ranger.

Then the crowd parted, and through it came striding two men whose
appearance caused the white men to erupt into hoarse shouts of greeting.
One, whose hard face swiftly relaxed into a half smile of relief, was
the great chief himself. The other, whose jutting jaw suddenly dropped
and whose blue eyes opened in incredulity, was Tim--Tim, once more
strong and florid and aggressive, gripping his rifle, astounded at the
sight of his comrades standing there alive and alert. They soon learned
why.

Dropping his gun, he sprang at them with an inarticulate roar of
welcome. He wrung their hands, pounded their shoulders, laughed, cried,
swore, all at once. Then he burst out:

"Glory be! Ye're alive, homelier 'n ever and tough as tripe! We thought
ye was wiped out sure! We was all set to start in the mornin' and pull
them Red Bones to pieces. Mebbe we'll do it yet, too. How'd ye break
through? Did ye kill Sworn-off and his gang?"

"Schwandorf? Gang? Haven't seen anybody but Red Bones--though we sure
saw plenty of them," replied Knowlton. "What are you talking about?"

"Then ye missed him by about one point windage. When'd ye leave? Last
night? I bet he's there by now. Gee! Where'd ye git them girls? And
who's this guy? Great gosh! Is he the Raposy? Wal, for the love o'
Mike--"

"Tim!" broke in McKay. "What's all this about? Now wait. This is the
Raposa. These girls are Mayoruna women held prisoners by the Red Bones.
We got them last night and lit out in the middle of a general
engagement. Now open up with your news."

"Right, Cap. We got a visitor to-day--old friend of ourn--li'l' old
Hozy, the only white guy in that Peruvian crew we had. He's all dolled
up like an Injun--shaved face, tribe paint, and so on. He come through
the Injun country that way--I dunno yet how he done it, him bein' a
Peruvian and all, but he got through, and he says Sworn-off and a whole
gang of bad eggs is back here to git this Raposy guy and all the girls
they can lay hands on. He says Sworn-off's got them Red Bones workin'
for him, and you fellers must be massacreed sure by now.

"Good thing I was here when he come, or he'd be cut up and in the
stewpot. Monitaya's a good skate, but he sure is poison to anything
Peruvian, and soon as Hozy begun to try to talk he got wise and dang
near bumped him off. I got him to cool down some, and he believes Hozy's
tellin' the truth, but even at that they got Hozy tied up like a dog.
Come look at him."