"Whoa, you Tiger!" cried Jim, but he had quite a tussle with him before he got him subdued. Even then Caliente kept snorting at intervals, with his nostrils dilating. Then the boys came toward the campfire from the shadow of the trees. Meanwhile Jo had thrown a blanket over the inert form of the Mexican, and he looked like an irregular log of wood.
Perhaps this was not a very gallant way to treat one's fallen foe, but you are not apt to feel very kindly towards a man who has just tried to throw a knife into your back. So Jo did not care much if he was sat upon and used for a sofa. This particular log was placed convenient to the fire.
"You look rather rumpled and pale, Jo," grinned Jim. "Did a hoot owl scare you while we were gone?"
"I bet Jo was hiding in the tent," jeered Tom, "with his head in the blankets."
Jo looked kind of sheepish and very red in the face. It was evident that he was struggling with some hidden emotion. Jim started to sit down upon the convenient log, and Tom likewise, the latter growling:
"You always try to get the best of everything."
Then they sat down upon the supposed log. To their utter surprise and ultimate horror, the log began to twist and turn.
"Whoopee!" yelled Tom, leaping six feet, it seemed, into the air, "it's a snake!" Jim rose more slowly, but very pale. He was deeply moved, not to say frightened. "Sancte Maria, Sancte Sebastina!" seemed the words issuing from the muffled folds of the blanket. Jim tore it off and there was the Mexican whom Jo had had the round-up with.
"What!" cried Jim; "who is this?" Jeems' head was now looking between the flaps of the tent, into which he had dived headfirst when the log came to life.
"It's one of the gang that has been trailing us," cried Jeems.
Jo was rolling around in paroxysms of laughter.
"Whoopee!" he cried in imitation of brother Tom, "it's a snake," then he went off into another fit.
"You durned idiot," yelled the incensed Tom, "shut up laughing. I guess that fellow is a snake. You might have scared me into breaking a blood vessel."
"I came near scaring you into breaking the record for the high jump," panted Jo, weak from laughter.
"But where did you capture this specimen, Jo?" asked Jim with a quiet smile. To tell the truth he was somewhat chagrined, for he could not deny even to himself that he had been badly frightened by Jo's trick.