The Ring Tailed Panther acted with the greatest promptness and decision.

“We must run for it, boys,” he exclaimed in a loud whisper.  “Something, I don’t know what, has happened to warn them that we are here.  Keep your heads low.”

Still partly hidden by the palms and flowers they ran for the gate.  Cos and Veramendi fired at the flitting forms and shouted for soldiers.  Ned felt one of the bullets scorch the back of his hand, but in a few moments he was out of the gate and in the little dark alley.  The Ring Tailed Panther was just before him, and Obed was just behind.  The Panther, instead of running toward the street continued up the alley which led to a large building of adobe, in the rear of the governor’s house.

“It’s a stable and storehouse,” said the Ring Tailed Panther, “an’ we’ll hide in it while the hunt roars on through the city.”

He jerked open a door, and they rushed in.  Ned in the dusk saw some horses eating in their stalls, and he also saw a steep ladder leading to lofts above.  The Ring Tailed Panther never hesitated, but ran up the ladder and Ned followed sharply after him.  He heard Obed panting at his heels.

The lofts contained dried maize and some vegetables, but they were mostly filled with hay.  The fugitives plunged into the hay and pulled it around them, until only their heads and the muzzles of their rifles protruded.  They lay for a few moments in silence, save for the sound of their own hard breathing, and then Ned suddenly noticed something.  They were only three!

“Why, where is Urrea?” he exclaimed.

“Yes, where in thunder is Don Francisco?” said the Ring Tailed Panther in startled tones.

Urrea was certainly missing, and no one could tell when they had lost him.  Their flight had been too hurried to take any count of numbers.  There could be only one conclusion.  Urrea had been taken in the patio.  The Ring Tailed Panther roared between his teeth, low but savagely.

“I don’t like many Mexicans,” he said, “but I got to like Don Francisco.  The Mexicans have shorely got him, an’ it will go ’specially hard with him, he bein’ of their own race.”

Ned sighed.  He did not like to think of Don Francisco at the mercy of Cos.  But they could do nothing, absolutely nothing.  To leave the hay meant certain capture within a few minutes.  Already they heard the sounds of the hunt, the shouts of soldiers and the mob, of men calling to one another.  Through the chinks in the wall they saw the light of torches in the alley.  They lay still for a few minutes and then the noise of the search drifted down toward the plazas.  The torches passed out of the alley.

“Did you hear that whistle just before Cos and Ugartchea fired?” asked Ned.

“I did,” replied Obed.  “I don’t understand it, and what I don’t understand bothers me.”

The Ring Tailed Panther growled, and his growl was the most savage that Ned had ever heard from him.  The growl did not turn into words for at least a minute.  Then he said: