Part 9 (2/2)
Every sound was deadened, so that they could have gone directly past the ranch houses and not even the dogs would have heard them. But the Captain was determined to take no chances, and as soon as the party were free of the canyon, he bore off toward the south, making quite a circuit.
Anybody but an experienced navigator would have been lost in the fog upon the plain, but you could not lose Captain Broom either on the high seas or the low plains. They pa.s.sed between two wooded hills, which the reader will have to take on faith as he cannot see them. Then across a gully, on the other side of which they came to a barb wire fence.
This did not stop them long, as the Captain cut it and they rode through. From the footing which was about all that could be observed, they appeared to be in a pasture land with a gentle slope towards the sea. The fog did not diminish in thickness and the boys determined to escape. Here was their chance, if they could be said to have one.
”Here's where we make a break,” said Jim to Juarez. ”Guide the mule alongside of Tom. Then we will run for it.” Jim did not say this in so many words, but he had ways and means of indicating to Juarez, who was tied directly back of him, by a sign and poke language which Juarez was quick to seize.
It seemed at every turn that his experience with the Indians was a help to him. The mule was a protege of Juarez and with a word he could guide it in any direction that he wished it to go. The fog was one thing that favored them. The Mexican could scarcely be seen and Jack Cales stalked along looking like a giant through the mist.
He had grown somewhat lax through the long march. This was the time, if ever. Jim gave Juarez the signal that all was ready. A quick word to the mule and he trotted out from his place in the column, knocking over the Mexican and before Cales was fairly awake to the situation, he was obscured by the fog.
In about two seconds he had hove alongside of the horse that the mate was on. Tom was foot-loose, and no sooner did he see Missouri's long ears through the fog, than he was ready for action.
”Jump, Tom,” urged Jim. It took only about two seconds for Tom to execute the manoeuvre.
”Halt!” roared the Captain, and he tried to turn the roan to capture the runaways, but right here, the broncho strain in the animal showed itself.
He began to buck and never in all his experience had the redoubtable Captain Broom ever been on so choppy a sea. It was hard to distinguish fog from whiskers. At the second hunch upward, the Captain shot into s.p.a.ce. The boys did not tarry to watch for his descent. A word from Juarez to the mule, and Missouri turned directly south just as Jack Cales came rus.h.i.+ng up.
”Touch him with your foot, Tom,” said Juarez, meaning the mule, not Cales. Tom's heel reached the right spot and up flew the mule's hind feet with the rapidity of a rapid fire-gun.
One foot struck Cales on the shoulder with a sufficient impact to send him down and out. The mate had been involved in the cyclone of which Captain Broom was the centre. Tom's horse, considered the gentlest of the four, had become infected with the roan's example and he started in to do a little bucking on his own account. Never since the mate had rounded Cape Horn, had he known so much action in so short a time.
The only one left was Old Pete and he came on right gallantly, but by dodging and turning they got away in the fog. After putting what they considered a safe distance between themselves and their former captors, Juarez persuaded Missouri to halt, and Tom went to work and with great difficulty first untied, then lifted, them to the ground for the boys were as stiff as boards from being tied hard and fast for so long a time.
”My, but it certainly hurts,” said Jo, stamping around in an endeavor to get the blood to circulating again. ”It's just like it used to be back home in the winter when we would go skating and get our hands numb.”
”What is the matter, Juarez?” asked Jim in alarm.
”Oh, I'm all right, I guess,” he said in a voice that sounded faint to the boys and far away to himself. Then, without warning, he fell over on the ground and stiffened out.
”It's from the blow that the greaser gave him,” said Tom. ”It would have killed him if it had struck him fair.”
”Wait until I get my hands on him,” cried Jim, significantly.
What should they do now? It was not an easy question to decide.
CHAPTER XII
THE RANCHERO
They could not desert Juarez and they could not get far with him. It was enough to stagger them and it seemed that they had reached the end of their resources.
”If it wasn't such an open country,” said Jo, ”we might hide until they had got out of range and then get to the nearest ranch.”
”If they overtake us we can stand them off,” saying this Jim reached for his revolver. To his astonishment it was gone. Then he remembered he had been disarmed by Captain Broom, and they were absolutely defenseless unless they could depend on Missouri's heels which had furnished them such active protection.
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