How has it got into the hands of the Horned Lizard?
"I reckon we can settle that," says the Captain of the Rangers.

"The renegade ought to know something about it." This speech refers to Barbato, who has been taken prisoner, and about whose disposal they have already commenced to deliberate.

His beard betrayed him as a renegade; and, the paint having been partially wiped from his skin, all perceive that he is a white man--a Mexican.

Some are for shooting him on the spot, others propose hanging, while only a few of the more humane advocate taking him on to the settlements and there giving him a trial.

He will have to die anyhow--that is pretty sure; for not only as a Mexican is he their enemy, but now doubly so from being found in league with their most detested foes, the Tenawa Comanches.
The wretch is lying on the ground near by, shaking with fear, in spite of the fastenings in which he is tightly held.