For Adrian, it was the best thing that could have happened, for it brought him to himself, and he discovered at once who the three black-faced individuals were; but it was a bad thing for the rurales. While they were indulging in their most enjoyable recreation, Don Rafael quietly withdrew into the darkness and disappeared into the opening through which Billie and Santiago had made their entrance.
[CHAPTER XIII.—A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.]
It was a couple of hours later and the Broncho Rider Boys had just seen the rurales ride away toward Presidio del Norte with their prisoners. The two hours had been spent in a vain endeavor to find Don Rafael, whose sudden disappearance and escape had taken away much of the success of the expedition. The boys had just made another examination of the cave, and were now grouped together on the water’s edge, undecided what should be their next step.
“It is certainly the most mysterious affair I ever had anything to do with,” declared Donald, “and we have solved some pretty big mysteries.”
“Right you are,” said Adrian. “I thought the mystery of the Zuni medicine man was the biggest mystery we should ever have to unravel, but this beats it.”
“What was that?” asked Pedro, who was one of the company.
“It’s most too long a story to tell now,” replied
Adrian, “but it was told in print a few months ago by a friend of ours, Mr. Frank Fowler, who wrote it into a book under the title of 'The Broncho Rider Boys Along the Border.’ I’ll send you a copy when we get back to the States. It was a mystery, all right, but we ferreted it out, hey, Don?”
“We sure did, and we must ferret this one out, too.”
“The most mysterious part to me,” said Billie, who up to this time had stood apart thinking, “is not the disappearance of Don Rafael, but the disappearance of Santiago. There is something unusual about him that I must know.”