A huge fellow
mounted his pony and Barbara was lifted to the horn of the
saddle before him. Then the others mounted and as silently as
they had come they rode away, following the same path.
Barbara Harding had not cried out nor attempted to, for
she had seen very shortly after her capture that she was in the
hands of Indians and she judged from what she had heard of
the little band of Pimans who held forth in the mountains to
the east that they would as gladly knife her as not.
Jose was a Piman, and she immediately connected Jose with
the perpetration, or at least the planning of her abduction.
Thus she felt assured that no harm would come to her, since
Jose had been famous in his time for the number and size of
the ransoms he had collected.
Her father would pay what was demanded, she would be
returned and, aside from a few days of discomfort and hardship,
she would be none the worse off for her experience.
Reasoning thus it was not difficult to maintain her composure
and presence of mind.
As Barbara was borne toward the east, Billy Byrne rode
steadily northward. It was his intention to stop at Jose's hut
and deliver the message which Pesita had given him for the
old Indian. Then he would disappear into the mountains to
the west, join Pesita and urge a new raid upon some favored
friend of General Francisco Villa, for Billy had no love for
Villa.
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