for the boys were hungry. But, as a matter of fact, the
food was clean, and well cooked. The two professors, whatever might be
their game, evidently insisted on adequate culinary operations.

"Sail in!" exclaimed Nort, as he smelled the appetizing odor of the hot
coffee, and what appeared to be some Mexican dish, cooked with plenty
of beans, and more red peppers than the boys cared for.

But, as I have said, they were hungry, and this is the best sauce in
the world. None of the condiments so freely used by the Mexicans was
needed, and soon there was silence in the prisoners' tent, broken only
by the clatter of knives and forks on the tin camp dishes.

Once or twice the Greaser guard looked at the boys in what Dick and
Nort both agreed, later, was a hungry style. The pot of coffee was
much more than the boys needed, though they ate up all the food. And
it was while feeling in his pockets for a toothpick that Nort's fingers
touched something which played a very prominent part in subsequent
events.

Slowly Nort drew forth a small bottle, and held it up so Dick could see
it, but so that it was concealed from the Greaser at the tent entrance.
And then Dick noted that Nort held up a four ounce flask of paregoric.
Nort had been suffering from toothache the past few days, though for
some reason it had not bothered him since he and Dick had become
"lost." Perhaps the excitement following that incident quieted the
nerves. At any rate Nort carried the bottle of paregoric with him, for
one of the cowboys had recommended that this household mixture of
opium, rubbed on the gums, would give relief.

Nort found that it did, and since then he had carried the bottle with
him, pending the time he expected to visit a dentist. He now held this
phial of paregoric up so Dick could see, at the same time pointing
first to the Greaser and then to the coffee pot.

"Now?" asked Dick, in reply to Nort's obvious statement that he
intended to administer some of the soporific to their guard.

"To-night," was Nort's answer, and then he put the bottle back in his
pocket.

Dick's eyes lighted up. He knew the effect of a large dose of
paregoric, comparatively harmless as it is in small quantities, or as
Nort used it.

Now a way seemed opened for the boys. If only they could command the
other elements necessary for success.

Nort made sure of one, by pouring out a cup of coffee, liberally
sweetening it with sugar from the barrel head