“Here, Billie,” called Don, “you take my Marlin and defend yourself to the last. How are things fixed down there?”
“Santiago can tell you better than I,” was the response. Whereupon Santiago explained to Donald the exact condition in the cave.
It appears that when the men who had captured Guadalupe took her before Don Rafael, he was filled with joy, and ordered that she should be kept with the greatest care.
“She will prove another and most valuable hostage,” he declared, and at once ordered her locked up in the same cell with Billie, which was the only place of its kind in the cave. When Santiago objected, he ordered him locked up also.
“And here we are,” explained Santiago. “There is but one door into the cell, and that very narrow, so now that we have two weapons, for I still have my revolver, we can prevent anyone from coming in. The only way they could get us out is to starve us out, which, of course, is impossible now that you are here.”
The information was received with great thankfulness by the rescuing party. In his attempt to make the escape of his prisoners impossible Don
Rafael had put them in the one spot where, under the changed conditions, they were comparatively, if not perfectly, safe.
Very briefly Don whispered the proposed plan of attack to those within the cave, closing with an injunction to Billie to be on the alert and to make every shot count if the smugglers should attempt to force the entrance.
“And here’s something to keep up your courage,” he added, throwing into the cell the luncheon which had been given him when he left the Hacienda del Rio that morning. “You see, I remembered your failing.”
While this conversation had been going on, the rurales to the number of half a hundred, guided by Pedro, had arrived, and arrangements were at once perfected for an attack upon the smugglers’ stronghold.