"No express train was ever made that"s fast enough for me to-night,"
muttered Lieutenant d.i.c.k Prescott between set teeth.
The running lights were out, for it was nearly dark when the "Restless"
had left Agua Dulce. Only the movement of a switch was needed to turn them on.
"Ever been to Holmesville?" demanded Dave Darrin, turning almost fiercely on Tom Halstead when he showed his head on deck.
"No, sir."
"Wouldn"t know the place by sight?"
"No, sir."
"Nor I, either--from the water front," groaned Darrin. "But surely you have some chart of the river?"
Tom Halstead was already out of sight again. When he came on deck he remarked:
"I"ve been looking at the chart. Now, I"ll know Holmesville to a dot when we sight the place."
"Nice sort of a town some one took the trouble to name after me, isn"t it?" grunted Lieutenant Holmes.
"Say! Look there!" gasped Lieutenant Noll, pointing ahead just as the craft rounded a bend of the river, and something was visible that the trees had shut out before.
A thrill of dismay went through all. Ahead the sky was angrily red at one point.
"The miscreants have fired the town!" roared d.i.c.k Prescott, in anguish.
"Captain Halstead, is there no more speed to be wrung out of this boat?"
"We"re going like the wind, now, Mr. Prescott," Halstead answered. "To try for any more speed would be to endanger either the engine or the propeller."
"Let this young skipper alone, d.i.c.k," whispered Holmes soothingly, in his chum"s ear. "He knows his business, if ever a man did!"
As more miles were covered the red blur against the dark sky became larger and brighter. Prescott and Darrin watched it as though dazed.
Once in a while their hands wandered to their weapons.
"We"ll be there in ten minutes more," announced Halstead finally, after a glance at his watch.
"Thank Heaven!" devoutly muttered two young officers.
"Oh, I hope we"re _in time_!" groaned Lieutenant Hal, turning to Noll Terry.
Three or four enlisted men were on deck. The others, after the cool indifference of their kind until the moment of action comes, were below in the cabin. But every soldier started to his feet as Raney"s voice rang out:
"Ready, men, for a quick landing!"
"You"ll go back out into the stream, won"t you, Halstead?" Lieutenant Overton asked, as Hank directed the "Restless" in toward a dock.
"Joe Dawson will," answered Skipper Tom. "He and I have already drawn lots to see which one of us would stay on the boat."
"You"re not going ash.o.r.e into this hades of riot and arson, are you?"
"Where American women are in danger?" retorted Skipper Tom. "Nothing less than a file of soldiers could keep me back!"
A dozen irregular shots rang out just as Halstead and Hank leaped ash.o.r.e to hold the lines.
"Tumble off there, men. Don"t wait for any gang-plank!" roared Lieutenant Prescott.
Tom Halstead and Hank b.u.t.ts did not attempt to throw the hawsers over posts, but tossed their lines back to the deck as soon as the last soldier was ash.o.r.e. Joe Dawson, taking his place at the wheel, and with one foot against the deck control of the engine, bawled out:
"Good luck to every one of you!"
Hal Overton had swiftly formed his squad in a single rank, ordering the soldiers to fix bayonets. Prescott formed his own squad as a second platoon. As Tom Halstead hastened up he carried a stout cudgel, while Hank b.u.t.ts carried the hitching weight that had made him famous.
As the little relief column moved off the dock and in at the foot of the princ.i.p.al street of Holmesville, the light of burning buildings showed them a highway on which hundreds of maddened human brutes were moving.
Occasionally, from one of the houses still left untouched by flames, a shot was fired. So enraged and occupied were the rioters that they did not perceive the approach of uniformed men.
"Forward, on the double quick!" ordered Lieutenant Hal, s.n.a.t.c.hing his sword from the scabbard. Just ahead the rioters had turned to pour a fusillade of fifty shots into a house from which a revolver shot had been fired.
There was no sense in halting and calling on these maddened rioters to disperse. Hal saw that quickly. Some in the mob saw the soldiers in time to raise a shout, but few of the other rioters heard it.
"Ready to charge! _Charge!_" shouted Lieutenant Hal Overton.
The front rank of soldiers. .h.i.t the edge of the mob with cold steel. That rush and impact seemed to serve only to madden the rioters, and in an instant there was wild hand-to-hand combat.
CHAPTER XXIV
CONCLUSION
Then a score of things happened all at once.
Added to the soldiers" bayonets the swords of four young officers thrust with an effect that opened a way up through the mob.
"_Los soldados!_" sounded a score of voices at once. On top of this came another cry in frantic Spanish: "_Al muerto!_" (to the death!)
One short, broad-shouldered fellow rushed at Lieutenant Hal from the flank, knife uplifted. Hank dropped his. .h.i.tching weight on the fellow"s toes, and the knife-thrust fell short by some three feet. Tom Halstead"s cudgel floored a rascal who aimed a revolver at Hank.
The first squad went through the crowd fast, though leaving a red trail of minor sword and bayonet wounds. The second squad had a harder fight, as the enraged mob, after spreading a bit, closed in. There was still plenty of fight in the rioters, who now realized how small a military force had a.s.sailed them. Dave Darrin was using the b.u.t.t of the borrowed revolver in clubbing every strange head that got within reach of his arm.
"Halt! About face and go back into "em!" ordered Lieutenant Hal. The mob, feeling itself hemmed in between two parallel lines of bayonets, gave sufficiently to let the military party reunite.
"Where"s the Eagle Hotel?" Hal shouted hoa.r.s.ely, as a Texan, rifle in hand, showed himself at an open window.
"Two blocks up. You can"t mistake it!" came back the roaring answer.