Of course there were rocks that could be used as cover, but these were so scattered that it prevented the approach of the men in a body.
Individuals could creep from rock to rock, and so advance, but there could be no concerted rush against the Yaquis, and that was what was needed to overcome them.
However the fight was only in its early stages yet, and, like a football game, one could not tell what would happen until the final whistle was blown. Captain Marshall was a veteran fighter and could be depended on. His men realized this, and so did the outfit from Diamond X.
There was nothing very spectacular about this fight. Little of it could have been seen by an observer, if you except the spurts of smoke from unseen guns and the echoes caused by the shots. For each man, on both sides, was firing from cover. The Yaquis had the advantage that their cover--a big wall of rock--sheltered many of them in an almost straight line, and they could fire in volleys on signal, while the soldiers and cowboys had to fire individually and at odd times, as they made their way from one sheltering stone to another.
Thus the Yaquis could concentrate their fire on one man if they had a glimpse of some incautiously exposed arm or leg, while no one soldier could hope to inflict much damage on a crowd of Indians behind a thick stone wall.
But the fight was not so unequal as seemed at first sight. For while the Yaquis were strongly entrenched, they were outnumbered--of that there was little doubt. And they were fighting picked men, who had been in many dangerous skirmishes and fights, whereas the Indians were at best but a sort of brigand bushwhackers.
Each side was desperate, perhaps the Indians more so, for they must have realized that they would be given short shrift if any harm now came to Rosemary and Floyd. The soldiers and cowboys would not hesitate to take swift and sure vengeance. So the Indians must fight to the bitter end, selling their lives as dearly as possible.
"I just wonder if Rosemary and Floyd are up in that nest of beggars?"
mused Bud, as he and his cousins were at last allowed to proceed up the defile, toward where the Yaquis were making their last stand. Bud had begged so hard to be allowed to go to the front, to at least help his cousins load their weapons if nothing else, that permission had been granted.
The boy ranchers were close together now, each sheltered behind a rock, and almost in line with the foremost of the attackers who were under the shadow of the natural fort, behind the wall of which the Yaquis were making their last stand.
"I hope they are up there," said Nort, answering Bud"s question. "If they brought them this far they probably wouldn"t do away with them now. They must be up there!"
"I wish we had them down here," said d.i.c.k. "It"s going to be hard work to get the imps out of their den!"
"You supplied two good earfuls that time, kid!" said Rolling Stone.
"Ah, you will, will you!" he added quickly, and he fired at an exposed head over the top of the wall that hid the Indians.
There was a howl of pain mingled with rage, that could be heard above the din of the fighting.
"You nipped him!" cried Yellin" Kid.
"I tried to," grimly said Rolling Stone.
And so the fighting went on, in pot-shot fashion, with occasional volleys from the Yaquis.
"They"re only wasting their lead," spoke Captain Marshall. "But I wonder where they got so many cartridges?"
"Likely they made another raid," suggested Snake.
This, later, was found to be the case. A store keeper had been killed and his stock looted, provisions and arms being taken.
If the boy ranchers and their friends could have looked behind the natural wall of rock, which const.i.tuted the fort that proved to be the last stand of the Yaquis, and if they could have looked farther, into a big cave, the mouth of which was concealed from a view below by this same wall, their questions as to Rosemary and Floyd would have been answered.
For the captives were there. Weary, apprehensive, tired and fairly ill from their hardships, Rosemary and her brother had been thrust into the cavern when the Yaquis reached this vantage place, knowing their pursuers were close behind them.
"Something"s up!" Floyd had said as they were rudely hustled into the hiding place.
"I hope it"s the end," said Rosemary dismally. Poor girl! She was about done up, and she no longer had her weapon as a means of defence.
By a ruse it had been taken from her, though she and Floyd fought desperately to retain it. But Mike, as one of his men s.n.a.t.c.hed it away, only laughed at them.
"The end! What do you mean?" asked Floyd.
"I mean I think this will be the last fight. You can tell by the way they thrust us in here, and hurried out with their guns, that something unusual is taking place. I believe our rescuers are coming!"
"That"s what we thought when they sent us off in charge of Mike and the smaller gang," observed Floyd.
"Yes, but this is different!" declared Rosemary. "They can"t get out of this place in a hurry, and once our friends, whether soldiers or cowboys from Uncle Henry"s ranch, get this far, they"ll never give up until they break through the Indians."
"If they only do!" murmured Floyd. He was cut and bruised from a fight he had with two of the Yaquis, when he endeavored to go to the aid of his sister, as her weapon was wrested from her. Floyd"s left arm was badly wrenched, so he could hardly use it.
And then, after the hurried thrusting into the cave of the captives, had come the first shots of the soldier scouts in response to the fire of the Yaqui sentry.
"They"re here!" cried Floyd, when it became very evident that an attack in force was going on.
"Oh! I"m glad!" exclaimed Rosemary, and tears of relief came to sooth her ragged nerves.
They went as close as they dared to the mouth of the cave to look at the backs of the Yaquis who were lined up along the wall firing down on the soldiers and cowboys. No guard was stationed at the entrance to the cavern--none was needed. The rear was a wall of solid rock, as Rosemary and her brother had discovered soon after being rushed into it. In front of the entrance was a rocky platform, and extending along the outer edge of this, in the form of a semicircle, was the defending wall of stone.
This rocky wall dropped abruptly down into the defile where the cowboys and soldiers were making the attack. It would be almost impossible to descend it. The way up was by a narrow pa.s.sage which was now choked by rocks the Indians had piled there.
On either side of the cavern"s entrance the rock rose in steep slopes, not altogether impossible of being scaled, but a hindrance to a quick retreat. That is what Captain Marshall meant when he said the Yaquis were practically backed up against a stone wall.
The firing became sharper and quicker and the reports of the guns of the attackers sounded nearer. They were, in fact, creeping up, taking advantage of every bit of cover.
There were casualties on both sides, d.i.c.k being put out of the game by a bullet through his right arm. Fortunately it only entered the flesh, breaking no bones. But he was ordered to the rear, much to his disgust. Nort and Bud still stuck, Bud helping Nort in loading.
Perhaps the situation was hardest on Rosemary and Floyd, for they were obliged to remain in the cave, doing nothing, and fearing the worst.
If the Indians succeeded in standing off the rescuers, or in killing so many of them that the survivors would not dare rush the place, what would it mean to the captives?
Rosemary dared not think of it.
Then, following a period of unusually heavy firing, the plucky girl made up her mind to act.
"Floyd!" she exclaimed, "I"m desperate! I"m going to do something!
"Not--you"re not going to--"
Floyd stumbled over expressing the fear that she was going to rush out and throw herself over the rocky wall.
"It"s just a chance," went on Rosemary, "but I"m going to take it. A desperate chance!"
"But what, Rosemary?"
"I"m going to play a trick on these Indians! I think I can do it!"
"A trick?"
"Yes. As soon as the next period of heavy firing quiets down I"m going to rush out, yelling, and point back to the cave. I want you to do the same."
"But what good will it do?"
"It will give the Indians the impression that our friends--or some one--has managed to get up the rocks, and that they are coming from the rear. There may be an entrance into that cave from the back. I don"t know, and I don"t believe these Indians do. Anyhow if we rush out, all excited, yelling as hard as we can, and pointing to the cave back of us, I think the Yaquis will take the alarm and become so confused that our friends, whoever they are out there, will be able to rush this position."