The soldiers were setting out. Tomaso and a hundred of Mendoza's fighting peons were with them. Morando and O'Donnell rode together, in earnest conversation. "The place to find the scamp is always where you would least likely think him to be," O'Donnell observed. Yoscolo's trail was found at the Berryessa rancho, where he had been the morning of the previous day. The Indian had waited some time to obtain powder from a cache in the hills, then started across the valley, secure in the thought that Morando and his men were miles away in the mountains. About the middle of the afternoon he was overtaken at La Cuesta de los Gatos, ten miles south of San José. At sight of the pursuers Yoscolo intrenched himself in a rocky cañon, which, he believed, could not be approached by flank movements, while a successful frontal attack seemed impossible. Here he waited, intending to slip away at night. O'Donnell, on the stallion, followed by Tomaso and his peons, scaled the rocky edge of a precipice, and suddenly appeared on a ledge thirty feet above the renegades. "El Diablo! El Diablo!" they shouted. A number of shots were fired at O'Donnell. He swung under the horse's body, and the shots went wild. The stallion braced its feet and slid down the cliff followed by the others. A terrible hand-to-hand conflict was waged. Fortune would favor one side, then the other. Finally, the two leaders came together in the middle of the little valley at the head of the cañon. The giant made thrust after thrust of his lance at the Indian, who parried successfully, pressing his opponent hotly in return. The stallion's part in the combat was no small one. He whirled his master out of harm's way, or pushed into the fight, at a simple turn of the rein. Yoscolo's horse stumbled. The stallion sounded its scream, and rushed against the other mount, throwing it from its feet. The Indian sprang free from his falling horse, and, grasping O'Donnell's stirrup-strap, vaulted to the back of Drumlummon. His face snarled furiously as he struck his knife at O'Donnell. Before the blow could fall a backward thrust of O'Donnell's lance ended the outlaw's life. Morando's command attacked the renegades' front. The deep-shadowed cañon rang with carbine volleys, the screaming of horses and the shouts of men. The Indians were dismayed at the leader's fall, but Stanislaus took charge, and urged on the fight. Nightfall, however, saw the complete defeat of the robber band. Stanislaus was captured. "I've settled with Yoscolo. Now I'll ride to Mission San José and finish my call on Mendoza," was O'Donnell's laconic remark. CHAPTER XVIII FARQUHARSON MEETS WITH A LOSS "The Cap'n wants me to give this 'ere paper to the padre and nobody else. Consequently, nobody else gets it." "No sabe, señor."