we all were on our feet in a moment and had our arms ready, for it was
evident that Dennis was running from something; and the danger was
likely to be a serious one, for running was not at all in Dennis's line.
We wondered why he did not call out; but the explanation of his silence
was plain enough, ten seconds later, as he came around the shoulder of
the hill, staggered in among us, and fell on the grass at our feet--with
the blood streaming from his mouth and nostrils, and with an arrow clear
through his breast.
"Indians!" he gasped, with an effort that brought a torrent of blood
spurting from his mouth; and he added, faintly, "But I've bate 'em, th'
divvils, in their hopes of a soorprise!"
These triumphant words were the last that Dennis Kearney uttered on
earth. As he spoke, a fresh outburst of blood came from his nostrils and
mouth, a quiver went over him--and then he was dead. I do not believe
that many men would have done what Dennis did: run a good quarter of a
mile with an arrow through his lungs, and then die exulting because he
had succeeded in warning the camp.
Rayburn had the situation instantly in hand. "Get the packs and saddles
on quick!" he cried. "The Indians 'll come around that hill and try to
scoop us here in the open. They won't close in; they'll keep off, and
just lie around for a week till we're played out, and then they'll step
in and finish us; they'll do that, likely enough, anyway. But our one
chance is to get to a place up the valley here, where they can tackle us
only from in front. There's water up there, so we'll be all right, and
we may be able to shoot enough of them to make the rest give it up, or
they'll close in, and we'll have the comfort of getting the whole thing
ended without any useless fooling over it."
All the while that he spoke he was working away, and so were we all, at
saddling and packing; and, luckily, the animals, although the water and
the food and the rest had put new strength into them, still were too
tired to give us the trouble that animals give at such times when they
are fresh. In a surprisingly short time we were ready to start; and yet
not a sign had we had, save the warning that Dennis had brought us, that
there was an Indian within a hundred miles of us. Indeed, but for his
dead body on the ground beside our camp-fire, we might have imagined
that our scare was only a bad dream. That it was a very bad reality was
shown just as the last pack went on, when one of our Otomí Indians gave
a howl as an arrow went through his leg, and I felt a sharp little nip
on my forehead where an arrow just grazed it, and there was that queer,
faint whirring sound in the air that only a flight of a good many arrows
together will produce.
Rayburn took the body of poor Dennis before him on his own horse; he'd
be d----d if the Indians should get Dennis yet, he said; and away we
went up the sandy bed of the _arroyo_, driving the mules before us, and
the Otomí Indians pelting along on a dead-run. The Indian who had been
hit coolly broke the arrow off short, and then pulled it out through the
wound.
Suddenly we saw Young, who was riding a little ahead of the rest of us,
half pull up his horse and look earnestly at a great shoulder of rock
that jutted out from the mountain-side. "There's your King's symbol,
and be d----d to it!" he shouted; and added, "What's the good of a
King's symbol when we're all goin' to lose our hair?"
He was under full head-way again in a moment. As we shot past the rock we
all turned to look; and there, sure enough, was the long-sought-for
sign.
VII.
THE FIGHT IN THE CAÑON.
As we fled along the valley, and in a few moments heard the sound of the
Indians pursuing us, my mind was chiefly occupied with considerations of
the quality which we denominate fear. I perceived that this purely
occasional passion had a very direct bearing upon my own especial
science of archæology. I reflected that had I been engaged in building a
city at the moment when that irritating flight of arrows fell among
us----the sting of one of which I still felt smarting upon my
forehead----I should assuredly have ceased at once the building of that
city, and should have moved rapidly away. And thus an excellently
well-built city, that would have delighted archæologists of the future,
would have been lost to the world. Putting the matter yet more closely:
here I had just found the sign for which I and my companions had been
toilsomely searching for a considerable time; the sign which
unquestionably would lead us to the most interesting archæological
discovery that ever had been made. And yet, instead of stopping to
study this sign earnestly, that I might understand all the meaning of
it, I was hastening away from it with all possible speed; and for no
better reason than that certain barbarians, whose knowledge of
archæology was not even rudimentary, were pursuing me that they might
take my life--an imperfectly expressed concept, by-the-way; for life can
be taken only in the limited sense of depriving another of it; it cannot
be taken in the full sense of deprivation and acquisition combined.
These several reflections so stirred my bile against the Indians in
pursuit of us that I began to have a curiously blood-thirsty longing for
our actual battling with them to begin; for I was possessed by a most
unscientific desire to balance our account by killing several of them.
And I confess that this desire was increased as I looked at the dead
body of poor Dennis, lying limply across the fore-shoulders of Rayburn's
horse.
It was with real satisfaction, therefore, that I obeyed Rayburn's order
to halt, that we might make ready for the fight to begin. The valley up
which we had been riding had narrowed by this time into a strait way
shut in between high and nearly perpendicular walls; and the place that
Rayburn had chosen for us to make our stand in was the mouth of a cañon
setting off from the valley nearly at right angles. The walls of this
cañon came almost together above, far overhanging their bases, so that
assault from overhead was impossible; some fragments of fallen rock made
a natural breastwork for us to fight behind; and a little stream of
pure, sweet water flowed at our feet. Had this place been made for us
expressly it could not better have suited our purposes; and finding it
so opportunely put fresh heart into us. There was not, of course, a
shadow of resemblance between the two, but, somehow, I fancied that the
place where we stood resembled my old class-room at Ann Arbor; and I
actually found myself repeating the opening sentence of the address that
I delivered when I was formally inducted into the Chair of Topical
Linguistics. I mention this fact not because it is of the slightest
importance in this present narrative, but because I think that it well
illustrates the tendency towards illogical association that is so
curious a characteristic of the human mind.
I was not able to observe this phenomenon attentively, for Rayburn
hustled us all about so sharply that I had no available time just then
for abstract thought. The mules and the horses and El Sabio were driven
into the cañon, and we were ranged behind the fragments of rock almost
in a moment. Each man had his Winchester and revolvers in readiness, and
a couple of cases of cartridges had been broken out from the packs and
put where we all had easy access to them. While this work was going
forward we could hear the Indians coming hotly up the valley, and we
were barely ready for them when the foremost of their party came in
sight.
"Wait a little," said Rayburn, quietly. "They don't know which turn
we've taken, and they'll probably get into a bunch to do some talking,
and then we can whack away right into the flock."
While we were thus making ready I could see that Fray Antonio was in
great distress of mind. He was a very brave man, and I know that his
strong desire was to fight with the rest of us. And yet, just as the
Indians showed themselves, he deliberately turned his back upon them and
walked away into the cañon's depths. His very lips were white, and there
were beads of sweat upon his brow, and I saw that his fingers twitched
convulsively. I know what he wanted to do, and I saw what he did. If
ever a man showed the high bravery of moral courage, Fray Antonio showed
it then. Even Young, in whom I did not look for appreciation of bravery
of that sort, said afterwards that it was the pluckiest thing he ever
saw.
As Rayburn had expected, the Indians halted--but keeping more under
cover than he had counted upon--and held some sort of a council. But it
did not seem, from what we could see of their gestures, to relate to the
way that we might have taken so much as to the cañon in which we
actually were concealed. They pointed towards the mouth of the cañon
repeatedly, and it struck me that in their motions there was a curious
indication of dread or awe. One old man was especially vehement in
gestures of this unaccountable nature; and when at last the younger men
in the council seemed to revolt against his orders, this man, and all
the older men with him, retired down the valley whence they had come.
[Illustration: THE FIGHT IN THE CAÑON]
The young men, left to themselves, hesitated for a moment, and then with
a cry--as though for their own encouragement--came charging towards us
in a body. As we got a full view of them we perceived with much
satisfaction that their only arms were bows and arrows and long spears,
and that there were not more than twenty men in the lot. And then
Rayburn gave the order to fire. I confess that my hand so trembled as I
pulled the trigger of my rifle that I was not at all surprised to find
that the man whom I had fired at--a very tall, powerful young fellow,
who seemed to be in command--was not hit; but a man just behind him
dropped, and I had a queer feeling in my throat, and certain odd
sensations in my stomach, as I realized that I had shot him. Indeed, I
was so engrossed with meditations upon the curious ease with which a
man's life is let out of him, that I quite forgot for some seconds to
continue firing. The others, luckily, conducted themselves in a more
practical manner; and the little whirlwind of balls which sped from the
Winchesters made it wonderful, not that so many of the Indians fell dead
or wounded, as that any of them remained alive and unhurt. But eight of
them did survive their charge in the face of the storm of bullets that
we pelted at them; and these--headed by the tall fellow, who seemed
bullet-proof--came rushing at us over our breastwork of rocks, shouting
and flourishing their long spears.
I cannot say very accurately what happened during the next five minutes
or so, for one of the Indians came directly at me, and before I could at
all stop him--for I found that shooting at him with my revolver did him
no harm at all; and this struck me as odd, for I had repeatedly hit the
mark while practising in the corral--he had prodded his spear through
the fleshy part of my left arm. It hurt severely. He had aimed his
thrust, doubtless, at my heart, and he certainly would have penetrated
that vital organ had I not at that moment slipped, and so disarranged
his aim. He pulled the spear out of my arm, which action also gave me
great pain, and his manner indicated that he was about to thrust it into
some other part of me; which he surely could have done, for I was wholly
at a loss as to what measures should be taken to assure my own safety.
Indeed, I was very well convinced that my life was as good as ended, and
a curious flash of thought went through me that I cannot coherently
remember, but that was in the nature of a query as to whether or not in
a future state the many scientific truths which as yet are but
imperfectly understood will be wholly revealed to us.
However, the opportunity that I confidently expected would be given to
me in a moment to obtain an answer to this interesting question did not
then occur. Just as the Indian was lunging at me--I can see his ugly
face now, as I close my eyes and let my thoughts turn backward to that
critical moment--there was a flash of some bright object before me, and
then the Indian's entire head seemed to shut up suddenly, something like
an opera-glass, and he went down to the ground like a stone. As I
turned, I saw that my deliverance had come from Pablo, and even in that
very exciting moment I observed with astonishment that the weapon with
which he had slain the Indian was a great jagged sword--if the
_maccuahuitl_ can be called a sword--such as the Aztecs used in ancient
times. I could not then conveniently stop to question him whence he had
obtained that very interesting weapon, for there was another Indian
already close upon me; and I am pleased to say--for I do not wish the
belief to go abroad that scientific men are worse than useless in
practical emergencies--that, without assistance from Pablo or from
anybody else, I managed to pick up my rifle, and with the heavy iron
barrel of that weapon, used clubwise, I mashed the head of that Indian
into a perfect pulp. I know positively that I mashed it into a pulp, for
I tried afterwards to measure it, and found that for craniological
purposes it was utterly valueless.
Even had I required Pablo's aid in this encounter he could not possibly
have given it to me, for he was himself just then very hotly engaged.
Indeed, but for assistance that come to him from an unexpected quarter
his life assuredly would have been lost. He was in the act of hauling
back to strike at the fellow facing him, and he did not at all know that
he was in imminent danger of a thrust in the back from a wounded wretch
who, having struggled upon his knees, was using what little life was
left in him to deliver yet another blow. Just at this critical instant
it was that Fray Antonio dashed into the thick of the fighting, and
covered Pablo's body with his own against this assault in the rear; so
that, as the Indian struck, the knife only cut through the monk's habit
and slightly scratched his arm, instead of making a hole between Pablo's
shoulder-blades that would have let the life out of him. Young, who was
close beside Pablo, saw what was going on, and checked it before further
harm was done by turning quickly and shooting off the top of the wounded
Indian's head; and then Fray Antonio retired out of the fighting in
which, without himself striking a blow, he had taken so gallant a part.
So far as I was concerned, the fight was at an end when I had so
cleverly mashed the head of my second assailant. No more Indians came at
me, and as I looked around I perceived that this was for the excellent
reason that there were no more to come. Two were just advancing on
Young; who had them covered with his revolver, and dropped them, one
after the other, in less time than is required to tell about it. The
only other survivor among the enemy--at least the only one able to keep
his feet--was the tall young chief, and he and Rayburn were just
finishing the last round of what probably was as fine a fight as ever
was fought. They were well matched in size and in weight; and if the
Indian was any stronger than Rayburn, I can only say that he must have
been a most wonderfully strong man. They were fighting on even terms;
for the Indian was armed only with a short club, that he held in his
left hand--and this left-handed method made him all the more awkward to
deal with--while Rayburn, having emptied his revolver, was using as a
club its heavy barrel.
As I caught sight of them, the Indian was in the act of springing
forward and delivering a tremendous blow; but Rayburn most skilfully
parried this blow by throwing out his rifle, still retained in his left
hand, in such a manner and with such force that the Indian's arm--at
the same time striking and being struck with the iron barrel--was broken
just above the wrist. He gave a yell of pain, as he well might; but he
was a plucky fellow, and instead of dropping his club he only shifted it
to his right hand. He never had a chance to strike again with it; for in
that same instant Rayburn swung his revolver at arm's-length through the
air and brought it down on his head with a sound so muffled and so
hollow that I can liken it only to the staving-in of the head of a full
cask. For a moment, while Rayburn drew back to strike again, the
Indian's body swayed heavily; and then all his muscles relaxed, and he
fell heavily and limply to the ground--while his brains spurted out from
the ghastly trench made by that mighty blow from back to front across
the entire top of his skull.
VIII.
AFTER THE FIGHT.
Rayburn stood panting for a moment over the Indian's body; and then,
having satisfied himself by a look around among our fallen enemies that
every one of them was either dead or dying, he stooped down beside the
stream to drink from it, and then to bathe an ugly gash in his forehead
made by a spear thrust that luckily had glanced aside.
Indeed, we all had wounds or bruises by which we were likely to
remember our fight for a good many days to come. In addition to the cut
on his forehead, Rayburn had an arm badly bruised by a crack from a
club; Young had a cut in the calf of his leg that must have been made by
one of the Indians after he had fallen wounded; Fray Antonio had the
slight cut in his arm that he received in rescuing Pablo; a blow from a
club on my shoulder had completely disabled my left arm, and my head was
beginning to ache from the wound in my forehead where the arrow had
nipped me; and Pablo, by a square knock-down blow on the head that
tumbled him among the rocks, had a bad gash in his cheek and was bruised
all over. And yet the very first thing that boy did when the fight was
ended--being still dazed, no doubt, by the blow on his head--was to play
a bit of "Rory O'More" on his mouth-organ in order to make sure that his
beloved "instrumentito" had not been injured by his fall. The sound of
this air gave my heart a wrench, as I thought of poor Dennis; whose
gallant race with death assuredly had saved all of us from dying without
a chance to strike a blow. And both of our Otomí Indians were dead too.
But while we had suffered thus severely we had the satisfaction of
knowing that we had inflicted a most signal punishment upon our enemies.
Of the whole company that had attacked us--eighteen in number, as we
found by counting their bodies--only two remained alive when the fight
ended; and these two speedily relieved us of all responsibility
concerning them by dying of their wounds. As Young tersely expressed
it, we had "given the whole outfit a through bill of lading to Kingdom
Come!"
Notwithstanding the pain that I was in, the first thought that came to
me after we had achieved peace (by the effective yet somewhat radical
process of killing all of our enemies) was concerning the strange weapon
with which Pablo had been fighting; and by his prompt use of which in my
defence my life had been saved. He had laid it upon a rock--while
testing the integrity of his mouth-organ--and as I now carefully
examined it I found that my glimpse of it as Pablo had mashed the
Indian's head had not deceived me. It truly was a maccuahuitl, the
primitive Aztec sword, but very unlike any description of that weapon
that I had ever seen. The maccuahuitl, as described by the Spaniards at
the time of the conquest and as shown by the Aztec pictures of it
preserved in various museums, was a wooden blade from three and a half
to four feet long and from four to five inches wide. Along its two
edges, like great saw teeth, fragments of obsidian, about three inches
long and two inches wide, were inserted; and as these were keenly sharp
the weapon was a most ferocious one. The sword that I held in my hand
was identical in its essential features with this primitive design; but
it was shorter, narrower, and thinner. What was still more extraordinary
about it was that, while it seemed to be made of brass, it had the
bright glitter of gold and the temper and the elasticity of steel. Being
tested by bending, it instantly sprung straight again; and
notwithstanding the vigorous use that Pablo had been making of it on the
bones of several Indians, the thin edges of the projecting teeth were
only nicked a little--as the edge of a steel sword would have been
nicked under like circumstances--and not one of these teeth was bent out
of place, as assuredly would have been the case had the metal been
ordinary brass.
Fray Antonio, by this time, had returned to us again--looking rather
shamefaced because of the part that he had taken in the fight--and I
eagerly showed him this strange weapon that had been so strangely found;
for Pablo's account of it was simply that, just as his revolver was
emptied upon the Indians charging towards us, when there was no time to
reload, his eyes were caught by the glitter of the sword as it stuck in
a cleft in a rock; whereupon he most gladly seized it--and instantly
used it to good purpose upon the Indian who was so close to ending me with
his spear, and subsequently contrived with it to send two more Indians
to their account.
Fray Antonio's knowledge of the matter having a wider practical range
than mine, for he knew well the contents of the several Mexican museums
in which specimens of the primitive weapons are preserved, I thought it
possible that he might be able to match this curious maccuahuitl with an
account of another like it which he somewhere had seen. That there was
no record in the books of this weapon made of metal I knew very well.
But Fray Antonio's surprise over it was greater than my own; and he
certainly found more in it to please him than I did; for this metal
maccuahuitl, supposing it to belong to ancient times, settled in his
favor a controversy that for some time past we had been amicably but
earnestly carrying on. I had adopted the ingenious theory of my friend
Bandelier that the serrated edge of the Aztec sword was accidental;
resulting from the breaking away in use of portions of what at first was
a continuous edge of obsidian. Fray Antonio, on the other hand, had held
firmly to the ordinarily accepted opinion that the sword was such as I
have described above (I must confess regretfully) the primitive weapon
to have been.
My contention therefore was that the sword that Pablo had found was not
an antique; and I fortified my position, as I considered impregnably, by
the fact that while Aztecs, before the Spanish conquest, did make some
slight use of copper and gold, they assuredly had no knowledge whatever
of either brass or steel. And my natural irritation very well may be
imagined, by any one familiar with controversies of this nature, when I
add that Fray Antonio endeavored to cut the ground from under me by
asserting that, inasmuch as the weapon obviously was not made of brass
or steel, my argument was based upon false premises and consequently led
to illogical conclusions. I am afraid that I showed a little temper on
this occasion; for Fray Antonio manifested a persistence in his defence
of what I regarded as his wholly untenable position that amounted to
what I held to be downright pig-headedness. And so, for a considerable
length of time, we stood there, among the bodies of the dead Indians,
and first one of us and then the other handled the sword, and expressed
with increasing warmth our views respecting it and each other; and we
might have stood there much longer had not Young--with the best of
intentions, no doubt, but in a way the certainly was not
agreeable--taken upon himself to bring our controversy for the time
being to an end.
"I don't exactly know what you and the Padre are jawing about at such a
rate, Professor," he struck in; "but as well as I can catch on, it's
about things which happened three or four hundred years ago. I don't
want to interrupt you, of course; but I do want the Padre--he knows
something about surgery, as I saw the other day when he took that cactus
thorn out of Pablo--to do something to plug up this hole in my leg. It's
bleeding a good deal, and it hurts like the very devil. And I guess
Rayburn'd be glad to have that slit in his forehead tied up too."