“If we were sure the information wouldn’t leak out,” was Capt. Peak’s reply; “but there is too much revolution in the air right now to know whom to trust.
“No,” after a pause, “we’ll play this game alone,” and turning his horse to the north, he started by a circuitous route for town, closely followed by the boys.
“I’m glad we’re this side the river,” said Billie as they rode along. “I seem to have more faith in the Rangers than in the Rurales.”
[CHAPTER XVII.—A MEETING OF REVOLUTIONISTS.]
Midway between the Hacienda del Rio and the hacienda of Don Pablo Ojeda, near the source of the little mountain stream across which the Broncho Rider Boys chased the horse thieves in recovering old Bray, there stands an old mill. When built, or by whom, not even the oldest inhabitant of that region can remember. It is made of rock quarried out of the mountain side; and although the water wheel has long since gone to decay and the millstones have fallen into their beds, the walls of the building remain intact.
To be sure there is no roof on the building, but the heavy oak rafters, cut from trees on the mountain side, are reasonably strong, and, covered with a wealth of tropical foliage, form sufficient covering for one who is accustomed to the outdoor life of these regions.
Into this ancient structure, on the afternoon of the same day on which Capt. Peak and his young comrades discovered the rifles of the gun-runners,
four men might have been seen to enter. Three of them were strangers. The fourth was the missing Don Rafael.
That they had no fear that they would be seen, was evidenced by the open manner in which the strangers dismounted from their horses and threw their bridle reins to their accompanying servants.
Of the three one had a decidedly military bearing while the others bore evidence of being well-to-do landowners.