"Hallo!" shouted a peremptory voice. "Hallo! Hallo!"
"It's the Senor Jim," gasped Adan.
Roldan sprang to his feet. "Hallo!" he cried.
There was a heavy trampling in the chaparral, and a moment later Hill rode into view. He took off his sombrero and waved it at the boys, but did not speak until he had crossed the creek and dismounted. Then he turned and regarded them with his keen hard eyes.
"Well!" he exclaimed, "I never calkilated to see you alive agin, and that's a fact. Hed some more adventures, I presume. Look as if ye'd hed more adventures than grub."
"Indeed we have, Don Jim," said Roldan, solemnly. "Should you like to hear them?"
"Should I? Well, I guess. You and your adventures have kinder made me feel young once more."
Roldan told the painful story.
"Holy smoke!" exclaimed Hill, in conclusion, "you are tough! And two mirages in the bargain. I was lost on Mojave once, and to my mind the mirages was the wust part of the hull game."
"What do you mean?" asked Roldan. "What are mirages?"
"Mirages, Rolly, are what ought to be and ain't, what you want and can't git, and they bear a hell-fired resemblance to life. I see you don't quite understand. Well, that there beautiful city and that there beautiful lake was what we call mirage for want of better name!" And he explained to them the meaning of the phenomenon, as far as he understood it.
"We have certainly learned a good deal since we left home," said Roldan, thoughtfully.
"There's room for more. There's room for more. Now, I suppose you'd like to know how I come here. Wall, I've got a confession to make fust, and seein' as you've been so nigh to death in the last few days, p'r'aps you'll furgive me. The day after you left I went down to see the priest, as agreed. I found him--well, I don't know as I'll tell everything, not even to excuse myself. It's enough to say that he was half luny between fear and remorse. He told me--I suppose he'd got to that state where he had to tell somebody or bust--about leavin' you in the tunnel to die, and bein' willin' after to kill you with his own hands--he was that mad.
But he felt terrible sorry, and said that if you told on him it would serve him right; only that would mean ruin--ruin--ruin--a terrible word, young man. And he's not a day over forty and calkilates to git out of Californy with that there gold and be a big-bug in his native land. I hesitated some time, fur I ain't no slouch at keepin' a promise; but in the end I had to tell him. Why, a man's a criminal if he don't put another man out of misery when he kin--"
"You did quite right," interrupted Roldan. "I am glad that he was punished, but I would not have any one punished for ever."
"Well, I'm glad you feel that way. He felt good, I kin tell you that. He looked ten years younger in five minutes, for he said as how he knew you'd keep your word. I went straight off and managed to have a word with young Carrillo. It warnt no trouble to make him promise to keep his mouth shet; he's more afraid of the priest than he is of his father's green-hide lariat, and that's sayin' a heap. When I went back to the Mission I told the priest that I thought as how I'd go on to Ortega's, and see if you got there all right. When I got there and heard as how you hed crossed the mountains in a terrible storm I just hed to go on. I made straight for old Sanchez', who has a hacienda and raises grapes just this side of the river. He was drunk as usual, but his servants hedn't seen nothin' of you, and then I was seriously alarmed. That was at night, and I couldn't do nothin' until daylight, so I got a good sleep and the next mornin' I started for Mojave. I know it pretty well, and there was no danger of gittin' lost. At nightfall I found your horses and ponchos--the horses was dead, poor things. I slept on the desert that night, and the next mornin' rode back as hard as I could put, suspicionin' that you would have sense enough to strike west. I went round the corner of that there cactus wood, never thinkin' ye were in it, and I expect I got well to this side before you was out. When I got to this creek I rode up and down it, then crossed over, thinkin' ye might hev gone on. It was only when I saw smoke that I said to myself for the fust time: 'There they be.' And you bet it did me good, for I was powerful worried."
"Don Jim," said Roldan, "you are a kind and good man. I love you, and I will always be your friend."
"So. Well, I'm powerful glad to hear that. You ain't much like 'Merican kids, but you're pretty clever all the same, and I like ye better 'n any boy I ever know'd, hanged if I don't. Don't be jealous, sonny"--to Adan--"I like ye too--but Rolly--well!"
"You would not like Roldan half so well if it were not for me," said Adan, whose face expressed nothing.
"So. Well. Now, be ye rested? We want to git to old Sanchez' fur a good supper and a soft bed to-night."
The boys rose with alacrity. Hill bade them mount his powerful horse, and walked beside them.
