"Aren"t we?" asked Rosemary, with a strange quietness in her voice.
"No, of course not!" snapped Floyd. It was the first time, since brother and sister had started from California, to make a somewhat adventurous trip to their uncle"s ranch that they had been near a "break" in their cordial relations. "The Yaquis are five hundred miles from here."
"I hope so, I surely do hope so!" murmured Rosemary, in such fervent tones that her brother felt an uneasy sense of fear creeping into his heart. For the first time he began to realize that perhaps they had done a foolhardy thing in making this trip alone. He slipped his hand into his pocket, making sure that his gun was in readiness. And it did not relieve his anxiety to note that Rosemary did the same.
Brother and sister were of the west. They were brave and bold and not afraid of danger when they had half a chance to meet it face to face.
But they had heard much of the treacherous and mean nature of the Yaquis Indians. These were not like the early American tribes of redmen, who had something of a code of honor in their warfare, cruel and heartless as it seemed at times.
"Well, do you want to go back?" asked Floyd, as he slowly started the car.
Rosemary considered for a moment.
"Let"s look at the map and go over what we were told along the route,"
she suggested.
Then followed a careful scanning of papers and drawings, with the result that Rosemary said:
"I guess we may as well go on. It"s a long way back to the nearest town, and this map does seem to indicate that we are heading for La Nogalique."
"That"s what I say!" chimed in Floyd. "I only hope La Nogalique is better than it sounds. If we can put up there for the night you"ll get a little rest, and maybe I"ll have this carburetor adjusted. I don"t like the way it"s acting."
"Oh, good, sweet, kind carburetor, don"t go back on us now!" implored Rosemary, kissing her hand toward the engine of the car. "Be nice and I"ll sprinkle you with violet talc.u.m powder when we get to Uncle Henry"s!"
"Don"t be silly!" grunted Floyd.
"Let"s go!" called his sister. "It"s getting late, and according to this map it"s ten miles yet to La Nogalique--which means twenty if we are going by past performances."
The car sped forward, the trail seeming to grow worse instead of better, as might be expected if they were approaching a town. Lurching from side to side, making sharp turns to avoid bowlders and holes, Floyd guided the machine. Now and then Rosemary would glance at her brother, after a particularly vicious jolt, but she said nothing.
"A good sport!" Floyd mentally voted his sister.
They topped a steep rise, and as they started down the other slope, making a turn, Rosemary pointed ahead and exclaimed:
"There! Now we"re all right! La Nogalique!"
Nestling in a small valley was a smaller town, its few buildings showing plainly in the last rays of the sun which would soon set behind the mountains and hills.
"Guess we"re not so badly off after all!" exulted Floyd. "We"ll sleep in real beds tonight!"
"And I take back what I--er--_thought_ about you!" laughed his sister.
"Thanks for not _saying_ it!" chuckled Floyd. "I admit I was guessing myself a while back, for that trail looked as though it was heading straight for no place in particular. But we"re all right now."
However, as they descended the slope, approaching the town, it became a question in both the mind of sister and brother as to whether they were all right. When they came near enough to see and hear plainly it became evident that something unusual was going on in La Nogalique, if such was the village in view.
There was the popping of guns and intermittant shouts, while figures could be seen riding wildly to and fro amid the scattered buildings.
"Guess there"s some sort of a celebration," commented Floyd.
"Probably some Mexicans have come over the border, and are celebrating a feast day," observed his sister. "This must be about the border line between the United States and Mexico."
"I reckon," conceded Floyd. "But say, I don"t just like this! Look, those men are shooting at each other!"
He stopped the car and pointed to two groups of hors.e.m.e.n who, undoubtedly, were firing at each other with evil intent. For as Rosemary and Floyd looked, several men toppled from their saddles, and their steeds rushed wildly to and fro.
Then, as the travelers sat in the machine, looking down the last slope that led to the town, a solitary horseman came clattering up the rocky trail.
"Turn back! Turn back!" he shouted. "Don"t go down there!"
He was attired as a cowboy and spoke good United States.
"What"s the matter?" demanded Floyd, as he let the car roll to one side to give the horseman room to pa.s.s.
"Yaquis!" was the answer. "Them onery Mexican Indians have broke loose and are raiding the country. They"ve started in here at La Nogalique!
I"m riding for the troops. Better turn back!"
"Oh, Floyd!" cried Rosemary, involuntarily.
"Don"t go down there!" warned the horseman, as he spurred on, for he saw the car slipping down the slope.
"I don"t intend to, if I can turn around and beat it up the hill,"
Floyd said. "The question is--can I?"
It was a question. The road was narrow, and the hill steep. If you have ever tried to turn a car around on a narrow, hilly road and crawl back up it, you will appreciate the position of Rosemary and her brother.
"If you can"t make it in your car get out and hide!" advised the horseman, flinging this back over his shoulder as he rode on. "Those Yaquis are human devils!"
He was out of sight a moment later around a turn in the trail. Floyd speeded up the engine and began to guide the machine toward a place that looked wide enough to turn in. But that was the smallest part of the problem.
Just as he was making the turn there was a lurch to one side, and the right forward wheel sank into a ditch at the side of the road. The car settled so far over that Rosemary had to cling to Floyd to avoid sliding out, and she could not repress a scream.
"No going back now!" exclaimed Floyd grimly. "We"re lucky if we can go ahead."
"Do something!" desperately cried Rosemary.
And then, with a suddenness that was nerve-racking, there swept around the bend in the road toward them a band of yelling Mexican Indians--the Yaquis!
CHAPTER VI
PRISONERS
Rosemary and Floyd knew something of the west. They had lived in California a number of years, and had traveled across the continent more than once--by auto on one occasion. So they were not at all disappointed when they saw the Yaquis did not measure up to the picturesque standard of Buffalo Bill"s Indians.
In fact the first glimpse of the onrushing band of Yaquis would give one the impression that they were a lot of colored cowboys, in most ragged garments. But each one carried a gun or a revolver and the weapons were for use, and had been used, some with fatal effect.
Shouting and yelling, some firing their guns off in the air, beating coiled la.s.sos against the heaving sides of their steeds, spurring the frantic animals, shouting in Spanish, all of them dusty, sweaty and dirty--the band was at once ridiculous and fearsome.