"It's the jumping-off place, I reckon," said Crosby, "and they've
brought us here to show us how small is our chance of getting away.
But," he added, turning towards the plateau again, "what are they doing
now? 'Pon my soul! I believe they're going off--and leaving us."

The others turned as he spoke. It was true. The dragoons were coolly
galloping off the way they came, taking with them the horses the
Americans had just ridden.

"I call that cool," said Crosby. "It looks deuced like as if we were to
be left here to graze, like cattle."

"Perhaps that's their idea of a prison in this country," said Banks.
"There's certainly no chance of our breaking jail in that direction,"
he added, pointing to the desert; "and we can't follow them without
horses."

"And I dare say they've guarded the pass in the road lower down," said
Winslow.

"We ought to be able to hold our own here until night," said Brace, "and
then make a dash into Todos Santos, get hold of some arms, and join the
ladies."

"The women are all right," said Crosby impatiently, "and are better
treated than if we were with them. Suppose, instead of maundering over
them, we reconnoitre and see what WE can do here. I'm getting devilishly
hungry; they can't mean to starve us, and if they do, I don't intend to
be starved as long as there is anything to be had by buying or stealing.
Come along. There's sure to be fruit near that old chapel, and I saw
some chickens in the bush near those huts. First, let's see if there's
any one about. I don't see a soul."

The little plateau, indeed, seemed deserted. In vain they shouted; their
voices were lost in the echoless air. They examined one by one the few
thatched huts: they were open, contained one or two rude articles of
furniture--a bed, a bench, and table--were scrupulously clean--and
empty. They next inspected the chapel; it was tawdry and barbaric in
ornament, but the candlesticks and crucifix and the basin for holy water
were of heavily beaten silver. The same thought crossed their minds--the
abandoned mine at the roadside!

Bananas, oranges, and prickly-pears growing within the cactus-hedge of
the chapel partly mollified their thirst and hunger, and they turned
their steps towards the long, rambling, barrack-looking building, with
its low windows and red-tiled roof, which they had first noticed. Here,
too, the tenement was deserted and abandoned; but there was evidence of
some previous and more ambitious prepar