“The trouble is,” explained Billie to himself, “he is talking Spanish, and I’m not familiar enough with the lingo to distinguish the sounds. I wish he would talk English.”
Again he advanced his position a couple of feet.
The voice was more distinct, and, as Don Rafael became somewhat excited, Billie caught the words, “carbina” and “macheté,” which he knew referred to arms.
“By George!” suddenly exclaimed Billie, in a voice loud enough for anyone near him to have heard, “I’ll bet they’re talking about running guns into the country. I’ll bet we’ve stumbled onto the very thing we came out to find. I must hurry back and tell Ad.”
Unmindful of the men below, he jumped up from his recumbent position and started to leave the rock the way he had come. In his haste, he did not notice that the spot upon which he had been reclining was covered with moss, and, as he took his first step forward, his foot slipped; he grasped frantically at the surrounding bushes, to save himself, failed in his attempt, and the next moment pitched head first off the rock.
Vainly he tried to break his fall by catching at the shrubbery. His efforts only resulted in his turning almost a complete somersault and landing head first upon the sand, in the very midst of the men upon whom he had been spying.
As he fell, he gave one cry for help, and then, as his head came into contact with the hard ground, all around him became dark, and he knew no more.
The cry for help reached his companions in the midst of an animated discussion about Mexico and
its needs, and they sprang to their feet on the instant. For just a moment they waited to hear the cry repeated, but, when it was not, Adrian threw a shell into his repeater, and started in the direction of the cry, closely followed by Don Antonio, whose greater age made him somewhat slower in his movements.
From the time the cry was heard until Adrian reached the summit of the rock, could not have been more than three minutes, but in that time the men and Billie had completely disappeared, the only thing remaining to give any idea of what had happened being Billie’s hat, which had fallen from his head in his fall, and the sound of oarlocks, which seemed to come from up the little creek.