veled in blood and tears.
He was a master of devilish ingenuity. The shrieks of the victims were
his sweetest music. He was, morally, a cross between an Apache Indian
and a Chinese executioner. There were whispers of babies roasted in
ovens, of children tortured before the eyes of bound and helpless parents
until the latter became raving maniacs, of eyes gouged out and noses cut
off and faces carved until they were only a frightful caricature of
humanity. His band was composed of scoundrels almost as hardened as
himself and with them he held all the nearby country in terror. Rewards
were out for his capture dead or alive, but he laughed at pursuers and so
far had thwarted all the plans of the Government troops.

And this was the man into whose hands Dick had fallen. The boys had
wondered why the bandit, if he meant to kill Dick at all had not done so
at once. Melton shook with rage as he thought that perhaps he knew the
reason. Perhaps at this very moment----

But such thoughts unmanned one, and, hoping that Providence would prove
kinder than his fears, he resolutely turned his mind in other channels.

And there was plenty to think about. He had been engaged in many
dare-devil adventures in his varied life, but, as he admitted to himself
with a smile half grave, half whimsical, there were few that he
remembered so desperate as this. He did not underrate the enemy. Like
most Western men, he had a contempt for "greasers," but he knew that it
was not safe to carry that contempt too far. An American, to be sure,
might tackle two or three Mexicans and have a fair chance of coming out
winner, but when the odds were greater than that his chances were poor.
But in this case the odds would probably be ten to one or more. Then,
too, these were men whose lives were forfeit to the law--double-dyed
murderers who could look for nothing but a "short shrift and a long rope"
if they were captured. They would fight with the fierceness of cornered
rats. Moreover, they would be on the defensive and in a country where
they knew every foot of ground and could seize every advantage.
Altogether the outlook was grave, and it speaks volumes for the character
of the man that his spirits rose with danger and he would have been
bitterly disappointed if he were cheated of the promised fight.

Absorbed in his thoughts, the night passed quickly, and as the first ray
of light shot across the eastern sky, he roused the boys from slumber