonlit pampas, but a giant, possessed of lungs as powerful as a blacksmith's bellows. There could be no mistaking the voice, and in a second Dudley was pulling frantically at his reins, shouting back with his head turned as much as possible, while hope, the certainty of succor and of safety, sent the blood rushing through his veins. His spirits went up with a jump. In an instant what had seemed a desperate position was entirely changed. Mr. Blunt was there, riding swiftly after him, for no one else on the pampas possessed such a voice.

"Halt! If you are a friend, halt at once; if an enemy, halt all the sooner."

As if to impress the fugitive, a sharp crack resounded some way behind, and a pistol bullet whizzed high overhead.

"Whoa! Pull up, boys! Steady! There, stand like that, or you will shake the life out of our friend here. Ahoy! Mr. Blunt! It's Dudley!"

Sitting as high as was possible in the absence of a saddle and stirrups, Dudley waved one free hand deliriously in the air and shouted at the pitch of his voice. He was frantic with excitement. A huge weight of trouble seemed to have fallen from his young shoulders in the space of a few seconds, for he knew that he himself was secure now, and, more than that, that his comrades lying in their trenches in the forest were also secure. But how was it that these horsemen had so suddenly appeared, for Mr. Blunt's estancia was many miles away? What had brought them out across the pampas, and in the dead of night? Dudley shouted again, and then, turning his horses, rode back towards the newcomers, his free hand now gripping his prisoner's shoulder. For Antonio had collapsed. His brain, still somewhat muddled by the crushing blow which Dudley's pistol had given him, had nevertheless rapidly discovered the real condition of affairs. Hardly a minute before, a sardonic grin, the grin of a man who has triumphed, had made a naturally repulsive face perfectly hideous. He had even gone to the length of taunting his captor. But now, when he realized that his hopes were gone, that he was more than ever a prisoner, and that there could be but one end, this cold-blooded rascal, who had infested the pampas, who had caused ruin to many estancia owners, and who had never forgotten some stupid grudge which he owed Mr. Blunt, collapsed and became unconscious again. He fell forward on to the horse's neck and lay there, with his head dangling towards the ground. However, before Mr. Blunt and the gauchos had ridden up, the prisoner was conscious again and sitting up. But his was not the pose of a man in the best of spirits. The rascal's courage was gone at last. He sat his mount as if some huge weight were crushing his shoulders, and his cruel and twinkling eyes looked furtively at his captor and then at the figure of the foremost of the newcomers.