"Hi tunket!" muttered Marty. "That '_Viva Mejico!_' business covers a mult.i.tude of sins--like this here charity they tell about. If you sing out that battle cry down here you can do 'most anything you want--and get away with it!"

They went on slowly, for no amount of prodding would make the burro go faster than a funeral march. On all sides they saw marks of the fighting which had followed the occupation of San Cristoval by the government troops.

Juan explained that General Palo had waited for reinforcements at first; but finally a part of the rebel army come over to him and fought against their former friends under the standard of the government; so he was now pushing on steadily, driving the other rebels before him.

"Why did they come over to the government side if they believe in _la patria_?" asked Marty curiously.

"For twenty centavos a day more, senor," said Juan placidly.

"What's that?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the boy. "D'you mean they got their wages raised?"

"Why, senor, a man must leev," declared Juan mildly. "We get from thirty to feefty cents a day working in the mines, on the roads, in the forest--oh, yes! Senor B-Day pay the highest wages of anybody--sure. But to fight--ah! that is different, eh? One general give us seventy-fi'

cents a day--good! But another offer us one dollair--'Merican. By goodness, yes! We fight for heem. Any boy that beeg enough to carry gun, he can get twice as much for fighting as he can for othair work. _Si, si_, senor."

"Oh, cricky! _'Viva Mejico_!" murmured Marty.

It was just then that they turned a curve in the right of way and beheld a train standing on the track. At least, there were a locomotive and two cars.

They had not seen a human being since leaving the outskirts of the town; but here were both men and horses.

The men were armed; some of them were gayly uniformed. A young fellow in tattered khaki spurred his mount immediately toward Janice Day and her companions.

"What want you here, _hombres_?" he demanded in Spanish, staring at Janice. "This is the headquarters of General De Soto Palo."

Juan was dumb, and before Marty could speak Janice put the question:

"Is it possible for us to get through to the Alderdice Mine, senor?"

"Certainly not!" was the reply in good English. "Our troops have not driven out the dregs of the rebel army as yet."

"May we speak with the general?" the girl pursued faintly.

"Certainly not!" the fellow repeated. "He has no time to spend with vagabond _Americanos_."

"She's Senor B-Day's daughter," broke in Marty, thinking the statement might do some good.

"Ha!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the young officer much to their surprise. "She we have expected. Consider yourself under ar-r-rest. March on!"

He waved his hand grandly toward the nearest car. Already Janice had seen that it was a much battered Pullman coach. But now the officer's declaration left Janice unable to appreciate much else but the fact that she had been expected and was a prisoner of the government forces!

Juan, immobile of countenance, prodded on the burro. Marty, too, was speechless. They came near to the observation platform of the Pullman coach.

Suddenly the door opened and there stepped into the sunshine the magnificent figure of a woman in Mexican dress--short skirt, low cut bodice, with a veil over her wonderfully dressed hair. She looked down upon the approaching cavalcade with parted lips.

"Madam!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Janice Day, and then could say no more.

CHAPTER XXVI

AT LAST

Marty Day was quite as amazed as his cousin at this meeting, for he, too, recognized the handsome black-eyed woman on the observation platform of the Pullman coach. He found his tongue first.

"What do you know about that?" he murmured. "Just like a movie, ain't it? She is that woman you were traveling with, Janice--the one I thought tried to swipe your money. And maybe she _did_ try to at that!"

"Hush!" begged his cousin.

"Eet ees the Senora General De Soto Palo," hissed Juan. "She a gre't la-dee--huh?"

For a full minute the black-eyed woman stared at Janice and the latter wondered if the Senora General Palo would admit their acquaintanceship.

They had been so "goot friends" on the train; would the senora acknowledge it now?

"Ach!" exclaimed the woman, her rather stern countenance blossoming into a smile. "You are a wonderful girl, my dear--soh! You have made your way here--through this so-strange country and with all against you. Have you saved your money from robbery, too?" and her black eyes began to twinkle.

"Oh, Madam!" murmured Janice.

"Our money's safe all right all right," put in Marty.

Madam ignored him. "Come up here, my dear," she commanded in her full contralto voice, still smiling at the American girl.

Janice tumbled off the burro and hastily mounted the steps to the platform. The young officer who had led them here, and others of his ilk, stared from a distance and twirled their _mustachios_. Marty grinned at Juan.

"I guess we got a friend at court, eh, Juan?" he said in a whisper. "It takes our Janice to get us out of sc.r.a.pes--believe me!"

"Of a verity, yes!" agreed Juan.

The black-eyed woman seized Janice Day in a warm embrace the moment the girl came near.

"Oh, Madam!" cried the latter. "I hope I did not offend you. You left so abruptly back there at Sweet.w.a.ter----"

"Ach! it ees nothing," said the woman. "I was hurt--for the moment. You did not trust me."

"And you were continually warning me to trust n.o.body," interposed Janice, flushing.

"It is true!" cried the woman, patting her cheek. "I made you so fear for r-robbers that you fear poor _me_, eh? But that is past. I was sorry, later, when I learn' just where my hoosban' is that I did not confide more in you and you in me, my dear."

"Oh! And you are really the wife of this general who commands here?"

Janice exclaimed. "How wonderful!"

"Yes. General Palo has long been exile from his land. Soh! But now he is in favor with the government at Mexico City," explained Madam. "Yes! it was at his request I cut short my season in New York an' join him. He hope to be made governor of this deestrict when the campaign is over. He hope soon to settle all controversies and whip these rebel dogs back into the hills and keep them there."

"But, Madam, you are not Mexican!" cried Janice.

"Not by birth--no, my dear. Yet I am intensely patriotic for my hoosban's country--_Viva Mejico_!"