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Once in Cuivaca they swooped down upon the drinking-place, where, with what little money a few of them had left they proceeded to get drunk. Later in the day an old, dried-up Indian entered. He was hot and dusty from a long ride. "Hey, Jose!" cried one of the vaqueros from El Orobo Rancho; "you old rascal, what are you doing here?" Jose looked around upon them.
Again Jose raised his eyebrows. "Impossible!" he ejaculated. "And who then guards the ranch?" he asked presently. "Senor Harding, two Mexican house servants, and a Chinaman," and the vaquero laughed. "I must be going," Jose announced after a moment. "It is a long ride for an old man from my poor home to Cuivaca, and back again."
To the east they heard the diminishing rifle fire of the combatants as Pesita's men fell steadily back before the defenders, and drew them away from Cuivaca in accordance with Billy's plan. "Like takin' candy from a baby," said Billy, when the flickering lights of Cuivaca shone to the south of them, and the road ahead lay clear to the rendezvous of the brigands.
Lemme have the twenty-five, an' you hang around the edges with the rest of 'em 'til I'm done. Whaddaya say?" Pesita was willing to agree to anything, and so it came that half an hour later Billy Byrne was leading a choice selection of some two dozen cutthroats down through the hills toward Cuivaca. While a couple of miles in the rear followed Pesita with the balance of his band.
His face wore a troubled expression which the girl could not but note. "What's the matter, Papa?" she asked, as he sank into a chair at her side. "Your self-sacrifice of last evening was all to no avail," he replied. "Bridge has been captured by Villistas." "What?" cried the girl. "You can't mean it how did you learn?" "Grayson just had a phone message from Cuivaca," he explained.
S'long an' good luck," and he started off toward the hills, Eddie Shorter at his side. Back at the ranch the Mexican vaqueros lounged about, grumbling. With no foreman there was nothing to do except talk about their troubles. They had not been paid since the looting of the bank at Cuivaca, for Mr. Harding had been unable to get any silver from elsewhere until a few days since.
"And tomorrow," continued Pesita, "I am sending him to Cuivaca. Villa has considerable funds in bank there, and this stranger can learn what I want to know about the size of the detachment holding the town, and the habits of the garrison." THE manager of El Orobo Rancho was an American named Grayson.
He had gone to the west to the little rancho of one of Pesita's adherents who had dispatched a boy to carry word to the bandit that his Captain Byrne had escaped the Villistas, and then Jose had ridden into Cuivaca by a circuitous route which brought him up from the east side of the town. Now he was riding once again for Pesita; but this time he would bear the information himself.
He found the chief in camp and after begging tobacco and a cigarette paper the Indian finally reached the purpose of his visit. "Jose has just come from Cuivaca," he said, "and there he drank with all the Mexican vaqueros of El Orobo Rancho ALL, my general, you understand.
"I have been sent, Senor Capitan," explained Jose, "by the beautiful senorita of El Orobo Rancho to tell you that your friend, Senor Bridge, has been captured by General Villa, and is being held at Cuivaca, where he will doubtless be shot if help does not reach him before tomorrow morning." Pesita was looking questioningly at Byrne.
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