boys' hearts beat high with hope as they neared the ledge, and
Johnny was in the very act of reaching over to give Frank an approving
slap on the back, when the movement was arrested by a loud yawn behind
him. This was followed by an ejaculation of astonishment, and, an
instant afterward, the report of a pistol rang through the glade. The
sentinel had just awakened from his sleep, and discovered that the
prisoners' blankets were empty.

"Help! help!" he shouted, in stentorian tones, discharging another
barrel of his revolver, to arouse his companions. "Pierre, your birds
have flown!"

"Run now, fellows!" whispered Frank, and, suiting the action to the
word, he jumped up, and took to his heels.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE STRUGGLE ON THE CLIFF.

As we have before remarked, the place in which the Rancheros had made
their camp was a natural recess in the mountains. It was surrounded on
three sides by rocky cliffs, the tops of which seemed to pierce the
clouds, and whose sides were so steep that a goat could scarcely have
found footing thereon. In front of the glade was the gorge, the sight of
which had so terrified Arthur Vane, and which was so deep that the roar
of the mountain torrent, that ran through it, could be but faintly heard
by one standing on the cliffs above.

There were three ways to get out of the glade: one was by the narrow
ledge of rocks by which the Rancheros and their captives had entered it
in the morning; another was by a path on the opposite side of the glade,
which also ran along the very brink of the precipice; the third was by
climbing up the cliffs to the dizzy heights above. These avenues of
escape were all more or less dangerous, and one unaccustomed to
traveling in the mountains would have been at a loss to decide which to
take. Indeed, a very timid boy would have preferred to remain a prisoner
among the Rancheros, as long as he was sure of kind treatment and plenty
to eat, rather than risk any of them. If he took either of the paths
that ran along the chasm, he would require the skill of a rope-dancer to
cross it in safety; for they were both narrow and slippery, and a single
misstep in the darkness would launch him into eternity. If he tried to
scale the mountains, which, in some places, overhung the glade, he would
be in equal danger; for he might, at any moment, lose his balance, and
come tumbling back again.

Frank and his two friends had thought of all these things during the
da