During all this time shots were ringing over me. I could hear the
shouts and cheering of men, the trampling of heavy hoofs, and the
clashing of sabres. I knew that some strange deliverance had reached
us. I knew that a skirmish was going on above me, but I could see
nothing. I was below the level of the cliff.
I lay in a terrible suspense, listening. I dared not change my
posture--I dared not move. The weight of the Jarocho's body had
hitherto held my feet securely in the notch; but that was gone, and my
ankles were still tied. A movement and my legs might fall off the limb
and drag me downward. I was faint, too, from the protracted struggle
for life and death, and I hugged the tree and held on like a wounded
squirrel.
The shots seemed less frequent, the shouts appeared to recede from the
cliffs. Then I heard a cheer--an Anglo-Saxon cheer--an American cheer,
and the next moment a well-known voice rang in my ears.
"By the livin' catamount, he's hyur yit! Whooray--whoop! Niver say
die! Hold on, Cap'n, teeth an' toenail! Hyur, boys! clutch on, a lot
o' yer! Quick!--hook my claws, Nat! Now pull--all thegether!--Hooray!"
I felt a strong hand grasping the collar of my coat, and the next moment
I was raised from my perch and landed upon the top of the cliff.
I looked around upon my deliverers. Lincoln was dancing like a lunatic,
uttering his wild, half-Indian yells. A dozen men, in the dark-green
uniform of the "mounted rifles", stood looking on and laughing at this
grotesque exhibition. Close by another party were guarding some
prisoners, while a hundred others were seen in scattered groups along
the ridge, returning from the pursuit of the Jarochos, whom they had
completely routed.
I recognised Twing, and Hennessy, and Hillis, and several other officers
whom I had met before. We were soon _en rapport_, and I could not have
received a greater variety of congratulations had it been the hour after
my wedding.
Little Jack was the guide of the rescue.
After a moment spent in explanation with the major, I turned to look for
Lincoln. He was standing close by, holding in his hands a piece of
lazo, which he appeared to examine with a strange and puzzled
expression. He had recovered from his burst of wild joy and was
"himself again."
"What's the matter, Bob?" I inquired, noticing his bewildered look.
"Why, Cap'n, I'm a sorter bamfoozled yeer. I kin understan' well enuf
how the feller; irked yer inter the tree afore he let go. But how did
this hyur whang kum cuf? An' whar's the other eend?"
I saw that he held in his hand the noose of the lazo which he had taken
from my ankles, and I explained the mystery of how it had "kum cut".
This seemed to raise me still higher in the hunter's esteem. Turning to
one of the riflemen, an old hunter like himself, he whispered--I
overheard him:
"I'll tell yer what it is, Nat: he kin whip his weight in wild-cats or
grizzly b'ars any day in the year--_he_ kin, or my name ain't Bob
Linkin."
Saying this, he stepped forward on the cliff and looked over; and then
he examined the tree, and then the piece of lazo, and then the tree
again, and then he commenced dropping pebbles down, as if he was
determined to measure every object, and fix it in his memory with a
proper distinctness.
Twing and the others had now dismounted. As I turned towards them
Clayley was taking a pull at the major's pewter--and a good long pull,
too. I followed the lieutenant's example, and felt the better for it.
"But how did you find us, Major?"
"This little soldier," said he, pointing to Jack, "brought us to the
rancho where you were taken. From there we easily tracked you to a
large hacienda."
"Ha! you routed the guerilla, then?"
"Routed the guerilla! We saw no guerilla."
"What! at the hacienda?"
"Peons and women; nothing more. Yes, there was, too--what am I thinking
about? There was a party there that routed _us_; Thornley and Hillis
here have both been wounded, and are not likely to recover--poor
fellows!"
I looked towards these gentlemen for an explanation. They were both
laughing, and I looked in vain.
"Hennessy, too," said the major, "has got a stab under the ribs."
"Och, by my soul have I, and no mistake!" cried the latter.
"Come, Major--an explanation, if you please."
I was in no humour to enjoy this joke. I half divined the cause of
their mirth, and it produced in me an unaccountable feeling of
annoyance, not to say pain.
"Be my faith, then, Captain," said Hennessy, speaking for the major, "if
ye must know all about it, I'll tell ye myself. We overhauled a pair of
the most elegant crayteurs you ever clapped eyes upon; and rich--rich as
Craysus--wasn't they, boys?"
"Oh, plenty of tin," remarked Hillis.
"But, Captain," continued Hennessy, "how they took on to your `tiger'!
I thought they would have eaten the little chap, body, bones, and all."
I was chafing with impatience to know more, but I saw that nothing worth
knowing could be had in that quarter. I determined, therefore, to
conceal my anxiety, and find an early opportunity to talk to Jack.
"But beyond the hacienda?" I inquired, changing the subject.
"We trailed you down stream to the canon, where we found blood upon the
rocks. Here we were at fault, when a handsome, delicate-looking lad,
known somehow or other to your Jack, came up and carried us to the
crossing above, where the lad gave us the slip, and we saw no more of
him. We struck the hoofs again where he left us, and followed them to a
small prairie on the edge of the woods, where the ground was strangely
broken and trampled. There they had turned back, and we lost all
trace."
"But how, then, did you come here?"
"By accident altogether. We were striking to the nearest point on the
National Road when that tall sergeant of yours dropped down upon us out
of the branches of a tree."
"Whom did you see, Jack?" I whispered to the boy, after having drawn
him aside.
"I saw them all, Captain."
"Well?"
"They asked where you were, and when I told them--"
"Well--well!"
"They appeared to wonder--"
"Well?"
"And the young ladies--"
"And the young ladies?"
"They ran round, and cried, and--"
Jack was the dove that brought the olive-branch.
"Did they say where they were going?" I inquired, after one of those
sweet waking dreams.
"Yes, Captain, they are going up the country to live."
"Where--where?"
"I could not recollect the name--it was so strange."
"Jalapa? Orizava? Cordova? Puebla? Mexico?"
"I think it was one of them, but I cannot tell which. I have forgotten
it, Captain."
"Captain Haller!" called the voice of the major; "here a moment, if you
please. These are some of the men who were going to hang you, are they
not?"
Twing pointed to _five_ of the Jarachos who had been captured in the
skirmish.
"Yes," replied I, "I think so; yet I could not swear to their identity."
"By the crass, Major, I can swear to ivery mother's son av thim! There
isn't a scoundhrel among thim but has given me rayzon to remimber him,
iv a harty kick in the ribs might be called a rayzon. Oh! ye ugly
spalpeens! kick me now, will yez?--will yez jist be plazed to trid upon
the tail av my jacket?"
"Stand out here, my man," said the major.
Chane stepped forward, and swore away the lives of the five Jarochos in
less than as many minutes.
"Enough!" said the major, after the Irishman had given his testimony.
"Lieutenant Claiborne," continued he, addressing an officer the youngest
in rank, "what sentence?"
"Hang!" replied the latter in a solemn voice.
"Lieutenant Hillis?"
"Hang!" was the reply.
"Lieutenant Clayley?"
"Hang!" said Clayley in a quick and emphatic tone.
"Captain Hennessy?"
"Hang them!" answered the Irishman.
"Captain Haller?"
"Have you determined, Major Twing?" I asked, intending, if possible, to
mitigate this terrible sentence.
"We have no time, Captain Haller," replied my superior, interrupting me,
"nor opportunity to carry prisoners. Our army has reached Plan del Rio,
and is preparing to attack the pass. An hour lost, and we may be too
late for the battle. You know the result of that as well as I."
I knew Twing's determined character too well to offer further
opposition, and the Jarochos were condemned to be hung.
The following extract from the major's report of the affair will show
how the sentence was carried out:
_We killed five of them, and captured as many more, but the leader
escaped. The prisoners were tried, and sentenced to be hung. They
had a gallows already rigged for Captain Haller and his companions,
and for want of a better we hanged them upon that_.