iz, and get
shot up by the rest, if you do."

"All right. I'll be good, Steve. I was only joking, anyhow. But it
ce'tainly is right funny to sit up here and watch them snake up to the
empty cabin. See that fellow with the Mexican hat? I believe it's my
jealous friend Pablo. He's ce'tainly anxious to get one Gringo's scalp.
I could drop a stone down on him so he'd jump about 'steen feet."

"There's one reached the window. He's looking in mighty careful, you
bet. Now he's beckoning the other fellows. I got a notion he's made a
discovery."

"Got on to the fact that the nest's empty. They're pouring in like bees.
Can you make out how many there are? I count nine," said Dick.

"They're having a powwow now. All talking with their hands, the way
greasers do. Go to it, boys. A regular debating society, ain't you?"

"Hello! What's that mean?" broke in Gordon.

One of the Mexicans had left the rest, and was running toward the
Corbett house.

"Gone to find whether we're on the porch with the family, up there,"
continued the young man, answering his own question.

"What's the matter with beating it while we've got a chanct?"

"I'm going to stay right here. You can go if you like, Steve?"

"Oh, well. I just suggested it." Davis helped himself to a chew of
tobacco placidly.

"Fellow coming back from the house already," he presently added.

"Got the wrong address again. They'll be happening on the right one
pretty soon."

"Soon as they're amply satisfied we ain't under the beds, or hid between
the covers of some of them magazines. Blamed if they ain't lit a lamp."

Gordon gave a sudden exclamation of dismay. A Mexican had appeared at
the back door of the cottage with a tin box in his hand.

"I'm the blamedest idiot out of an asylum," he cried bitterly. "All the
proofs of my claim are in that box. You know I brought it back from
Santa Fe with me."

"Ain't that too bad?"

Gordon rose, the lines of his mouth set fast and hard.

"I'm going down after it. If I lose those papers, the whole game's
spoilt for me. I've got to have them, and I'm going to."

"Don't be a goat. How can you take it from a whole company of them?"

"I'll watch my chance. It may be the fellow will hide it somewhere till
he wants it again."

"I'm going, too, then."

"See here, Steve. Be sensible. If we both go down, it's a sure thing
they will stumble on us."

"Too late, anyhow. They're coming up after us."

"So much the better. We'll cut