t had made it necessary for them to "size up," and
know intimately their surroundings, for use in taking moving
pictures, had sensed the location of a bubbling spring of pure
water along the road on their first visit to it. "It's right over
here; I'll get some," Blake went on.

"If you will be so kind," spoke the Spaniard, and he extended a
collapsible drinking cup.

Blake lost little time in filling it, and soon after drinking Mr.
Alcando appeared much better.

"I am sorry to give all this trouble," the Spaniard went on, "but
I have seemed to meet with considerable number of shocks to-day.
First there was the runaway, which I certainly did not expect, and
then came the sudden stop--a stop most fortunate for us, I take
it," and he glanced, not without a shudder, in the direction of
the gulch where the dead horse lay.

"And then you pulled us back from the brink--the brink of death,"
he went on, and his voice had in it a tone of awe, as well as
thankfulness. "I can not thank you now--I shall not try," he went
on. "But some time, I hope to prove--

"Oh, what am I saying!" he broke in upon himself. "I never
dreamed of this. It is incomprehensible. That I should meet you
so, you whom I--"

Once more his hands went to his head with a tragic gesture, and
yet it did not seem that he was in physical pain. The cut on his
head had stopped bleeding.

"It is too bad! Too bad! And yet fate would have it so!" he
murmured after a pause. "But that it should turn in such a queer
circle. Well, it is fate--I must accept!"

Joe and Blake looked at each other, Blake with slightly raised
eyebrows, which might mean an implied question as to the man's
sanity. Then the moving picture boys looked at Hank, who had
driven them about on several excursions before they bought the
motor cycle.

Hank, who stood a little behind the Spaniard, shrugged his
shoulders, and tapped his head significantly.

"But I must again beg your pardon," said Mr. Alcando quickly. "I
most certainly am not myself this day. But it is the surprise of
meeting you whom I came to seek. Now, if you will pardon me," and
he looked at the letter, addressed to Blake and Joe jointly--which
epistle had been handed to him after it had been picked up from
the ground.

"And were you really looking for us?" asked Joe, much puzzled.

"I was--for both of you young gentlemen. My friend the driver here
can testify to that."

"That's right," said Hank. "This gentleman came i