"The heads of bone which command them know little beyond dancing and
how to flirt correctly," he said. "My flying column has, in the past
two days, passed from one end of the province to the other without
their being aware of it. The main part of my army is in eastern
Chihuahua, blowing up bridges and otherwise diverting their attention,
while I have come into, what you Americans call, Tom Tiddler's ground,
where I mean to pick up all the gold and silver I can. Why not?" he
demanded, with a sudden access of fury. "Is it not ours? What right
have these interlopers of Americanos here? Mexico for the Mexicans and
death to the robber foreigners!"

He brought his lean, shriveled hand down on the table with a thump that
made the lamp shake. His Latin temperament had, for the moment,
carried him away; for a flash the blaze of fanaticism shone in his
eyes, only to die out as swiftly as he regained command of himself.

"When shall we depart on this duty, sir?" asked Bob Harding, after a
brief pause.

"To-morrow. The hour I will inform you of later. Not a word of this
in the camp, remember. I can trust to you absolutely?"

"Absolutely," rejoined Bob Harding, with, apparently, not a single
qualm of conscience.

The general's eyes were bent upon the boys who had not rejoined to his
question.

"Absolutely," declared Jack, saving his conscience by adding a mental
"Not."

Bob Harding, who was sharp enough in some things, was quick to detect a
change in the manner of the three supposed soldiers of fortune as they
left the general's tent.

"Don't much like the idea of going up against your own countrymen, eh?"
he asked easily.

"No," rejoined Jack frankly, "we don't."

"Now look here, Hickey, isn't that drawing it pretty fine? Merrill and
chaps like that have practically buncoed old Diaz into granting them
all sorts of concessions, and----"

"I'm pretty sure Merrill never did, whatever the rest may have done,"
was the quiet reply.

"Eh-oh! Well, of course, it's all right to stick up for one's friends
and that sort of thing, but I guess that you chaps, like myself, are
down here to, line your pockets, aren't you?"

"Perhaps," was the noncommittal reply.

"Well, to be frank with you, I _am_. I'm down here just for what there
is in it, and if I can see a chance to line my pockets by a quiet visit
to the gold room of a mine, why, that's the mine owner's lookout, isn't
it? I run my risk and ought to have so