Then, having wrought them up to the desired pitch of anger, Buck Tooth laughed and played a trump card, so to speak. In his own way he told a group of the captives that not only had they been caught, to be sent back to Mexico there to suffer long imprisonment, but the object for which they had risked so much had been snatched from them.
"We have the boy and girl!" boasted Buck Tooth.
This was vehemently denied and then, in a burst of anger, as Buck Tooth insisted this was so, the Yaqui blurted out the truth that Paz was endeavoring to conceal. Rosemary and Floyd had been taken away from the main body by a squad under the leadership of the Indian whom Rosemary had dubbed "Mike."
"Ugh!" grunted Buck Tooth. He had found out what he wanted to know.
The trick was discovered.
CHAPTER XXII
ANXIOUS HOURS
Paz grunted, with characteristic Indian indifference when the work of the third degree ceased, as Buck Tooth, accompanied by the boy ranchers, waddled up and made known what he had found out.
"So that's what the beggar did!" exclaimed Captain Marshall, when he understood. "He split his forces, and sent the young man and girl farther on up into the mountains. Well, it means another chase!"
"And one not so easy to make," added Snake.
"Why?" asked Bud.