“I saw them from my bedroom window,” explained the boy. “Father has a long telescope, and I looked through it at the pass about two hours ago. About twenty soldiers were galloping up from Penza. I saw them get off their horses among the rocks, and some of them lighted cigarettes, as if they were going to wait.”
“Gee!” ejaculated Patsy. “We may have a scrap, after all.”
“Twenty soldiers, on horseback!” commented Chick. “Well, I’m not surprised. Are you, chief?”
“Not much,” returned Nick. “Of course, that fellow Jason has reported that I am on my way. I know Solado is in Penza, and probably Miguel has got there, too. It would be awkward for them to have Prince Marcos turn up to-day. They would do anything to prevent it, and as they have the soldiers at their command, it is the most likely thing in the world for them to try to stop me.”
“I didn’t think the soldiers were against Marcos,” remarked Patsy.
“Some of them are, evidently,” was Nick Carter’s rejoinder. “Of course, these fellows in the pass have been picked.”
“Oh, yes,” assented Patsy. “There are always some dirty hounds in every army. What are we going to do? Shoot them, I suppose?”
“We are going to break through somehow,” replied Nick sternly. “I don’t see any of them from here.”
“They’re hiding,” explained the boy. “Two of them were watching the road when I looked through the telescope a little while ago. The others were among the trees and rocks.”
“I don’t think we’d better try to push through,” advised Phillips. “The boy says there are twenty. There may be thirty. We are only four.”