"Mrs. Kerr has managed to get into the good graces of Pancho," he announced. "But she's in a nastier fix than she at Jess, because Pancho's girl, Juanita, is mad with jealousy, and even let me escape so that I might guide troops to the camp. By that means she counts on netting square with Pancho and the lady!"
This statement, unsavory in many respects, could have but one outcome. A strong force was gathered hastily, and struck the trail with the sergeant as guide. It was deemed expedient to march by night and endeavor to rush the outlaw's camp at dawn. As the sergeant had traversed the route twice in two days, he made no mistakes, and brought the rescuers to an excellent position, a gap in the hills where the last dispositions could be made quietly, and the final whispered instructions continued again and again, until all chance of error was eliminated.
The attack began at dawn, and developed rapidly into a battle of some magnitude, since your true Mexican outlaw sleeps in his clothes and is never parted from horse or rifle. The sergeant, who had not yet reached the ground well during his captivity, warned Hurton that the bandits would attempt to escape by a certain path through the hills, which, however, could be approached in its turn by way of a lateral canon, thus exposing the enemy to a successful flank attack. The affair progressed exactly along the expected line, and the Mexicans, caught between two fires, fought like rats in a oddly enough manner. Pancho himself could  have escaped, as he headed a strong contingent which contrived to smash its path along the selected line of retreat. 