"All right. Me go! Bring help!" the girl whispered, and, leaping on her pony's back, she rode off to one side, getting away from the glare of the searchlight and so escaping observation.
Two minutes later the auto came up to where Bob was stretched out on the ground. Vasco leaped out before the machine had fairly stopped and made a grab for Bob.
"Dead!" faltered Noddy. He was beginning to be alarmed over the part he had played.
"Bring a light here!" commanded the Mexican.
Noddy turned the search-lamp on Bob's prostrate form. At that the boy opened his eyes. He had fainted from pain caused by his fall.
"Shamming, eh?" sneered Vasco, striking Bob a blow with a rope he carried. "Get up, now! No nonsense; you've made trouble enough!"
Poor Bob was too discouraged and felt too bad to reply. The other Mexicans rode up. In a few minutes the captive was securely bound, lifted into the auto, and, as dawn broke, the start back to camp was made.
"Don't you want Maximina?" asked Dalsett.
"Let her go," replied Vasco. "She was only a bother around, and never liked to work. She can't do any harm."
The days were full of anxiety for the professor, Jerry and Ned, who still remained in the ancient city after Bob had been kidnapped. Every night they went to bed, hoping some word would be received by morning, or that the missing one would return. Every morning they said to each other:
But nothing happened, and, as day after day went by, they began to lose hope.
"Not yet," Jerry replied. "I am sure we will have some word from Bob soon now."
In the meanwhile, they made trips in all directions from the ancient city. But there was no trace of the Mexicans. The country was uninhabited for twenty miles in every direction from the buried place, and farther than that the travelers did not venture.
"We must be here every night," said the professor. "Somehow, I feel that Bob will come back at night, or we will hear something from him after dark. So we do not want to be away then, for if he should come, or if he should send some word, we would not be here to receive it."
For that reason little was done toward hunting for the kidnapped boy. The travelers did not go so far but that they could get back by nightfall.