“Be on the lookout to-day. You are in great danger.”
“Well, what do you know about that!” exclaimed Coyote Pete. “Is it a genuine warning, I wonder, or jest a trick to keep us out of the contests?”
“Hard to say,” rejoined Jack. “Where’s that little Mexican who brought it?”
But the man on the wiry little horse had vanished and a diligent search by the adventurers failed to disclose him.
CHAPTER XV.
BY FAIR MEANS OR FOUL.
A bugle note cut short their search. It proclaimed that the start of the tilting contest was at hand. The boys, accordingly, rode up to the stand where the senorita handed each of them and the other contestants a sharply tipped lance decorated with white, green and red, the national colors.
They were then informed of the rules of the contest, which were simple. Each contestant was allowed twenty-five tries at the rings, and the one gaining the greatest number of points was to be the winner. A blow with the sawdust bag was to count one point off. As the Don finished announcing the rules, the Mexicans gave a yell and a flourish of their lances and galloped off to the starting point.