With a wave of the hand he dismissed the guard; the men went straggling back to their quarters; the group of Indians, puzzled and disappointed, also melted away; then the captain turned to the spokesman of the trappers. “You see, señor, I am fair. I want to do only what is right. Please so inform your comrades, for I see they know little Spanish. And then----” here he leaned forward, with a cunning look in his eyes, and whispered the remainder of the sentence into the young trapper’s ear. But the latter, a frown wrinkling his forehead, cut him short. “No,” said he, “nothing like that.” “But consider,” pleaded the captain; “out of good fellowship.” The young man paid no heed; to his comrades he said: “Now, boys, back to camp.” Then to Dave and Joe he added, “Get your mules and come along. I reckon you’re not just what I would call safe in this village.” The two lads, Joe with his arm through the bridle rein of the tall mule, trudged along at their new friend’s side. “I’m a thousand times obliged to you,” said Dave Johnson. “There’s no telling what might have happened to us if you hadn’t come along.” The trapper smiled boyishly. “Well,” said he, with a little drawl in his voice, “I reckon the captain was a trifle anxious about you two.” Then inquiringly, “Know much about these parts?” “No,” replied Joe Frazier. “We’re just from on board ship.” The other nodded. “I thought it was something like that,” he said. “If you had known the lay of the land, you’d not have been so ready to tackle the captain. He’s just the very person you’d ’a’ fought shy of. You see, the Mexican government has these pueblos, or Indian villages all along here, and they don’t like Americans to come prowling around and finding out things. If you haven’t a passport they’ll arrest you, steal everything you’ve got and drive you out of the country. Or it might even be worse.” “We knew that passports were needed, but we left the schooner in a hurry, and never gave them a thought. And,” added Dave, “they were very difficult to get in the first place.” The trapper chuckled. “I don’t know much about getting them,” said he. “Fact is, I never tried. None of Young’s men have ’em, and the captain back there’s been walking on thorns ever since we’ve been here trying to find a way of arresting us.” Seeing the boys’ inquiring look, he added, quietly, “There’s eighteen of us in all, and each one knows a trifle about shooting. So you see, the captain hasn’t found the job an easy one.” They had walked on some little distance, when he continued: