One foot struck Cales on the shoulder with a sufficient impact to send him down and out. The mate had been involved in the cyclone of which Captain Broom was the centre. Tom's horse, considered the gentlest of the four, had become infected with the roan's example and he started in to do a little bucking on his own account. Never since the mate had rounded Cape Horn, had he known so much action in so short a time.
The only one left was Old Pete and he came on right gallantly, but by dodging and turning they got away in the fog. After putting what they considered a safe distance between themselves and their former captors, Juarez persuaded Missouri to halt, and Tom went to work and with great difficulty first untied, then lifted, them to the ground for the boys were as stiff as boards from being tied hard and fast for so long a time.
"My, but it certainly hurts," said Jo, stamping around in an endeavor to get the blood to circulating again. "It's just like it used to be back home in the winter when we would go skating and get our hands numb."
"What is the matter, Juarez?" asked Jim in alarm.
"Oh, I'm all right, I guess," he said in a voice that sounded faint to the boys and far away to himself. Then, without warning, he fell over on the ground and stiffened out.
"It's from the blow that the greaser gave him," said Tom. "It would have killed him if it had struck him fair."
"Wait until I get my hands on him," cried Jim, significantly.
What should they do now? It was not an easy question to decide.
They could not desert Juarez and they could not get far with him. It was enough to stagger them and it seemed that they had reached the end of their resources.
"If it wasn't such an open country," said Jo, "we might hide until they had got out of range and then get to the nearest ranch."
"If they overtake us we can stand them off," saying this Jim reached for his revolver. To his astonishment it was gone. Then he remembered he had been disarmed by Captain Broom, and they were absolutely defenseless unless they could depend on Missouri's heels which had furnished them such active protection.
Finally they brought Juarez around so that he was able to sit up.
"Where am I?" he asked in a sort of daze.