ENOUGH TO MAKE A MEXICAN LAUGH
Though Hal's captor spoke English, he was unquestionably Mexican. His
eyes gleamed with an unholy fire. Young Overton had no doubt that he
recognized the type--a man who believed that he was serving the holy
cause of liberty in his own country, and who would think a _Gringo_ life
of little value if it interfered with the cause of the rebels across the
river.
The sharp point of that knife pressed so insistently against Hal's neck
that the Army boy realized he could not move before the weapon would be
driven into his throat.
"This is where it's wiser to keep still," muttered the young lieutenant
to himself. "My sentries will hear, anyway. They'll soon have this
maniac subdued."
Instead of the sentries four other Mexicans came hurrying up. Nor did
they seem afraid to come running down the open road. And one of these
brown-skinned men was Pedro Guarez himself.
"Aha! You have the dashing young _Gringo_!" laughed Pedro harshly.
"Bueno!" (Good.)
"Take him from me," begged the one who held the knife. "Bind him. We
want no more trouble to-night."
Pedro and the three other new-comers threw themselves upon the young
Army officer, rolling him over on his face and wrenching his arms behind
him for tying.
[Illustration: "His Arms Pinioned To His Sides."]
Yet as he was flopped over Hal had the use of his mouth for an instant.
Regardless of what the consequences might be to him he yelled lustily:
"Sentry! Lieutenant Overton--_trouble_!"
Instead of being angry Pedro Guarez laughed harshly.
"_Gringo_, if you are not more careful we shall have to gag you!"
In record time the young lieutenant's arms were bound at elbow and
wrist. Hal put up a sturdy fight. Had he been on his feet, and
confronting only the fists of his assailants, he might have won. But on
the ground, face downward, with his assailants piling over him, he had
little chance to make trouble.
"He's all right, now," chuckled Guarez. "If he tries to make any more
noise throw him to the ground and gag him. If he shows fight give him
the steel."
Two of the Mexicans seized Lieutenant Hal by the arm on either side,
while Guarez led the way into a stretch of forest.
They were soon at the end of their walk. Lieutenant Overton gave a gasp
of dismay as his gaze fell upon the recumbent forms of six of his men,
every one of them bound. Twenty feet beyond them lay a heap of six
rifles and as many ammunition belts. Hal's eyes roved from face to face,
his men grinning back sheepishly at him.
"All of our sentries for a thousand feet on either side of the pier!"
gasped the young lieutenant, in deep humiliation.
Pedro Guarez, laughing harshly, said to Hal:
"Bah! You _Gringos_ are no men to compete with the sons of Mexico! You
are like children to us, who roam always by night, in preference to the
light of day. And there is much Indian blood in Mexican veins. Now, if
you are wise, no harm will come to you. But if you make a noise or show
fight--_so_!"
Guarez made a significant gesture across his throat.
"How did you men come to be taken, Simms?" asked Hal, of the nearest
soldier, after his captors had forced him to lie on the ground with his
men.
"A Greaser crept up behind me, sir, and threw a noose that got tangled
around my windpipe," replied Private Simms. "He did it so swiftly and
quietly, too, that not even Bolton on the next post heard him."
"I heard nothing, sir," confirmed Private Bolton, "until I heard a
roaring in my own ears just after I got the noose trick, and then a lot
of other Greasers piled on me."
Again Guarez laughed, though he added with a snarl:
"You will do well to stop the use of that word, Greaser, fellow.
Otherwise you will feel the weight of a boot in your face. So!"
Guarez swung his foot back as though intending to plant a vicious kick
in Bolton's face.
"Have done with cowardice, Guarez!" ordered Lieutenant Hal sternly.
"Oh!" sneered the Mexican. "Me? I do as I please, and it would give me
joy to kick your head off."
"I'd bide my time, and make you swallow your own foot in time, if you
did," retorted Hal undauntedly.
"Be not too bold, my very young friend," warned Guarez, "or I shall deal
with you at my leisure by taking you across into Mexico with me
to-night."
"Try it!" dared Hal contemptuously.
For answer Guarez struck his boot lightly against Overton's lips. It was
not a hard blow, nor did it cause any pain, but the meanness of the
action brought the hot blood to Lieutenant Hal's face.
"I'll wait my own time to make you apologize humbly for that, you
contemptible, cowardly Greaser!" broke impetuously from the Army boy's
insulted lips.
An instant after the words were out Lieutenant Hal regretted the use of
the word Greaser. That word, as a term of contempt for people of
another country should not have been uttered by an officer of the Army.
"Bah!" retorted Guarez. "Some other time for you, my young jaguar."
As he went away Guarez signed to his companions, who followed him. There
were now left as guards over the military prisoners two Mexicans. These
were each armed with a forty-five Colt's revolver, and both appeared to
be wholly alert.
"If any one among you calls for help," remarked one of the guards, "my
orders are to reward you with steel."
Throwing back his coat the fellow displayed the hilt of a poniard.
"What's the use of shouting?" demanded Hal indifferently, "when my other
guards are beyond reach of my voice?"
The Mexican laughed quietly, adding something in Spanish in an undertone
to his companion.
"I hope you don't blame us, sir?" asked Private Simms.
"How can I censure any of you?" asked Hal bitterly, "when I was caught
myself by the same easy trick?"
"Don't tell me, after this," muttered Private Simms, "that a Mexican is
stupid and has no brains."
Conversation, though allowed in low tones by the two Mexican guards,
soon died out among the soldiers, every one of whom felt secretly
disgusted and ashamed of himself.
Twenty minutes, or more, passed before Hal, lying with one ear to the
ground, heard the somewhat distant sound of moving horses. Soon after
the roll of wheels came to him. Then, around a corner of the road, not
far away, wagons turned and made toward the shore of the Rio Grande.
"Moving day with you fellows, is it?" demanded Hal of the guard who
spoke English.
The fellow chuckled quietly.
"You've outwitted us, haven't you?" demanded the young lieutenant dryly.
"You're moving munitions of war toward the river. You expect to ship
them soon--but perhaps you won't succeed."
"You may prevent, if you can," laughed the Mexican.
"We shall see what will happen," retorted the Army boy.
"Nothing--so far as you American soldiers are concerned," came the
triumphant answer.
"You shall see," vaunted Hal, though inwardly he groaned. He had been
outwitted, in his first command as an officer, and he could feel the hot
shame of the whole thing.
"But I don't see how you fellows can get anything out of Guarez's barn,
unless you have been able to noose the whole of the sergeant's guard
posted there."
Another laugh, and one of undisguised, unmistakable merriment, escaped
the Mexican.
"Eh?" wondered Hal, for that laugh set him to thinking. Yet he did not
pretend to himself that he could fathom what lay behind that laugh.
"It is our night to laugh," explained the guard.
"Your merriment is ill-timed, then," growled young Overton. "Wait until
you have all your war stuff on Mexican soil before you laugh again!"
"My time to laugh is every time that I look at you seven brave
_soldados_, tied up like so many chickens for the butcher," grinned the
guard. "In the meantime, our boat must now be at the pier, and soon she
will be laden. Then--ah, well, there will be rejoicing on the other side
of the Rio Grande!"
"I'll wager there'll be rejoicing," thought Lieutenant Hal. "And, as for
me, I'm an officer with a blasted reputation. I've failed with my first
chance to do my duty!"
In sheer disgust with himself, though he was really little if any at
fault, Lieutenant Hal Overton, U. S. Army, rolled further over that he
might cool his hot face against the cool earth.