“Which for some of us might prove a dangerously unhealthy journey. True, colonel, and therefore one to be avoided.” Megales stepped to the wall, spanned with his fingers a space from the floor above a joint in the masonry, and pressed against the concrete. Inch by inch the wall fell back and opened into a lower corridor of the prison, the very one indeed which led to the cell in which Bucky and his love were imprisoned. Cautiously the Spaniard’s glance traveled down the passage to see it was empty before he opened the panel door more than enough to look through. Then he beckoned to Gabilonda. “Behold, doubting Thomas!” The warden gasped. “And I never knew it, never had a suspicion of it.” “But this only brings us from one prison to another,” objected the general. “We might be penned in here as well as at the castle.” “Even that contingency has been provided for. You noticed, perhaps, where the tunnel forked. The left branch runs down to the river-wash, and by ten minutes’ digging with the tools lying there one can force an exit.” “Your excellency is certainly a wonder, and all this done without arousing the least suspicion of anybody,” admired the warden. “The wise man, my dear colonel, prepares for emergencies; the fool trusts to his luck,” replied the governor dryly. “Are we to stay here for the present, colonel?” broke in the governor’s daughter. “And can you furnish accommodations for the rest of us if we stay all night, as I expect we must?” “My dear señorita, I have accommodations and to spare. But the trouble is that your presence would become known. I should be the happiest’ man alive to put my all at the accommodation of Chihuahua’s fairest daughter. But if it should get out that you are here—” Gabilonda stopped to shrug his fat shoulders at the prospect. “We shall have to stay here, or, at least, in the lower tier of cells. I’m sorry, Carmencita, but there is no other course compatible with safety,” decided Megales promptly. The warden’s face cleared. “That is really not a point for me to decide, governor. This young American, O’Connor, is now in charge of the prison. I must release him at once, and shall then bring him here to confer with you as to means of safety.” Bucky’s eyes opened wide when Gabilonda and Megales came alone and without a lantern to his cell. In the darkness it was impossible to recognize them, but once within the closed cell the warden produced a dark lantern from under his coat. “Circumstances have arisen that make the utmost vigilance necessary,” explained the warden. “I may begin my explanations by congratulating you and your young friend. Let me offer a thousand felicitations. Neither of you are any longer prisoners.” If he expected either of them to fall on his neck and weep tears of gratitude at his pompous announcement, the colonel was disappointed. From the darkness where the ranger’s little partner sat on the bed came a deep sigh of relief, but O’Connor did not wink an eyelash.