“Not at all. I told him if he did not speak I would shoot. I did not tell him I would not shoot
if he did. You Americans are too tender-hearted.”
“I shall report the case to your superior officer,” declared Donald.
Again the captain shrugged his shoulders.
“I shall report it myself,” he said. “The man simply tried to escape and we shot him. It is the ley de fuga.”[2]
“Can such things be?” queried Adrian.
“You can see that they are,” answered Don Antonio, who had come up in time to hear the conversation. “In dealing with men of this class, when revolution is plotted on every hand, things are done in Mexico which would not be done could a stable government be established.”
“Before we are through with this band, you may wish that more of them could be thus disposed of,” declared the captain. “Remember that you have a companion in there who has not yet been rescued.”
The boys started as though they had been stung. In the excitement of the tragedy they had just witnessed Billie had passed entirely from their thoughts.
“We’re a nice pair of chums, ain’t we?” exclaimed Adrian. “No knowing what is going on inside that cave. Let’s get busy.”