The string of flat cars and the snorting steam engine were waiting when Jack, Mr. Ryder, the new assistant engineer and Captain Alvarez arrived. Indeed, the soldiers and rurales were already hurrying their prisoners aboard. Wicked-looking regulars were stationed at each end of the cars and there appeared to be small chance of any of the peons escaping from the train during its journey toward the capital. In half an hour everything was ready. Jack found that a large group of workmen had gathered to see him depart and he shook hands with each one of them before he finally swung aboard the platform of the yellow caboose and took his place beside Mr. Ryder and Captain Alvarez. Slowly the little train gathered headway and with the cheers of the men ringing[227] in his ears Jack Straw said good-by to Necaxa. But the string of cars had scarcely gone two hundred yards when a figure elbowed its way through the crowd of workmen and soldiers and came swinging down the narrow track at a rapid pace. His shoulder was bandaged about with white cloth and at his heels followed a tawny, long-eared hound. It was Miguel, the Indian runner, and his dog.
After some effort the agile messenger overtook the train and jumped aboard the steps of the caboose. Hastily he held out his hand toward Jack and mumbled something in Spanish. The lad from Vermont was greatly pleased that the redman was so eager to say farewell to him that he risked jumping aboard the moving train, and he wrung the Indian’s hand warmly.
“What did he say?” asked Jack of Mr. Ryder when the messenger had swung to the ground.
“He said ‘I am still in debt to you for saving my dog. Many thanks, many thanks,’” replied Mr. Ryder.
“Well, it strikes me that he paid that debt off several times during the last few days,”[228] laughed Jack as he waved to the Indian who remained standing in the center of the track watching the departing cars.
The news of the battle and the treachery of Nedham at Necaxa reached the capital over the long-distance telephone wire long before the train with the prisoners arrived and when Jack and Mr. Ryder entered the American Hotel after Nedham and the rest of the prisoners had been turned over to the proper authorities, they found the evening papers crowded with the news. Pictures of the prisoners that had been brought in, pen sketches of the battle and photographs of the plant at Necaxa occupied the front page of the dailies and scare headlines fairly shouted the details attending the capture of José Cerro and his band. Fortunately one of the papers printed an American as well as a Mexican edition and Jack was able to read the full account of his own adventures............