“Thank goodness!” she exclaimed to herself. At least they could see where they were going now. It would be safer traveling for José, too. But where was he? Would they meet him soon? But if they did, what would the boss do to him? He might treat him as badly as he had the peon.
Even as she was wondering, José was struggling up a steep bank not far below the cave. In his haste to get back to the girls he had, Indian fashion, left the trail and had struck straight up the mountain side, scaling almost perpendicular rocks and pulling himself up by anything that offered a finger hold.
Just before reaching the rocky ledge under which he had left the girls and the horses, he heard a wailing sound that made him stop as rigid as if frozen. Who was that? What was the matter? The señoritas! He must get to them at once.
Cautiously but rapidly he crawled up to the ledge. As soon as he saw there was no sign of the girls or the horses there, his eyes widened in horror. What had happened to them? That cry—but that was a man’s voice.
All at once it flashed through his mind that it might be the very man he had been hunting. Was Carlitos there with him? The señoritas——
Just then the cry, half wailing, half groaning, sounded again.
Silently José started in the direction of the cry. That might be only a trap, and he must not be caught.
When he neared the cave he saw through the opening the dying embers of a fire. By its faint glow he could make out the figure of a man struggling and rolling about on the ground.
As soon as José saw that the man was tied and that there was no one else in the cave, he called out, “What is your trouble? Who are you?”
At the sound of José’s voice the man instantly stopped struggling. “Come and release me! Release me!”