n, you said, was one of them, Senor Ramon?"

"Yes," rejoined another of the horsemen, "and the young brat is as
slippery as an eel. He and this Coyote Pete, as they call him, escaped
me once before in the Grizzly Pass. I have a debt to even up with both
of them."

Ramon did not mention the hidden treasure of the mission. Perhaps he
had reason to fear that to do so would be to bring the anger of General
Madero upon him, for he was now apparently posing as a patriot and an
active insurrecto agent.

"We must have him," declared Madero, in a voice that fairly made Jack's
blood run cold. Its smoothness and velvety calmness veiled a merciless
ferocity.

"We will get them, never fear, general," Bob Harding's voice could be
heard assuring the insurrecto leader; "if they escape now, it will mean
the ruination of all our plans."

"You are right, Senor Harding," came Madero's voice; "and now, would
you oblige me by seeing if that is not a cave up there on the bank of
the gulch."

Important as absolute silence was, a gasp of dismay forced itself to
the lads' lips. From the conversation they had overheard, it was
evident Bob Harding was trying hard to cultivate favor with General
Madero. In that case, he was not likely to conceal the fact that it
was actually a cave Madero's sharp eyes had spied, or that the cavern
held the very three youths the Mexicans were in search of.

"Let's rush out and end it all," whispered Ralph, upon whom the tension
was telling cruelly.

"If you attempt any such thing, I'll knock you down," Walt assured him.
The ranch boy had taken the right way to brace Ralph up. The Eastern
lad bit his trembling lip, but said no more. Do not think from this
that Ralph Stetson was a coward in any sense of the word. There are
some natures, however, that can endure pain, or rush barehanded upon a
line of guns, which yet prove unequal to the strain of awaiting a
threatened calamity in silence and fortitude.

"Here, hold my horse," they heard Harding say to one of his companions,
"I'll soon see if that is a cave or not."

"Bah! It is nothing but a hole in the ground," scoffed Ramon, "we are
wasting time, my general."

"Not so," retorted Madero. "I mean to have those boys, if we have to
turn over every stone in the valley for them."

"Ye-ew bate," drawled Rafter, who was one of the searching party, with
his two companions, "I've got a word ter say, by silo, ter ther boy who
used my name."

"I gue