Scott did not answer. In his mind, he still saw the auto with the girl in it, going toward the cabin up the canyon. Well, at all events, Juan Pachuca would not reach that cabin alive! Merriam threw the car into its full speed.
“They’ve piped us—see ’em cross the arroyo,” he said. It was true. The three riders had plunged into the depths of the arroyo and were out on the other side. They did not seem to be running away, but kept to the rapid trot which they had been riding.
“Don’t know who we are and aiming to give us the idea that they’re out for a little moonlight ride,” remarked Merriam. “This car can go, can’t she? Sam’d sure be sore if he knew I was runnin’ her like this. Why don’t we beat it up to the cabin and get the girl and let them mosey along by themselves?”
“Because we don’t know that’s where they’ve taken her,” said Scott, angrily. He concluded that Merriam had guessed right. Pachuca had no particular reason to believe that the car held his enemies, or even that Scott and Hard knew him guilty of Polly’s disappearance. They would safeguard themselves by riding on the other side of the arroyo but they evidently did not intend to be scared out of their road to any further extent.
The car was rapidly catching up with the riders and soon things must come to a showdown. Scott fingered his gun lovingly.
“Hey, you guys, where you heading for?” demanded Merriam, loudly, as the car came almost abreast of the three. They turned as the machine slowed down to their pace. Before they could answer, Scott was out of the car and had them covered.
“Pachuca, it’s no use—we’ve got you,” he called. “Hands up!”
The two Mexicans who evidently understood little English, though the magic words, “hands up,” probably penetrated their darkness, glanced at Pachuca for orders. The latter turned his horse and rode to the edge of the arroyo. He was his usual jaunty self, a little travel worn, but not dulled.
“Señor Scott?” he asked, peering through the dusk. “What do you want?”
Scott paused for a moment, daunted by the other’s impudence.