"The captives aren't here!"

"Aren't here!" cried Bud, Nort and d.i.c.k together.

"Don't let nim fool you!" shouted Yellin' Kid.

"Order them to march out, unarmed and then we'll search their camp,"

called Captain Marshall.

Seeing that it would be useless to prolong matters, and knowing his entire band would be wiped out if he continued the fight, now that his rear was attacked, Paz growled out the necessary orders to his followers, and they came out from amid the rocks--that is those who could walk.

They were a sorry-looking lot. Always of a nondescript type, dirty, ragged and greasy, the Yaquis were even worse now, for they had been on the trail for some time, and had taken part in at least two fights.

They had had no time to recuperate since making the raid in La Nogalique.

As they filed out, miserably enough, they were pa.s.sed into a sort of hollow square, formed by the troopers, and there each Indian was searched for a hidden knife or revolver. One or two were found and confiscated amid the snarls of rage on the part of the owners, who, doubtless, meditated treachery.

Paz and his followers having been secured, a guard placed over them, and the wounded of the troopers being cared for as well as possible, search was made of the place where the Yaquis had made their stand.

Several dead Indians were found, and some so badly wounded that death was only a question of a short time. These were made as comfortable as possible, for though they were ent.i.tled to little consideration while the fight was on, matters were different after the surrender.

"But where can Rosemary and Floyd be?" was the question asked over and over again by the boy ranchers and their friends, when it was seen that the captives were not in the Yaquis camp. At first it was supposed they had been sent to the rear with the Indians who were guarding the ponies. But there was no trace of the youth and his sister who had been carried away.

Then the more sinister thought came.

"Could they have been made away with?"

No one asked this in so many words, but it was in the minds of all, and a careful search was made to disclose if the ground had been recently dug up. Nothing of the sort was found, however, and then the boy ranchers and their friends breathed more easily.

But though the main body of Yaquis had been captured the prisoners were not found. And one of the objects of the rescue party--the main object in fact--was to locate Rosemary and Floyd.

"We've got to get it out of Paz what has happened to them, if we--if we have to torture him!" declared Snake. "Can't you make him talk, Captain?"

"Well, of course we dare not, for the sake of the good name of Uncle Sam's men, resort to torture. But we can try some modern police methods--putting him through the third degree, so to speak."

"That's it!" cried Bud. "Give Paz the third degree!"

Once the prisoners were secured, the wounded attended to and the dead buried, the whole attention of the rescue party was given to locating Rosemary and Floyd. That Paz knew the secret of their disappearance could not be doubted--at least our friends did not doubt.

"Though of course," said Captain Marshall, when preparations were going on for putting Paz through the third degree series of questions, "of course there may have been several bands involved in this raid, and some other body of Yaquis may have taken away the young man and his sister."

"It was Paz, I'm sure of it!" declared Bud.

"He looks guilty!"

Certainly the Yaquis leader looked ugly and mean enough to have perpetrated this deed. But he maintained a scowling silence as he sat on the ground before his captors.

"Now, Paz," began Lieutenant Snow, who acted as interpreter, "you may as well tell the truth first as last, for we're going to get it out of you, if we have to resort to--well, you know what I mean. _Sabe_?"

"No _sabe_!" grunted the Indian.

Then the work began. It was not a pleasant task, and it was only excusable on the plea of dire necessity. The Yaquis were ent.i.tled to no mercy.

But through ft all Paz maintained a grim silence. When he did speak it was to deny that he or his followers had even seen Rosemary and Floyd, much less had they kidnapped them for a ransom.

It remained for Buck Tooth to expose the trick. The wily Indian, perhaps knowing the habits of the race he had forsaken, had been prowling about among the sullen prisoners. He openly laughed at them for the plight in which he found them, taunting them as cowards of the first water.

Then, having wrought them up to the desired pitch of anger, Buck Tooth laughed and played a trump card, so to speak. In his own way he told a group of the captives that not only had they been caught, to be sent back to Mexico there to suffer long imprisonment, but the object for which they had risked so much had been s.n.a.t.c.hed from them.

"We have the boy and girl!" boasted Buck Tooth.

This was vehemently denied and then, in a burst of anger, as Buck Tooth insisted this was so, the Yaqui blurted out the truth that Paz was endeavoring to conceal. Rosemary and Floyd had been taken away from the main body by a squad under the leadership of the Indian whom Rosemary had dubbed "Mike."

"Ugh!" grunted Buck Tooth. He had found out what he wanted to know.

The trick was discovered.

CHAPTER XXII

ANXIOUS HOURS

Paz grunted, with characteristic Indian indifference when the work of the third degree ceased, as Buck Tooth, accompanied by the boy ranchers, waddled up and made known what he had found out.

"So that's what the beggar did!" exclaimed Captain Marshall, when he understood. "He split his forces, and sent the young man and girl farther on up into the mountains. Well, it means another chase!"

"And one not so easy to make," added Snake.

"Why?" asked Bud.

"Well, the trail will be worse, for one thing, and we won't have as many men to help. Got to send a guard back with these," and he waved his hand to indicate the Yaquis who had been made prisoners.

"I'll spare as many of my men as possible," said the captain, "and as soon as I get these imps where they'll be safe for the next few years, I'll have the escort return. They'll want to see this thing through.

I'm coming with you."

"Oh, that's good!" exclaimed Nort. It was not that he did not depend on the cowboys from Diamond X, but there was something about the troopers that inspired confidence. The cowboys, too, were glad that they would have some regulars with them.

"And now let's get this story in proper shape," suggested the captain.

"Lieutenant Snow, you'll get ready to take as many men as you'll need and herd the rascals back over the border, or at least to La Nogalique.

It may be that the United States Marshal there will want to deal with them himself. In case he does that relieves you all the sooner. Get in touch with the fort when you have delivered your prisoners, and there may be orders for you."

"Yes, sir," answered the wounded lieutenant, saluting. He had no thought of quitting though he was painfully hurt.

Then Buck Tooth told what his taunts had forced from the captive Yaquis, and the whole trick was plain to the experienced cowboys and the troopers. Paz, fearing the result of keeping the captives with him, had sent them away when he learned that his pursuers were near.

How he learned that fact was one of the mysteries. How the news traveled, in that wild country, where civilized folk were often at pains to get into communication with each other, will probably never be known. But in some manner Paz had become aware of the closing in on him of the soldiers and the cowboys and he had tried to forestall their vengeance. But he did not reckon on the wiliness of Buck Tooth, whose taunts had caused the truth to be blurted out.

So, while Paz and his renegades were being sent back to pay the penalties for their uprising, Captain Marshall, with some of his picked men, and the band from Diamond X got ready to move forward again. One or two of the cowboys, who had been rather badly hit by bullets, were induced to go back for treatment. An effort made to have Bud do the same was met by a flat refusal.

"I've got one good hand!" the lad declared, holding up his left, "and I can shoot an automatic with that after somebody loads it for me."