"Now, young fellow," Sim said as soon as Don Carlos reached the ground, "you go along and tell Bill Royce to come here and help. The doctor will go on keeping watch. Then go to the other end and send Lightning here, and you take his place. He is better for work than you are."
Sim was soon joined by Royce and Hugh. He had already set to work.
"These bricks are only adobe," he said. "My knife will soon cut through them."
In a very few minutes he had made a hole through the unbaked bricks. "Señoritas," he said in Mexican, "place a chair against this hole and throw something over it, so that if any one comes it won't be observed."
The men worked in turns with their keen bowies, and in half an hour the hole was large enough for a head and shoulders to pass through.
"Now for the files, Lightning. You may as well take the first spell, as you have got them and the oil."
It took two hours' work to file through the bars. Just as the work was finished Sim said, "You had better fetch the lad, Lightning. Send him through first."
"Don't you think, doctor," Hugh said when they were gathered round the hole, "that we might get the girls off without a fight at all?"
"I doubt it," the doctor said. "The men have just gone in except two who are left as sentries, and the night is very still. They would be almost sure to hear some of us, and if they did the girls might get shot in the fight. Still, it might be worth trying. As soon as you get in, Don Carlos, begin to move the furniture quietly against the door."
All this time the girls had been singing hymns, but their prudence left them as their brother entered the room. They stopt singing abruptly and threw themselves into his arms with a little cry of joy. Almost instantly there was a loud knock at the door.