, but unless captured at once would be gone forever.

"I know that pig of a sergeant,--may the flames of hell envelop him
for all eternity!" he cried. "He will not scruple to do as he says. He
will cast every package into the seething furnace. _Mira!_ Look; the
shed is now all ablaze. In one minute the roof of the rancho will
burst into flame. There is not an instant to lose. I adjure you let
the daughters of Harvey, the son, the men come out at once; swear to
them safety, honor, protection. Let them go their way now, now. Then
you will have to deal with only two or three, and the treasure is
ours. Look you, Sanchez, Pedro, Jose, down with that shed next the
rancho! hurl it, drag it down so that its fire cannot reach the brush
beyond, then we can parley, we can win their ear. They will be but too
glad to be spared to go on their way unharmed. Yonder are their mules
across the corral. Hitch them in at once. Save the others for the
ambulance and the buck-board here, and for our noble chief. Is it not
so, capitan? Am I not right?"

Approving murmurs followed his fiery words. So long as the Yankees
held together there was little likelihood of the outlaws gaining the
ground except by burning out, and that now meant the destruction of
the very money they were after, the utter loss of the fortune that,
divided even among so many, would enable them to live like princes in
Hermosillo or beyond. They would be heroes, conquerors. But if that
were lost after all their plotting, planning, labor, and crime, there
was absolutely no recompense. Even through the brain-clouding fury of
his revenge Pasqual Morales saw the sound sense of Moreno's plea. He
made no effort to check the men who ran to do his bidding and were
even now with lariats and stalwart arms dragging the props from under
the shed and letting its western end come pattering down. Within the
eastern room the dense smoke was already finding its way. The sound of
falling beams and timber only conveyed to the occupants the idea that
already the shed was in embers, and that any instant the roof over
their heads would burst into a torrent of fire. Ned Harvey's brave
spirit was taxed to the utmost. Unless relief could come and come at
once, nothing remained for him but death, nothing for those fair
sisters but a fate far worse.

At one instant he was on the point of urging the paymaster to comply
with the outlaws' demand, pledging himself and his father's fortune to
make good