CHAPTER XX

OVER THE CLIFF

Leaping into their saddles again, the three horsemen were soon pounding down the trail and away from their pursuers, who seemed to be coming on after them relentlessly.

"They must be powerful anxious to meet up with us," drawled Lazy Ike as he rode beside Nat Ridley.

"They are--for more reasons than one, I fancy," replied the detective. "It isn't altogether the row in the gambling den that makes them want to catch us, though we did put two of their men out of the running."

"Then they want you more than they do us?" asked Ike as he urged his well-going pony to a faster pace.

"That's it. And if you boys want to slide off the trail and let me lead these fellows a chase alone, don't hesitate," suggested Nat.

"What the blazes do you think we are?" snapped out Jim. "We ain't Greasers!"

"I should say not!" cried his pal. "Leavin' a buddy in the lurch ain't our style!"

"I didn't think it was," said Nat Ridley quietly. "But I thought it only fair to give you the chance."

"Well, don't give us no more chances like that," ordered Jim.

"We don't like 'em!" echoed Ike.

And the three rode on.

The two cowboys, in spite of the fact that they were rather loose livers, free spenders, and not very provident, seemed to know their business, which was riding and picking out a good trail. During the period they had been in Mexico they had made good use of their time and knew considerable about the country. It was to them, more than to anything else, that Nat Ridley owed what success he had in this trail after the double dagger gang.

The one and only thing in favor of the detective and the two cowboys was that they had better horses than those ridden by the men who had come out of the black cave.

"What I think is this," said Nat when his two companions asked him how he "figgered out" the gang got to the cavern ahead of them. "The crowd in the gambling joint must have known that you two boys were in the habit of hiding in that cave. Then when you lit out with me, they naturally reasoned that we'd make for here. They must have taken a short cut to get here ahead of us."

"There ain't no short cut!" declared Ike.

"If there was we'd 'a' taken it," added Jim. "Most like they pushed their horses on hard to beat us, an' that's why the ponies ain't goin' so fast now."

"Perhaps," admitted Nat.

"That's it, sure!" declared Lazy Ike. "An' lucky we kept our mounts pretty fresh. Well, we're sure runnin' 'em now," he added, and, indeed, it was calling on all the reserve in the ponies to make them trot along the trail which now led upward.

But luck was still with the trio in advance, and it was not long before they had distanced their pursuers and could pull up their ponies for a breathing spell, which was badly needed. The three men dismounted and picketed the animals in a little glade, where Ike found a spring. But the heated horses were not allowed to drink at once, though it was with the utmost difficulty they were held back until they had cooled off a bit.

Then when they had been allowed to slake their thirst and the three were resting, Nat Ridley told a little more about himself and his mission in Mexico.

"Besides being on the trail of the murderers of the three Lemberg men and my friend Dan Steele," said the detective, "I want to save a girl they kidnapped."

"A girl!" exclaimed the two cowboys.

"Yes, a Miss Cora Ardell," and Nat related the finding of the girl in the dungeon, being beaten by a Negress, and how the two had escaped.

"But they kidnapped her, right out from under my nose, you might say," went on the detective. "It wouldn't do my reputation much good to have that generally known," he admitted, with a wry smile. "But it happened, worse luck. And except for the fact that Miss Ardell left a scrawl, indicating that the scoundrels had brought her to Rolamotaza and of some things she told me in the States, I wouldn't know where to look, though I might have picked up the trail later."

"You say that pretty girl is here?" asked Ike, and, unconsciously, he began to knot his neck handkerchief more carefully.

"I think she was brought to that Mexican town," went on Nat. "But I had no chance to look for her before that row in the saloon started, and we've been kept on the jump ever since."

"On the jump is right," admitted Ike. "But I think we'll get to Indian's Nose soon, and then we can laugh at 'em."

"I'm not so sure of that," said Jim. "But we'll have a better chance, anyhow. Why are those Tola devils after the girl?" he wanted to know.

"She owns a share in the oil wells the Mexicans want to get back," stated Nat. "She was also the secretary of her cousins, the Lembergs, and she may have certain papers which, if the rascals could get them, would aid them in regaining possession of the wells. And now they have Miss Ardell in their power again, and I don't know how to help her."

"Just wait," advised Jim. "Soon as we can give these fellows the slip we'll swing around, cross over the Border, and get a posse of good old cowboys who'll come back and clean out this gang."

"I wish that might happen," replied Nat Ridley. "But I'm afraid we'll have a lot of trouble and be in some danger before that comes to pass. These fellows are as cruel and relentless as their ancient Aztec ancestors."

They pushed on to such good advantage after their rest, during which Nat took occasion to ask his new friends to send word to the Times Square office should the detective be killed and the others escape, that when night came they were in a lonely region, where many trails crossed and the cowboys gave it as their opinions that the pursuers could never follow.

"They can't pick out which trail we took not even if they had a detective like you, Mr. Ridley, to help them!" declared Ike.

"Not in a thousand years!" agreed Slim Jim Burke.

"So much the better for us," said Nat.

That night they slept in the barn of another Mexican farmer, for whose benefit, should he be questioned later, they used false names and talked of searching for a stray bunch of horses. At the farmer's house they bought food and ate heartily.

The night was one of anxiety because, in spite of the confusion of trails, it was possible that Don Castro and his crowd might come upon them. Nat explained his previous encounters with this one of several plotters, and also mentioned El Capitan.

"We've heard of him," said Ike.

"And no good, either," added Jim.

However, the night passed peacefully, and in the morning, after a hearty breakfast and having purchased a supply of food to last for several days, they again took the trail.

Several times at favorable places during the forenoon they stopped to look back and also to listen, but they neither saw nor heard any signs of pursuit and they began to feel that they had distanced their enemies.

It was just getting dusk when Slim, who was riding in advance, gave a shout that sent the blood pumping faster into Nat Ridley's heart.

"What is it?" called the detective anxiously.

"Indian's Nose," was the reply. "We're there!"

A little later the three rode out on a mesa, which made a good place to camp and also, because of the nature of the country, afforded a long outlook to the south, whence pursuit, if any, must come.

"What's to the north?" asked Nat, as they prepared to camp for the night in a little grove of trees.

"The jumpin' off place," answered Ike.

"He means the mesa ends there, and there's a high cliff as straight as a chimney that drops down to the trail at the foot of the mesa," explained Jim.

"Oh," mused Nat. "Well, I hope we aren't chased off this plateau."

"Not much danger, I reckon," said Jim. "They won't find us here."

The night passed peacefully, and they were just finishing breakfast the next morning when Ike, who had gone to see that the horses were all right where they had been picketed, came running back, much excited and shouting:

"They're coming!"

"Who?" asked Nat.

"Don Castro's gang or somebody he's sent after us! They're comin' up the gully, and if we want to get past we've got to fight!"

Hardly had he spoken when around a bend several horsemen appeared, many of whom carried rifles or shotguns. Not expecting the approach of the enemy so soon, the three had not begun to keep a watch, and the Mexicans had stolen up on them in the darkness of the early morning hours.

The mesa, though elevated, was long and narrow, like a nose, after which it was named, and the approach to the camping place of Nat and the cowboys was through a gully, so narrow that not more than three could ride abreast. Now this defile was fairly choked with the approaching horsemen.

"What are we going to do?" asked Ike, as he saw the desperate nature of their chances.

"Fight 'em!" snarled Slim Jim Burke.

"They'd wipe us out!" murmured Nat Ridley. "I'm no coward, as I guess you know," he went on, while the others exclaimed:

"We'll say you aren't!"

"But it would be madness to ride at them in that narrow place," went on the detective. "We might shoot our way through, but, more likely, one or all three of us would be riddled. And I don't want to pass out before I've saved that girl and made the Tola gang pay some of their debts."

"Then what'll we do?" asked Jim.

"How high is that cliff?" asked Nat.

"Too high to jump down, and no pony could slide it," said Ike.

"I don't intend to jump, and we'll have to abandon the horses," went on Nat. "But I guess it isn't too far to get over by using our lariats, is it?"

"The ropes! By jingo, I never thought of that!" cried Ike.

"We can do it!" exclaimed his pal. "And they can't follow, for I don't believe there's a rope in their outfit. They aren't cattlemen. By thunder, Mr. Detective, you've struck it!"

"We'll go over the cliff!" exulted Ike.

"Fasten the ropes together then," advised Nat, drawing his automatic, and dropping down behind a rock.

"What are you going to do?" asked Jim.

"Give 'em a few shots to hold 'em back until you can make ready," was the answer. "If they rushed us at the last minute we wouldn't have a chance. But I think the bushes will screen our movements until we are ready. Hop to it now, boys!"

The cowboys ran to get their ropes from their saddle horns, and soon came back with the three lariats. Ike stopped in his tracks and exclaimed:

"But look here, Mr. Ridley! We got to shinny down these ropes, you know! Nobody can't lower us. And when the last man is down the ropes will still be hangin' to whatever we fasten 'em to."

"That's so," added Jim, for a moment discouraged. "I never thought of that. We'll have to leave the rope for these devils, an' they'll come down after us."

"No they won't!" declared Nat. "We'll use a double rope, putting the turn of it around that stunted tree on the edge of the cliff. When we are all three down we'll pull one end of the rope and it will slide off and fall down. We won't leave any for them to use."

"By thunder, I never thought of that!" gasped Ike. "Come on, Slim!"

A moment later the two were preparing the way of escape over the cliff while Nat Ridley, kneeling behind a clump of bushes amid the rocks, began firing on the horsemen who were urging their steeds up the rocky defile.

Could he hold them back long enough? That was what Ike and Jim were wondering as they hurriedly knotted together the three strong lassoes.