The Broncho Rider Boys with Funston at Vera Cruz Or, Upholding the Honor of the Stars and Stripes (Annotated)

CHAPTER I.
A DARING ADVENTURE.
"Let me look, Billie," and Donald reached out his hand for the field glass through which Broncho Billie was gazing down from the summit of Real del Monte upon the plain of Quesco, through which the Pachuca river winds its way. "Maybe I can make out who they are."
Billie handed over the glass without a word and stood expectant, while Donald scrutinized closely a body of horsemen--twenty or more in number--which had halted beside the railroad that connects the little city of Pachuca with the City of Mexico.
"They are not soldiers, that's certain," was Donald's comment after he had inspected the riders carefully for a couple of minutes.
"That's what I thought," from Billie. "They look like a bunch of vaqueros to me; but what would a crowd of fifty cowpunchers be doing in a country where the only cattle are goats?"
"That's right!" laughed Donald, greatly amused at Billie's odd expression, "but still that is what they appear to be. Perhaps they are expecting a drove of cattle up on the train."
"More likely they are expecting a load of bullion going down to the City of Mexico," remarked the third of the party. "What do you think, Pedro?" turning to the fourth of the boys who composed the quartette.
"I am afraid you are right, Adrian," replied Pedro, with an accent which denoted that of the four he was the only one who was not of an English-speaking race.
"You don't think they would hold up a train in broad daylight, and that not more than five miles from town, do you?" queried Billie.
"If they are what I suspect," declared Pedro, "I think they would hold it up at the station, if there were only a few more of them."
"And what do you think they are?"
"I think they are Zapatistas."
"What are they?" asked Donald.
"Followers of the bandit leader, Emilio Zapata."
"Which side does he belong to?" asked Adrian. "Huerta or Carranza?"
"Neither. He is simply a bandit, and his followers prey upon any whom they find unprotected."
"And do you really think they are going to hold up and rob the train from Pachuca?"
"Sin duda!" meaning without doubt.
"Then we must prevent them," declared Donald emphatically.
"What business is it of ours?" asked Billie. "If one bunch of Mexicans wants to rob another bunch, especially if the second bunch are Huertistas, I don't know that it is for us to interfere. I'm not looking for trouble."
"You're not afraid, are you? If----"
"Say, Don," interrupted Billie, "what's the use of always asking such foolish questions? If I remember rightly, the last time you asked me that question was up on the Rio Grande a year ago, about the time that I was swimming rivers and breaking into prisons with the Texas Rangers to get you and Ad out of trouble. Now why----"
Donald held up both hands.
"That's enough, Billie," he laughed. "I'll take it all back. Of course you're not afraid. But I insist we must prevent this hold-up."
"And again I ask, why?"
"Because there may be women and children on the train and----"
"That's enough," exclaimed Billie. "You needn't go on with the rest. But what's the plan? We're a good ten miles from those chaps--unless we had an airship."
"And then how far do you think it is?" queried Adrian.
"Well," replied Billie slowly, as he squinted up one eye, "I should say they are about four miles away as the crow flies. But we are not crows. By the Real road, it is at least ten miles."
"There must be a short cut somewhere," insisted Donald.
"There is," explained Pedro. "Just around the next turn in the road there is a goat path that leads down to the river. If you are not afraid of getting wet----"
"There you go," laughed Billie. "Afraid of getting wet! Just let's settle it once for all that we are not afraid of anything that it is right for us to do."
Pedro laughed good-naturedly.
"Well, then, since we are not afraid of getting wet, we can follow the river for about two miles by fording it several times, and emerge on the plain a mile this side of the