Fortunately for Ned, the silent, thoughtful lad, he had often tried to imagine what he would do in critical junctures, and now, despite the terrible crisis, he was able to take control of his nerves.  He remembered to pull the sombrero down over his face and to keep close to the pyramid.  The shots had caused an uproar in the camp.  Men were running about, lights were springing up, and officers were shouting orders.  A single fugitive among so many confused pursuers might yet pass for one of them.  Chance which had been against him was now for him.  The wind suddenly took a wilder sweep and the rain lashed harder.  He left the pyramid and darted behind a tumulus.  He stood there quietly and heard the uproar of the hunt at other points.  Presently he slouched away in the manner of a careless peon, with his serape drawn about chin as well as body, for which the wind and the rain were a fitting excuse.  He also shouted and chattered occasionally with others, and none knew that he was the Gringo at whom the two sentinels had fired.

Ned thought to make a way through the lines, but so many lights now flared up on all the outskirts that he saw it was impossible.

He turned back again to the side of the pyramid, where he was almost hidden by debris and foliage.  Two or three false alarms had been sounded on the other side of the great structure, and practically the whole mob of searchers was drawn away in that direction.  He formed a quick decision.  He would reascend the pyramid.  And he would take with him a water supply in the canteen that he still carried over his shoulder.  He began to climb, and he noticed as he went up that it was almost the exact point at which he had ascended before.

He heard the tumult below, caught glimpses of lights flashing here and there, and he ascended eagerly.  He was almost half way up when he came face to face with a Mexican soldier who carried in his hand a small lantern.  The soldier, the only one perhaps who had suspected the pyramid as a place of refuge, had come at another angle, and there on a terrace the two had met.

They were not more than three feet apart.  Ned had put his machete back in his belt that he might climb with more ease, but he hit out at once with his clenched right hand.  The blow took the Mexican full between the eyes and toppling over backward he dropped the lantern.  Then he slid on the narrow terrace and with an instinctive cry of terror fell.  Ned was seized with horror and took a hasty glance downward.  He was relieved when he saw that the man, grasping at projections and outgrowing vegetation, was sliding rather than falling, and would not be hurt seriously.

He turned to his own case.  There lay the lantern on the stone, still glowing.  Below rose the tumult, men coming to his side of the pyramid, drawn by his cry.  He could no longer reach the top of the pyramid without being seen, but he knew another way.  He snatched up the lantern, tucked it under his serape and made for the opening which he had noticed in the side of the pyramid at his first ascent.  It was scarcely ten feet away, and he boldly stepped in, a thing that he would never have dared to do had it not been for the happy chance of the lantern.