The Broncho Rider Boys with Funston at Vera Cruz | Page 9

it
sprang away and stationed itself some two rods distant, where it sat

watching with the weapon aimed directly at him.
For perhaps five minutes the two retained their relative positions and
then Billie began to regain consciousness. Several times he moved
uneasily and then he suddenly sat up and looked around.
"I wonder what happened," he finally thought, and then he became
conscious of a pain in his head.
He raised his hand to the aching spot and his fingers encountered a big
lump.
The truth came upon him like a flash. He dropped his hand to his
holster, and sprang to his feet.
As he did so he caught sight of the ape and found himself looking into
the business end of his own weapon.
With a yell he dropped to the ground as though the expected had
happened.
But when no shot followed, he began to regain his wits and lay still
trying to figure out once more just how much the ape might know
about the use of the weapon.
He remembered the old saying that a gun was a dangerous weapon
without lock, stock or barrel, because a man killed his wife with the
ramrod; and so he figured that an animal which had intelligence enough
to throw a stone and knock him senseless, might have sense enough to
fire a revolver.
"If I only knew something about his history," soliloquized Billie, "I
might be able to guess how much he knew. But he is a perfect stranger
to me. I don't even know his name."
After several minutes and nothing had happened, Billie decided to
make some effort to get away.
"I might as well be shot as to be prisoner to an ape," he thought, and so

he arose to a sitting posture and surveyed the scene.
There sat the ape as before, with the automatic pointed at Billie, but
with a puzzled look upon its face. When the lad finally arose, the ape
appeared still more puzzled and at length, turning the weapon away
from Billie, looked into the muzzle.
"That settles it," exclaimed Billie. "He doesn't know how to fire it. I'll
go and take it away from him."
He started toward the animal, which at once pointed the revolver in
Billie's direction. There came a sharp report and a bullet whizzed by the
boy's head.
"Worse and more of it," exclaimed Billie. "He doesn't know how to use
the thing, but he's liable to shoot me as long as I stay in range. I'll just
make myself scarce."
Stooping down, he picked up a good-sized stone and hurled it at the ape
and then, without waiting to see the result of his throw, jumped into the
jungle which lined both sides of the track, determined to make a detour
and if possible lose his unpleasant companion.
He had not run far before he realized that the ape was following, but
this he did not mind. There were plenty of trees between them, and he
felt sure he would soon be able to reach some sort of a habitation, when
he suddenly found himself on the edge of a deep basin into which he
plunged before he was able to gain his equilibrium.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ROSARIO VIEJO.
To be suddenly pitched head-foremost down a rocky declivity into a
mass of prickly pear bushes and other tropical brambles is by no means
pleasant; and as a result Billie was not in the best of humor when he
picked himself up and looked to the top of the 60-foot embankment
down which he had slid.

"It's a wonder they wouldn't hang out a red light when they dig a hole
like this," he declared angrily, "and not let a fellow most break his neck,
to say nothing of scratching his eyes out! This is worse than a subway
cave-in."
He pulled himself together and surveyed his surroundings.
The basin looked very much like an old quarry--so old that the
shrubbery on the sides had grown into good-sized trees, and the whole
place was covered with herbage of one sort or another. In one corner of
the excavation, which must have covered some two acres, there was the
ruin of an adobe house, while near the center was a stone structure
made of four stone pillars about twenty feet apart and roofed over with
two huge stone slabs, set so as to form a gable roof. Except for its size,
it had the appearance of the old-fashioned well houses, which were
once so common in New England.
"It's a tough-looking place, whatever it is," was Billie's comment. "I
wish the fellows were here."
And then for the first time in more than half an hour Billie bethought
him of his companions. His strange experience with the