"Good Lord!" groaned Pete, as he saw.
Despair was in the countenances of the others, but, even as they halted in dismay at what seemed certain annihilation, a strange thing happened.
With a screaming, earsplitting roar, a white cloud swept from the direction of the boiler house at the cl.u.s.tering forms on the top of the stockade.
It was a column of live steam that swept them from their perches, like dried leaves before a wind.
Buck Bradley"s plan had worked with terrible effectiveness. Before the rush of white-vapor the insurrectos melted away in a screaming, scalded flurry. In less than two minutes after Jack had turned the steam on, not a sign of them was to be seen.
"Hooray!" yelled the boys, carried away by the sudden relief of the strain when it had seemed that all was over. "Hooray! We win!"
"Don"t be premature!" admonished Buck gravely, as the column of steam was shut off. "We ain"t out of ther woods yet by a long shot. How about it, Pete?"
The old plainsman tugged his sun-bleached moustache viciously.
"Why, boys," he declared emphatically, "them reptiles ain"t begun ter fight yet."
CHAPTER XXV.
THE LAST STAND.--CONCLUSION.
As the cow-puncher spoke, there came a sound from the direction of the gate which was filled with sinister significance.
Thud! Thud!
It echoed hollowly within the stockade. Buck Bradley was quick to read its meaning.
"They"ve got a big log or suthin, and are busting in the gate!" he cried.
A shout of dismay went up from them all. As it so happened, there had been no time to bore any holes near the gate, and the only way to delay the work of battering it down would be to clamber to the fence top and fire down into the insurrectos handling the battering ram.
But it needed no second thought to show that this would be madness. At the first appearance of a head above the stockade, they knew that half a hundred rifles from without would pour a volley at it. It would not take more than ten minutes to wipe out the whole garrison in this way.
"Nope. We"ll have to think of some other plan," decided Buck. It is worthy of remark here that not one of the defenders of the mine had ever even hinted at a surrender. This was not due so much to the fact, as they knew, that it would only mean exchanging one form of death for another, as it was to their grim determination to defend the mine at whatever cost to themselves. It was the dogged American spirit that prevailed at the Alamo.
"Aha! I haf idt!" burst out Geisler suddenly, after a few minutes of deep thought. "Dere is no hope uv safing dot gate?"
"Not the least," Buck a.s.sured him. "They"ll have it through in a few minutes now."
He pointed to the timbers which were already showing jagged cracks up and down their entire length.
"Veil," said the German, "der office uv der mine is made strong--oh very strong, for behindt idt is der specie room. Ve can gedt by der inside in dere and fire through der vindows. And as a last resort vee can----"
He paused.
"We can what?" demanded Jack.
"Nefer mindt. I dell you later. Now is dot agreed upon?"
"It"s about all we can do, I guess," grunted Pete, "unless we stay here to be shot down."
"Den come mit me."
The German rapidly led the way across the yard to the office building.
As he closed and barred the door, they noted that it was lined inside with steel, strongly riveted to the oak. The windows also had steel shutters, cleverly concealed, in cases into which they slid, from casual view. In the windows, as well as in the door, were small apertures for firing through.
"Why, it"s a regular fort!" exclaimed Ralph, as the shutters clanged to with a harsh, grating sound.
"You bet my life idt"s a fort," agreed Herr Geisler, "undt ledt me tell you dot you needt a fort ven you have a specie room by dis country."
"Then the specie room is near us?"
"In there."
The German pointed over his shoulder at a door in the rear of the office.
"Idt is steel walled, undt dere is a combination lock on der door.
Even if dey should kill us all, dey still have a tough nut to crack."
The German spoke calmly, and his blond features were absolutely unruffled. No emotion appeared either on the weathered countenances of Coyote Pete or Buck Bradley. The professor"s face, though, was ashen, but he uttered never a word. As for the boys, who shall blame them if it is said that their hearts were beating wildly, their mouths felt dry, and their brains throbbed.
It was the last stand, and they all realized it.
Unless help should come from an unforeseen source, they were bound to perish miserably at the hands of the insurrectos.
Suddenly, there was a great crashing, rending sound from without.
Instantly a chorus of wild yells arose on the air, and shots were fired as if in exultation.
"They"ve busted the gate!" exclaimed Buck.
Peering through the apertures in the door and windows, they could see the h.o.a.rd come pouring into the yard of the mine. At first they came cautiously. They evidently recollected the steam, and feared another ambush. In a few minutes, however, their confidence returned. The watchers could see a little man dart out from among the crowd and point toward the specie room and the office structure.
"The gold is within, my brothers!" he shouted in Spanish.
"Bodderation tage dot feller," sputtered Geisler, "a veek ago he vos der best vorkman ve hadt by der mine, undt now look at him."
With a howl, the insurrectos charged on the hut. The l.u.s.t of gold was in their veins, and they minded the volley poured into them by the defenders no more than if it had been so much rain. Several of them fell, but it seemed to make no difference to the others. They charged right up to the very doors of the place. Some of them even tore at the walls as if they imagined they could demolish them and get at the gringo gold.
"Dot is vot goldt does for mens," philosophically remarked the German, as he gazed at the onrush, firing methodically at the same time.
Jack, Ralph, and Walt were at one of the windows, while the professor and Coyote Pete defended the other. During the mad rush for the office, they all did considerable execution, without, of course, any cost to themselves. The Mexicans, to be sure, returned the fire furiously, but their bullets "pinged" harmlessly against the steel shutters, or buried themselves in the thick, wooden walls.
Suddenly there came an angry shout from some one evidently in authority among the insurrectos. Instantly the attack melted away, the retreating men dragging their wounded with them. It was Jack"s first sight of real warfare, and it made his blood, as well as that of the others, run cold.
"Now what are they up to?" wondered Buck, as this sudden cessation of activities came.