“We tied Smirker, put him on a horse, and started to carry him to our cave. As it was rather early—we make it a point never to go in and out of the cellar during the day-time—we dismounted to wait until it should grow dark. While we were sitting in our place of concealment, Richard came down the ravine, and I knew that he was about to make another attempt to capture you. I hurried down the mountain, reached the cellar before him, held a short consultation with Juan, called Romez out of the stable to assist us, and by the time Richard arrived we had a nice little surprise in store for him. I poured a bucket of water over my head—that was to make me look as if I had just come out of the lake, you know—and Juan, who had on the same clothes he wore on the night he was thrown over the cliff, made himself hideous by putting a little red paint on his forehead. Romez perched himself upon the top of the cellar wall with my dark-lantern in his hand, which, by the aid of green cloth and a wide band of birch bark around the bull’s-eye, was so arranged that it would reflect only a narrow streak of green light; and when Richard came in Juan and I were walking across the cellar with the light shining full in our faces. He had come prepared for just such an emergency as this, and drawing his Derringers from his pocket, he fired them both at Juan; but finding that the old fellow didn’t fall as he expected he would, he threw down his weapons and took to his heels. I’ve got them now,” added White-horse Fred, drawing the Derringers from his boots. “I may have a chance to try them on Joe Hale to-night, and if I do he’ll drop. There are bullets in them this time.”
“Were there no bullets in them before?”
“Not when they were fired at Juan. You see, Richard is too much of a gentleman to do anything for himself that he can make another do for him. He thinks Ithuriel, his servant, can be trusted to any extent, but, as it happens, he is one of the best friends we have, and it is through him that we have learned so much about Richard and his doings. Richard told him to load his Derringers very carefully, adding that he wanted them to shoot something that had appeared to him the night before. Ithuriel, knowing very well what that something was, charged the pistols heavily with powder, but put in no bullets. He came straight down to Juan, and told him what he had done, and so when Richard pointed his pistols at us, we were not afraid of them. I guess now I have told—— Halloo! There he is. Come on, Julian.”
Fred, bringing his story to a sudden close, put spurs to his horse, and dashed away at the top of his speed.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE ATTACK ON THE RANCHO.
JULIAN was not long in discovering the cause of his brother’s excitement. It was a white horse which was moving along the mountain path a short distance in advance. He ran heavily as if almost ready to drop with fatigue, and carried on his back a man dressed in Mexican costume. The horse was Bob, and his rider was Pedro.