CHAPTER XII.
THE BATTLE AT THE CAVE.
Mustering his band, the captain of the rurales quickly formed his planof attack. Ten of the company were to seize the two boats at the mouthof the creek and take their positions at the side of the big rock, whoseslippery top had proved so disastrous to Billie. Ten others were tosecrete themselves on the bank of the stream opposite the water entranceto the cave. The balance of the band were to force the door whose outerguard had been overpowered and bound by Donald and Adrian.
Having thus disposed his forces, the captain started with his divisionof thirty toward the door, with the understanding that he would notattempt to force an entrance until a shot from the river should advisehim that the water forces were in position.
"What will you have us do?" asked Donald.
"Keep out of the way, so that you will not be shot," laughed thecaptain. "That's the proper thing for boys."
"We're not that kind of boys," declared Adrian.
"Oh, well then," answered the captain, "you just skirmish around on theoutside to pick up any who might succeed in getting away! I don't thinkyou'll have a great deal to do, for my men intend to bag the entireband."
The plan suited the boys first rate and they proceeded immediately totake advantage of the instructions.
"I'll have to station myself somewhere in short range," declared Donald."Having loaned Billie my Marlin, I have nothing but my six-shooter."
"I reckon that'll be sufficient. It looks to me as though the wholething would be at short range and of short duration. I hope so. We'renot down here looking for trouble."
"That's surely the truth," laughed Donald, "but somehow or other, weseem to have a faculty of getting mixed up in all sorts of things."
"That's because you are always trying to help some one out of trouble,"declared Pedro. "If it had not been for me, you would never have beenmixed up in this at all."
"It does look that way, doesn't it?" laughed Adrian. "But appearancesare sometimes deceitful, eh Don?" and he gave Donald a knowing look.
"They sure are; but let's be hunting a place where we may be ofservice."
"I'll tell you what," exclaimed Adrian after they had stood undecidedfor several minutes, trying to decide upon a position of vantage, "let'sstation ourselves on that little knoll just above the door. Then if anyshould get by those guarding the river entrance I could pick them upwith my rifle; while if any should be able to dash past the captain'sparty, you can stop them with your Colt."
"How about me?" asked Pedro.
"You can either stay with us, or follow Don Antonio."
"I think I'll stay with you. As you say, you seem to have a faculty forgetting mixed up in things and this is one of the things I want a handin."
The boys had hardly reached the place they had selected, when a shotfrom the river front told that the flanking party had taken its positionand a minute later the boys could hear the blows that were being rainedupon the door to force it from its place.
"It isn't quite as easy a job as the captain thought," said Donald afterthe battering had continued for several minutes.
"I should say not!" declared Adrian. "He never will get in that way. Whydoesn't he blow it open?"
"Maybe he doesn't know how!"
"Then we'd better go and show him! He's wasting time."
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the air was rent by aterrific explosion and great pieces of rock and a cloud of dust and dirtwere thrown high into the air, almost burying the Broncho Rider Boys andtheir companion in the debris.
The smugglers had fired a mine which had been arranged for just such anattack.
As soon as the boys could gain their feet and free themselves from thepile of dirt which had been thrown up, they turned their attention tothe rurales to see what might have been the damage done. Fortunately itwas slight. Two men had been killed and three wounded, but notseriously. The worst feature of the explosion was that the rear entranceto the cave had been so blocked with the falling rock, that an entrancewas impossible without much digging and clearing away of the rubbish.
However, if the rurales could not get in, neither could the smugglersget out, except by the river entrance. That they had no desire to do sowas soon evident, for before the main force, accompanied by the boys,could reach the river front, the smugglers--or as many as could be loadedinto three skiffs--emerged from the cave on the river side.
That they had not expected to meet any resistance in that quarter wasevident from the fact that they were not at all prepared to fight, nordid they take any precaution to defend themselves until greeted by avolley from the rurales stationed on the opposite side of the creek.
But no sooner had they received the first volley, than they turnedsharply up stream and a minute later replied with a well directed fire.
Immediately thereafter the ten men who had been posted behind the bigrock clambered up to the top and from this position of vantage poured avolley into the boats. Almost at the same moment the captain led themain force around from the other side, thus taking the boats between twofires.
Seeing their hopeless position and realizing that they were greatlyoutnumbered, the smugglers threw down their arms and surrendered. Theboats were quickly drawn ashore and the captured smugglers landed andplaced under a guard.
"There must be at least as many more," said Donald to the captain, whenhe had counted the prisoners and found there were only twenty-four."During our scouting we have seen fully forty."
"Is that true?" the captain asked one of the prisoners.
"_Quien sabe_" was the unsatisfactory reply.
"You don't know, eh?" said the captain.
"No, _senor capitan_."
"Perhaps I can help you," said the captain. Then turning to one of hismen: "Here, corporal, stand this man up against that rock, and if hedoesn't answer by the time I count ten, shoot him."
Without a word the corporal obeyed and told off six men as a firingsquad. The smuggler's hands were tied behind him and he was placed withhis back to the rock, while the rurales with carbines leveled stoodready to fire.
"Look, you," said the captain as he took his position a little to oneside. "At the word ten the men will fire and I shall not count veryslowly either. Ready. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight----"
"There are forty-five besides the captain and Santiago," broke forth thesmuggler.
"Nine, ten, fire," finished the captain, and at the word the carbinescracked and the smuggler pitched forward and lay motionless!
An exclamation of horror burst from both the American boys.
"Captain!" cried Donald. "It's murder."
"How could you after he had spoken!" exclaimed Adrian.
The captain shrugged his shoulders and lighted a cigarette.
"It had to be done sooner or later. It might as well be now as later."
"But you broke your word!"
"Not at all. I told him if he did not speak I would shoot. I did nottell him I would not shoot if he did. You Americans are tootender-hearted."
"I shall report the case to your superior officer," declared Donald.
Again the captain shrugged his shoulders.
"I shall report it myself," he said. "The man simply tried to escape andwe shot him. It is the _ley de fuga_."[2]
"Can such things be?" queried Adrian.
"You can see that they are," answered Don Antonio, who had come up intime to hear the conversation. "In dealing with men of this class, whenrevolution is plotted on every hand, things are done in Mexico whichwould not be done could a stable government be established."
"Before we are through with this band, you may wish that more of themcould be thus disposed of," declared the captain. "Remember that youhave a companion in there who has not yet been rescued."
The boys started as though they had been stung. In the excitement of thetragedy they had just witnessed Billie had passed entirely from theirthoughts.
"We're a nice pair of chums, ain't
we?" exclaimed Adrian. "No knowingwhat is going on inside that cave. Let's get busy."
Without waiting to see what the others might be going to do, Adrianstarted on a run for the window in the cave.
"If I can't do anything more," he thought, "I can at least tell Billieto keep up his courage! I wish I was in there with him."
As he climbed up the mound, he noted that a little volume of smoke wascoming out of the window, which now served as a chimney for the cell inwhich Billie was confined.
"Powder smoke!" he exclaimed as he drew near enough to get a whiff. "Itmust be from the explosion."
He bent over the hole and tried to look into the cell, but could seenothing.
"Billie!" he called; but there was no response.
Again he called, this time more loudly, but still there was no answer,and Adrian's heart fairly stood still with apprehension.
"I wonder what can be the matter?" he gasped. "By George, I wish I wasin there!"
He had hardly uttered the words, when the place on which he was standingseemed to give way beneath his feet and he felt himself slowly falling.
It was not a long nor a hard fall, and, as he felt himself once more ona solid foundation, and looked up toward the sky, he saw he had notfallen more than twenty or twenty-five feet. What had really happenedwas that the roof of the cell, cracked by the explosion, had caved inwith Adrian's weight, and he was in the very place he was wishing hewas, although the condition of the cell had materially changed sinceDonald had looked down into it less than twenty minutes before.
Before the explosion, the cell had been a room some thirty feet squareand twenty or more feet high. Now it was half filled with dirt andpieces of rock, the door which had guarded its entrance had beencrushed, and through the opening Adrian caught a glimpse of the frontentrance to the cave and the water beyond.
But there was no sign of Billie or the smugglers.
Pulling himself together and grasping his Marlin firmly, so as to beready for any emergency, Adrian stepped cautiously toward the brokendoor. Hiding himself as well as he could behind the shattered casemate,he peered out into the cave.
The room was empty and at first there appeared no way in which thesmugglers could have left except by the river, seeing which Adrianbreathed easier.
"They must have gone out like the others," he thought, "and have beencaptured by the rurales."
Having arrived at this decision, he walked boldly out toward the riverentrance.
But he had not advanced ten paces into the main cave before a noose fellsilently over his shoulders, and he felt himself jerked violentlybackward.
The very act, however, caused him to tighten his grip upon his rifle,and the weapon was discharged, the report vibrating with an echo thatmade it seem almost a cannonade. At the same time his head came intocontact with the hard floor with such force that it completely stunnedhim.
In the moment of consciousness between the report of the rifle and thetime his head struck the floor, he saw a figure leap forward out of thedarkness, and as he lost consciousness the sound of his own rifle seemedto be taken up and echoed back by an innumerable number.
And that was just exactly what happened.
The figure that had leaped forward was Donald, and the volley came fromthe carbines of a score of rurales, who had followed him into the cave,and fired pointblank at the smugglers over Adrian's prostrate form. Thelariat in the hands of one of the smugglers had pulled Adrian to theearth, just in time to save him from the fire of the rurales.
For the next few minutes the battle in the cave raged with the utmostfierceness. The smugglers had taken their stand in an alcove, hewn intoone side of the cave, a little above the floor level. A projecting shelfafforded them a slight shelter, and from this partially fortifiedposition, they made a desperate fight. In fact, they were doing greatdamage among the rurales, and it had begun to look as though they mightsucceed in driving them to shelter, when a rattle of shots from theirrear completely disconcerted them, and they threw down their guns andcalled out that they surrendered.
The next instant there emerged, seemingly out of the solid rock, threefigures with blackened faces and tattered garments, who advanced towardthe rurales. They were Billie, Santiago and Guadalupe.
"Don't shoot!" cried Billie, as the rurales, thinking them some new foe,raised their carbines. "We are friends!"
"Billie!" shouted Donald, dropping his revolver and grasping his stoutcomrade in both arms. "What has happened to you?"
"We were in the explosion."
"You look like you had been in a coal mine. Are you hurt?"
"Not a scratch--none of us!"
"Then look after Ad, while I help dispose of these cutthroats."
"Ad!" exclaimed Billie. "Is he hurt?"
"I don't know. There he is. Find out and do something for him as soon aspossible."
Billie hastened to do Donald's bidding, but Santiago was before him. Heraised the boy's head onto his knee, and from a small flask forced a fewdrops of liquid down his throat. A moment later Adrian opened his eyes,gave one look at the two blackened faces before him, and uttered a yellthat brought everyone to "attention" as though a bomb had exploded.
"What is it?" asked Donald, jumping to Adrian's side.
"That's what I want to know! What is it?" pointing his finger at Billie.
Donald burst into a loud laugh. He had been under the most intenseexcitement for hours, and, as the ludicrousness of the situation struckhim, he could not have kept from laughing had a howitzer been pointed athis head. His overwrought feelings simply relaxed, and he fairlyscreamed with laughter.
Realizing the humor of the situation, Billie speedily joined in, and thecombined laughter of the two was so infectious that, without at allunderstanding what it was about, the rurales and smugglers also began tolaugh. It is probable that no battle ever fought had such a remarkableending.
For Adrian, it was the best thing that could have happened, for itbrought him to himself, and he discovered at once who the threeblack-faced individuals were; but it was a bad thing for the rurales.While they were indulging in their most enjoyable recreation, Don Rafaelquietly withdrew into the darkness and disappeared into the openingthrough which Billie and Santiago had made their entrance.
Footnote:
[2]: Fugitive law.