In spite of themselves the boys were obliged to laugh.
"We carried the lieutenant last night, but we don't desire your company badly enough to carry you," laughed Billie. "If you don't want to go, I for one vote to leave you. We have to forage for something to eat and the fewer there are, the easier it will be. And speaking of eats, it seems to me I smell something cooking right now."
At Billie's words the others sniffed up their noses.
"It's a fact as sure as you're born," declared Donald.
"And I'm going to find out where the odor comes from," said Billie. "There must be a house around here somewhere."
Again he sniffed the air and smiled jubilantly.
"The wind's in the east," he laughed. "It must be somewhere in this direction. Come on, Captain."
The captain refused to move, but Billie led the way, followed by the two boys. They had not gone many rods when through an opening in the trees they beheld a good-sized adobe house. Pushing hastily toward it, they soon reached a cleared space, and there, gathered about a bunch of some forty or fifty horses, were a dozen men, while through the open door of the house many more were to be seen seated at a table—eating.
"Come on!" exclaimed Billie. "I'm going to have something to eat; I don't care who they are."
"We might as well make the best of it," declared Donald. "We are discovered any way and the best thing we can do is to put on a bold front."