THE FIELD HOSPITAL IN OPERATION.
"What happened to the ambushers, Rob?" Andy inquired.
The scout master was beginning to look around in the throng of cheering
Mexicans for Lopez, who must again act as interpreter for him if he
expected the rebel captain to grasp certain ideas he had evolved while
slowly making his way down from the lofty lookout.
"Oh!" replied Rob, with a laugh, "they slid out from under when things
began to get too warm for their blood."
"What! d'ye mean they got clear away, and never left one feller on the
gory field of action?" grumbled Tubby.
"Why, you're getting real blood-thirsty, Tubby!" said Rob. "I'm surely
astonished to hear you talk like that!"
"But wouldn't it give you a real hard pain to see how the fellers that
came back with you are strutting around and grinning! Why, that little
runt with the gay jacket slaps himself on his chest every half minute,
like he'd knocked over sixteen Regulars all by his lonely! What airs
they take on! And yet you say every Fed got clean away? Huh! we've heard
a heap of shootin' since we came on the spot; but only one man was hurt,
and Merritt fixed him up fine. I reckon he broke his arm trying to
hustle and get under shelter!"
"Wait here for me, boys," Rob said; "if Lopez won't show up I'll have to
hunt for him, because it's important to do something right away, or
they'll be taken by surprise after all."
"Sort of like I've heard my dad tell: 'If the mountain won't come to
Mohammed, why Mohammed must go to the mountain.' Well, come right back
again, Rob, when you get through talking with Lopez, because we want to
know some things."
Rob soon found the guide in the crowd. Lopez was doing his share of
shouting and hand-shaking, and even the women and children were taking
part in the demonstration. It amused the boy about as much as anything
he had ever seen.
"They're a queer lot," he told himself, suppressing a grin as he came up
to the guide; "you'd think they'd done something real wonderful, now,
instead of chasing up that rise and scaring off three skulkers who
didn't want to fight at all. But then, I kind of think, these fellows
can do considerable scrapping when once they get down to it. And they
may have to yet, unless all signs fail before help comes."
Lopez, seeing his employer beckoning, quickly joined him.
"We ought not to be loafing the minutes away like this, Lopez," Rob
began. "From what I saw when I was up there, chances are we'll have a
shower of bullets dropping down on us from both sides before long. And
think what that will mean when the women and children and unarmed
travelers can't depend on the cars to hide them!"
Even Lopez seemed to be suitably impressed by the gravity of the
conditions.
"The young señor has a plan? Let him tell it, and I will surely inform
the brave captain of the valiant defenders of the train," he hastened to
say.
Lopez had been studying Rob all the time that they had been in company,
and evidently by now he had come to the conclusion that the boy was
equal to any emergency. Plans seemed to be as easy for him to originate
as for Lopez to roll a cigarette with his nimble fingers.
"Yes, I happened to notice a spot close to the foot of the hill as I was
coming down that would afford shelter not only for the women and
children, but for our horses as well. Some of the rebels have animals,
too, and the Federals have been mean enough to shoot at them. Two lie
out there now, done to death. Let the captain know about this so that he
may order everybody who is not a fighter to get under cover in this
sunken spot among the rocks right away. Minutes may count with us,
Lopez."
"Si, señor, right away will I do the same," replied the willing guide,
hurrying to the side of the captain. He must have explained the
situation to the commander of the rebels in few words, because presently
several men advanced toward Rob, Lopez and the leader among them.
"He has sent word to everybody to follow," explained the guide, as they
came up, "and asks that you lead the way to the fort, señor."
So Rob beckoned to the other three scouts, and upon their coming up, he
directed:
"Bring the five horses, boys; we're going to hide the lot with the women
and kids in a rocky retreat close by, where they'll be safe from flying
lead."
"That's a hunky idea!" declared Andy. "I was just bothering my head
trying to think what we could do to protect our mounts; because, seeing
how the cowardly Federals aimed to cut down the horses when they
couldn't hit a man, made me reckon we might have to continue our journey
afoot. We'll be right along after you, Rob. I'll see to your nag, and
Merritt will take care of the guide's broncho."
Meanwhile, some of the rebels had made the crowd understand that they
must leave the train for a brief time, because it would soon be as much
as their lives were worth to remain out in the open. Once the enemy
started shooting from both sides, the chances of being struck were bound
to be tenfold as great as when they could hide behind the cars and use
them as a fortress.
Some of the fugitives showed considerable concern about even temporarily
abandoning the train; they acted as though they had treasures of some
sort hidden in the luggage that was stored inside the cars. But the
rebels would not stand for any delay or quibbling; and as a consequence
the entire party, numbering almost a hundred, took up a line of march
after Rob and the advance guard, heading directly toward the nearby foot
of the rise.
Trailing in and out among the large rocks that lay around near the base,
the young scout master led the way to the protected "sink" where the
fugitives from Chihuahua could find shelter while the coming battle
raged.
A couple of minutes later the three boys came up with all the horses
belonging to Rob's party. Others among the rebels, understanding what
was going on and able to take a hint, made haste to fetch the rest of
the animals; for there was plenty of room in the sink to afford a
shelter for all.
"Say, this wouldn't make a bad sort of fort, would it?" Tubby remarked,
as he glanced around at the rock walls that arose on nearly every side.
"Now, tell me, Rob, why shouldn't the whole outfit stay in here, instead
of sticking to the open and dodging bullets around that old train?"
"Why, don't you see," replied the other, always willing to oblige a
comrade, "if the fighting men stayed here they could never tell where
the enemy was located; and the consequence would be that the Regulars
could drop down here and proceed to pour a hot fire right in among the
bunch. No, that would never do, and the rebel captain knows it, too.
Back to the train for us, boys. There we'll be in a position to see
whatever fighting happens along."
"And what is our share of the row going to be, Rob?" asked Andy
anxiously.
"Oh! don't bother about that--yet!" said Rob quietly. "If there happens
to be a lot of men struck, why we'll show them how scouts learn to
bandage wounds and render first aid to the injured. I'd do that for a
Federal just as quick as for a rebel, because we're supposed to be
neutrals in this Mexican mix-up, you understand. So we'll try and
imagine ourselves Red Cross workers for the time being."
"Well, the fun's going to begin right away, I reckon!" Andy called out,
as there came the sharp crack of a gun from up on the side of the hill
which, before this, had been entirely free from the enemy.
"Whee! Hear that bullet let out a yell as it jumped by over our heads,
did you?" gasped Tubby, trying to make himself as small as possible and
not meeting with very much success, for reasons that all of his chums
could easily understand.
There was an immediate scurrying around of the rebels, each man trying
to find some place where he could be safe from the rain of lead that
would soon be falling.
A number stuck to the cars, believing they could manage to lie low and
escape damage; while others, like the four boys, preferred to trust to
the outlying rocks that in places offered little harbors of refuge.
In five minutes there was quite an exchange of shots going on, so that
things began to seem "pretty lively," as Andy called it.
Acting on the advice of Rob, all of them had spread out what linen
bandages they carried in their packs, as well as other things calculated
to be of use in case of wounds.
"If I had dreamed that we should have to play the part of field
hospital," Rob remarked, "I would have made sure to bring an extra
supply along. But in case we run short of bandages, why there's that big
night-shirt Tubby fetched, under the foolish impression he was going to
sleep like he does at home. And when that's gone we'll begin on his day
shirt. Like enough it will fill the bill!"
Tubby hardly knew whether to take this in the light of a joke or not.
"Now, I don't mind giving up the useless sack in my pack, because
several times I've been tempted to throw it away before some of you
fellers began to josh me about it; but I do draw the line about handing
over my spotted flannel shirt that I'm wearing right now to be torn into
bandages, and wrapped about the arms of these dirty--er, I mean, brave
señors who are fighting so hard."
"Here comes a fellow who's got his dose, I guess, Rob," said Merritt, as
one of the rebels staggered toward their little enclosure, holding his
left arm rigidly with the clenched fingers of his right hand and trying
to suppress a look of pain on his swarthy face.
The Federals attempted to add to his troubles by shooting at him, so
that the dust arose in several little spurts around his feet as he came
on; but luckily he was not struck again, and soon sank down with a groan
at the feet of the "gringo" boys, who had let it be known that they were
ready to treat any and all wounds.
Rob immediately took the man in hand. He had several pails of water
handy, and was thus enabled to wash the fellow's arm first of all. It
turned out that he had received a pretty serious hurt. It made Tubby
shudder, but the fat scout showed plenty of grit, for he volunteered to
assist Rob in any way possible.
Between them the wound was so well taken care of that when the bandage
had been fastened the man declared in broken English that he was
grateful, and would now dodge back to where he had dropped his gun,
hoping to repay some venturesome Regular for his injury.
"There, I reckoned they had plenty of pluck once they got started!" Rob
declared, on seeing the man run across the open space, jumping in a
zig-zag fashion when the lead began to patter around him.
Another came crawling into the hospital, having also been touched; and
before he could be discharged a third bounded toward them, now stopping
to limp, as though he hardly knew where he was hurt.
"This is going some, let me tell you!" said Merritt.
"Good practice for us scouts, all the same," Tubby declared, puffing out
his big chest with a suspicion of pride, and then as quickly subsiding
when he heard a bullet spatter on the rock not three feet away, so that
particles of stone even tingled his cheek.
For some time the battle at the stalled train continued, until hundreds
of shots had been fired on either side and some seven or more rebels had
been ministered to by the young field surgeons. But so far as the boys
knew, there had thus far been no fatalities, at least on their side.
Though no one could say whether or not any of the Federals up there
among the rocks on the slope had been struck by the bullets the rebels
continued to send aloft so industriously.