instructed those detailed to overtake the escaping
prisoner to kill him and bring back all his property. It seemed to him
an easy task for his well-mounted beef-riders, familiar with every foot
of that region, to overtake and overpower one who had already travelled
far that day, and was evidently a stranger to the country. When they
had done so he would obtain that coveted rifle. On the whole, he was
glad that one of his prisoners had made a foolish dash for liberty, and
rather wished the other would do the same thing.

But the other contented himself with denouncing the action of the
guerilla captain in bitter terms, and promising to report it the moment
they reached the Spanish lines. At all of which the latter only smiled
contemptuously.

In the mean time Ridge, lying low on his horse's neck to offer as small
a target as possible to the shots fired by his pursuers whenever they
sighted him, was uttering words of encouragement in Senorita's ear, and
she was responding with such a burst of speed that the beef-riders were
quickly left far behind. At length nothing was to be seen or heard of
them; and, believing that they had given over the chase as hopeless,
the young trooper allowed the panting mare who had borne him so bravely
to slacken her heading pace until it was reduced to a walk.

He was still in the broad Cauto valley, where the sabanetas, or open
glades of tall grasses, were interspersed with wide tracts of
impenetrable jungle and forests of palms. By these his view was
limited on every side, but he knew that the mountains among which he
hoped to find the insurgent leader lay to the southward. So he
determined to leave the road by the first trail leading in that
direction, and continue on it until he should meet some one willing to
guide him to his destination.

Having formed this crude plan, and believing that Senorita had been
allowed sufficient time to recover her breath, he began to urge her to
a better speed, but, to his surprise, she failed to respond. Neither
words nor spur served to move her from the slow walk into which she had
fallen. Such a thing had not happened since the beginning of their
acquaintance in far-away San Antonio, and the young trooper dismounted
to discover what had gone wrong.

He had not far to look, for, as he touched the ground, a red trickle of
blood caught his eye. The plucky little mare had been hit by one of
the beef-riders' shots, but had given no sign until