the train to
halt for an hour or two, and during this enforced stop Dick had
carelessly wandered away on a stroll through the woods, tempted by the
beauty of the day and the novelty of his surroundings. At a turn in the
road he had suddenly found himself in the presence of twenty or more
guerillas, headed by the notorious El Tigre, whose name was spoken with a
shudder throughout Mexico. They had bound him and carried him off to
their mountain retreat. Bert and Tom, an hour later, discovered the cause
of his absence and immediately started in pursuit, determined to save
their comrade or die with him. But first they had disclosed the situation
to Melton, who had sworn in his rage to follow after them and aid them in
the rescue. How faithfully he had kept his word, how skillfully and
daringly he had led them on and rushed the camp just as Dick was steeling
himself to undergo the rattlesnake torture that the bandit chief had
planned for him, was engraven indelibly on the memories of the boys.
Until the day of their death they could never forget how the old war
horse, with everything to lose and nothing to gain, had come to their
assistance simply because they were Americans and in dire need of help.

And on Melton's part the feeling was equally warm. He had taken an
instantaneous liking to these young countrymen of his who had played
their part so gallantly. They recalled to him the days of his own stormy
youth, when he had ridden the range and when his life had depended on
his iron nerve and his quickness with the trigger. Though older than
they by forty years, they were all cut on the same pattern of sturdy,
self-reliant American manhood, and it was with the utmost cordiality that
he had crushed their hands in his strong grip and urged them to visit him
at his ranch in the Rockies. Since then he had been East on a business
trip and had been present on that memorable day when Bert, with the ball
tucked under his arm, had torn down the field in the great race for the
goal that won the game in the last minute of play. Then he had renewed
the invitation with redoubled earnestness, and promised them the time of
their lives. They needed no urging to do a thing that accorded so well
with their own inclinations, and from that time on until the opening of
the summer had shaped everything with that end in view. Now they were
actually launched upon their journey. That it held for them a new and
delightful experience they did not doub