In five minutes each man, with his rifle slung, stood by a mule, some of them having buckled on _tapadas_, to prevent the animals from kicking.
The major stood ready by his horse.
"Now, my brave fellows," shouted I in a loud voice, "we must take it cavalry fashion--Mexican cavalry, I mean." The men laughed. "Once in the woods, we shall retreat no farther. At the words `_Mount and follow_", spring to your seats and follow Mr Clayley. I shall look to your rear--don"t stop to fire--hold on well. If anyone fall, let his nearest comrade take him up. Ha! anyone hurt there?" A shot had whistled through the ranks. "Only a scratch," was the reply.
"All ready, then, are you? Now, Mr Clayley, you see the high timber-- make direct for that. Down with the bars! `_Mount and follow_"!"
As I uttered the last words, the men leaped to their seats; and Clayley, riding the bell-mule, dashed out of the corral, followed by the whole train, some of them plunging and kicking, but all galloped forward at the sound of the bell upon their guide.
As the dark cavalcade rushed out upon the prairie, a wild cry from the guerilleros told that this was the first intimation they had had of the singular _ruse_. They sprang to their saddles with yells, and galloped in pursuit. The howitzer, that had been trailed upon the corral, was suddenly wheeled about and fired; but the shot, ill-directed in their haste, whistled harmlessly over our heads.
The guerilleros, on their swift steeds, soon lessened the distance between us.
With a dozen of the best men I hung in the rear, to give the foremost of the pursuers a volley, or pick up any soldier who might be tossed from his mule. One of these, at intervals, kicked as only a Mexican mule can; and when within five hundred yards of the timber, his rider, an Irishman, was flung upon the prairie.
The rearmost of our party stopped to take him up. He was seized by Chane, who mounted him in front of himself. The delay had nearly been fatal. The pursuers were already within a hundred yards, firing their pistols and escopettes without effect. A number of the men turned in their seats and blazed back. Others threw their rifles over their shoulders, and pulled trigger at random. I could perceive that two or three guerilleros dropped from their saddles. Their comrades, with shouts of vengeance, closed upon us nearer and nearer. The long lazos, far in advance, whistled around our heads.
I felt the slippery noose light upon my shoulders. I flung out my arms to throw it off, but with a sudden jerk it tightened around my neck. I clutched the hard thong, and pulled with all my might. It was in vain.
The animal I rode, freed from my _manege_, seemed to plunge under me, and gather up its back with a vicious determination to fling me. It succeeded; and I was launched in the air, and dashed to the earth with a stunning violence.
I felt myself dragged along the gravelly ground. I grasped the weeds, but they came away in my hands, torn up by the roots. There was a struggle above and around me. I could hear loud shouts and the firing of guns. I felt that I was being strangled.
A bright object glistened before my eyes. I felt myself seized by a strong, rough hand, and swung into the air and rudely shaken, as if in the grasp of some giant"s arm.
Something twitched me sharply over the cheeks. I heard the rustling of trees. Branches snapped and crackled, and leaves swept across my face.
Then came the flash--flash, and the crack--crack--crack of a dozen rifles, and under their blazing light I was dashed a second time with violence to the earth.
Note 1. Troop of guerillas, who in Spanish are properly _guerilleros_.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
THE RESCUE.
"Rough handlin", Cap"n. Yer must excuse haste."
It was the voice of Lincoln.
"Ha! in the timber? Safe, then!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed I in return.
"Two or three wounded--not bad neither. Chane has got a stab in the hip--he gin the feller goss for it. Let me louze the darned thing off o" your neck. It k.u.m mighty near chokin" yer, Cap"n."
Bob proceeded to unwind the noose end of a lazo that, with some six feet of a raw hide thong, was still tightly fastened around my neck.
"But who cut the rope?" demanded I.
"I did, with this hyur toothpick. Yer see, Cap"n, it warn"t yer time to be hung just yet."
I could not help smiling as I thanked the hunter for my safety.
"But where are the guerilleros?" asked I, looking around, my brain still somewhat confused.
"Yander they are, keepin" safe out o" range o" this long gun. Just listen to "em!--what a hillerballoo!"
The Mexican hors.e.m.e.n were galloping out on the prairie, their arms glistening under the clear moonlight.
"Take to the trees, men!" cried I, seeing that the enemy had again unlimbered, and were preparing to discharge their howitzer.
In a moment the iron shower came whizzing through the branches without doing any injury, as each of the men had covered his body with a tree.
Several of the mules that stood tied and trembling were killed by the discharge.
Another shower hurtled through the bushes, with a similar effect.
I was thinking of retreating farther into the timber, and was walking back to reconnoitre the ground, when my eye fell upon an object that arrested my attention. It was the body of a very large man lying flat upon his face, his head buried among the roots of a good-sized tree.
The arms were stiffly pressed against his side, and his legs projected at full stretch, exhibiting an appearance of motionless rigidity, as though a well-dressed corpse had been rolled over on its face. I at once recognised it as the body of the major, whom I supposed to have fallen dead where he lay.
"Good heavens! Clayley, look here!" cried I; "poor Blossom"s killed!"
"No, I"ll be hanged if I am!" growled the latter, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g his neck round like a lizard, and looking up without changing the att.i.tude of his body. Clayley was convulsed with laughter. The major sheathed his head again, as he knew that another shot from the howitzer might soon be expected.
"Major," cried Clayley, "that right shoulder of yours projects over at least six inches."
"I know it," answered the major, in a frightened voice. "Curse the tree!--it"s hardly big enough to cover a squirrel;" and he squatted closer to the earth, pressing his arms tighter against his sides. His whole att.i.tude was so ludicrous that Clayley burst into a second yell of laughter. At this moment a wild shout was heard from the guerilleros.
"What next?" cried I, running toward the front, and looking out upon the prairie.
"Them wild-cats are gwine to cla"r out, Cap"n," said Lincoln, meeting me. "I kin see them hitchin" up."
"It is as you say! What can be the reason?"
A strange commotion was visible in the groups of hors.e.m.e.n. Scouts were galloping across the plain to a point of the woods about half a mile distant, and I could see the artillerists fastening their mules to the howitzer-carriage. Suddenly a bugle rang out, sounding the "Recall", and the guerilleros, spurring their horses, galloped off towards Medellin.
A loud cheer, such as was never uttered by Mexican throats, came from the opposite edge of the prairie; and looking in that direction I beheld a long line of dark forms debouching from the woods at a gallop. Their sparkling blades, as they issued from the dark forest, glistened like a cordon of fireflies, and I recognised the heavy footfall of the American horse. A cheer from my men attracted their attention; and the leader of the dragoons, seeing that the guerilleros had got far out of reach, wheeled his column to the right and came galloping down.
"Is that Colonel Rawley?" inquired I, recognising a dragoon officer.
"Why, bless my soul!" exclaimed he, "how did you get out? We heard you were jugged. All alive yet?"
"We have lost two," I replied.
"Pah! that"s nothing. I came out expecting to bury the whole kit of you. Here"s Clayley, too. Clayley, your friend Twing"s with us; you"ll find him in the rear."
"Ha! Clayley, old boy!" cried Twing, coming up; "no bones broken? all right? Take a pull; do you good--don"t drink it all, though--leave a thimbleful for Haller there. How do you like that?"