ay to the office
building on the veranda of which stood the four soldiers of Villa
grumbling and muttering over the absence of their prisoner of the
previous evening.

Billy Byrne stepped out into the open. The ranch foreman called aloud to
the four Mexicans that their prisoner was at the ranchhouse and as they
looked in that direction they saw him, revolver in hand, coming slowly
toward them. There was a smile upon his lips which they could not see
because of the distance, and which, not knowing Billy Byrne, they would
not have interpreted correctly; but the revolver they did understand,
and at sight of it one of them threw his carbine to his shoulder. His
finger, however, never closed upon the trigger, for there came the sound
of a shot from beyond Billy Byrne and the Mexican staggered forward,
pitching over the edge of the porch to the ground.

Billy turned his head in the direction from which the shot had come and
saw Eddie Shorter running toward him, a smoking six-shooter in his right
hand.

"Go back," commanded Byrne; "this is my funeral."

"Not on your life," replied Eddie Shorter. "Those greasers don't take no
white man off'n El Orobo, while I'm here. Get busy! They're comin'."

And sure enough they were coming, and as they came their carbines popped
and the bullets whizzed about the heads of the two Americans. Grayson,
too, had taken a hand upon the side of the Villistas. From the bunkhouse
other men were running rapidly in the direction of the fight, attracted
by the first shots.

Billy and Eddie stood their ground, a few paces apart. Two more of
Villa's men went down. Grayson ran for cover. Then Billy Byrne dropped
the last of the Mexicans just as the men from the bunkhouse came panting
upon the scene. There were both Americans and Mexicans among them. All
were armed and weapons were ready in their hands.

They paused a short distance from the two men. Eddie's presence upon the
side of the stranger saved Billy from instant death, for Eddie was well
liked by both his Mexican and American fellow-workers.

"What's the fuss?" asked an American.

Eddie told them, and when they learned that the boss's daughter had been
spirited away and that the ranch foreman was at the bottom of it the
anger of the Americans rose to a dangerous pitch.

"Where is he?" someone asked. They were gathered in a little cluster now
about Billy Byrne and Shorter.

"I saw him duck behind the office building," said Eddie.

"Co