ave
camp. The guards seem to think we couldn't find our way back. We'll
show 'em."

Without further words the boys crept out of the tent, waited until the
guards were at the other end of the little valley, and dashed away into
a shadowy place behind a rock, which they had no difficulty in leaving,
presently, without being seen.

Once away from the tents, they turned toward the high peak from which
the rockets had been sent up. The way was steep and rough, and it was
hard climbing, and more than once they stopped to rest. It was, as has
been said, a brilliant moonlit night, and, from the elevation where the
boys were, the valley below lay like a silver-land of promise.

"It is a beautiful country," the drummer said, as they paused to rest
on a small shelf in the rock. "It is a rich and fertile country, too,
one of the most desirable in the world, but I'm afraid the people don't
get much out of life here."

"They are selfish and cruel," Jimmie said, "and no nation of that
stripe ever prospered. What they need here is less strong drink and
more school-houses--more real freedom and less mere show of republican
government. We read up on Mexico in the Wolf Patrol when this trouble
broke out. We always do that--keep track of what's going on in the
world, I mean."

"I know something about the country, too," the drummer said, looking in
admiration down on the beautiful valley below, bathed in the sweet
moonlight, "and sometimes I wonder that the people are as decent as
they are. Although they have never had much of a show, and although
they come, many of them, of rude ancestors, the people of Mexico
compare favorably with those of other countries."

The boys climbed on again, mounting higher and higher, their aim being
to gain the very top of the ridge. After half an hour's hard work they
stopped and sat down, to look over the valley again.

"There are no written records of the origin of these people," the
drummer said, almost as if thinking aloud. "No one knows the origin of
the people. Cortez found them here when he arrived with his brutal
soldiers. All that is known is that the inhabitants came from the
North."

"Twice the country was populated from the North," Jimmie put in, the
readings at the Wolf Patrol club coming back to his mind. "Now I wonder
why, in reading history, we always find that invaders came from the
North?"

"I've read," the drummer went on, quite enthusiastic over the subject
in ha