So far, not a sign had they been able to detect of the insurrectos, and
their spirits rose accordingly. Gauging their direction by the sinking
sun, the fugitives struck out for the east. That, they had concluded,
would be the best general direction. Toward the east, they knew, lay
the railroad and the more cultivated part of the province. Westward
were nothing but sterile, arid plains, without water or inhabitants,
supporting no vegetation but thorny bushes and the melancholy, odorous
mesquite bush.

Halting frequently, to make sure that they were not being followed or
spied upon, the lads pushed steadily forward, climbing the opposite
slope of the gulch, and finally emerging into a close-growing tangle of
pinon and spiny brush of various kinds. Through this tangle--at sad
cost to their clothes, they pushed their way--disregarding the
scratches and cuts it dealt them, in their anxiety to get within
striking distance of their friends, or, at any rate, of the Mexican
army. From camp gossip, they knew that the regulars were devoting most
of their attention to guarding the railroad line, inasmuch as the
insurrectos had hitherto concentrated most of their attacks on the
bridges, tracks and telegraph lines.

For half an hour or more they shoved steadily forward without
exchanging more than an occasional word. It was rapidly growing dark
now, and the light in the woodland was becoming gray and hazy.
Suddenly, Jack, who was slightly in advance, halted abruptly, and
placed his finger to his lips.

It needed no interpreter to read the sign aright.

Silence!

Tiptoeing cautiously forward behind their leader, the other two lads
perceived that they had blundered upon a spot in which several horses
had been left unguarded by the search parties, while they pushed their
way on foot through the impenetrable brush. But it was not this fact
so much that caused them to catch their breaths with gasps of
amazement, as something else which suddenly became visible.

To the boys' utter dumfounding, they beheld, seated on the ground,
bound hand and foot with raw-hide--the professor and Coyote Pete! Both
looked dismal enough, as they sat helplessly there, while three
soldiers, who had been left to guard the halting-place, rolled dice on
a horse-blanket.

So intent were these men on their game, that they had laid aside their
arms, and their rifles lay temptingly almost within hands' reach of the
three lads crouching in the brush