Bud jumped Copper Bottom up a series of cat steps; Gracia's roan came scrambling behind; and then, just as the boxed walls ended and they gained a level spot, they suddenly found themselves in the midst of a camp of Mexicans--men, saddles, packs, and rifles, all scattered at their feet.
"_Buenos días!_" saluted Bud, as the blinking men rose up from their blankets. "Excuse me, _amigos_, I am in a hurry!"
"_A donde va? A donde va?_" challenged a bearded man as he sprang up from his brush shelter.
"To the pass, _señor_," answered Hooker, still politely, but motioning for Gracia to ride on ahead. "_Adios!_"
"Who is that man?" bellowed the bearded leader, turning furiously upon his followers. "Where is my sentinel? Stop him!"
But it was too late to stop him. Bud laid his quirt across the rump of the roan and spurred forward in a dash for cover. They whisked around the point of a hill as the first scattered shots rang out; and as a frightened sentinel jumped up in their path Bud rode him down. The man dropped his gun to escape the fury of the charge and in a mad clatter they flung themselves at a rock-slide and scrambled to the bench above. The path was rocky, but they pressed forward at a gallop until, as the sun came up, they beheld the summit of the pass.
"We win!" cried Bud, as he spurred up the last incline.
As he looked over the top he exploded in an oath and jerked Copper Bottom back on his haunches. The leader of a long line of horsemen was just coming up the other side, not fifty feet below him. Bud looked to each side--there was no escape--and then back at the frightened girl.
"Keep behind me," he commanded, "and don't shoot. I'm going to hold 'em up!"
He jumped his horse out to one side and landed squarely on the rim of the ridge. Gracia drew her horse in behind him and reached for the pistol in her holster; then both together they drew their guns and Bud threw down on the first man.
"Go on!" he ordered, motioning him forward with his head. "_Pr-r-ronto!_" He jerked out his rifle with his left hand and laid it across his lap.
"Hurry up now!" he raged, as the startled Mexican halted. "Go on and keep a-going, and the first man that makes a break I'll shoot him full of holes!"