AN AMBUSH
The night passed quietly. The soil was soft and sandy, and, rolled in
his poncho, Will slept as comfortably as if in a hammock. They were in
the saddle early, for the day's ride would be a very long one, and Juan
intended to give the horses a day's rest at Martinez.
"We don't consider sixty miles to be a long journey here," Juan said, as
they started, "and, indeed, if one starts on fresh horses it is a mere
nothing; but when one rides the same, day after day, forty is as much as
one has a right to expect from them after one is once fairly on his way.
We shall meet with no water to-day, and it is specially for this part of
the journey that we brought the water-skins with us."
"I noticed that you did not fill them half full at the last stream we
crossed."
"No, it was not necessary; the horses will have a good drink at a stream
we shall cross in a couple of hours, and we shall fill the skins there;
beyond that we enter the mountains and travel through an extremely
difficult pass, or, rather, I should say, passes, till we come down into
the valley. The carts do not come this way; they strike the Colorado
River many miles down and follow its bank. It is at least a third
longer, but if it were three times as long they would have to go that
way; the passes are difficult enough for horses, but they would be
impossible for wheeled carriages."
After riding for thirty miles they halted for half an hour; the horses
were watered, and the men ate some of the meat they had cooked overnight
and some cold pancakes that had been fried in deer's fat. They were now
far up on the hillside and following a regular track.
"Another hour's sharp climbing and we shall be on the top summit of the
pass. See to the priming of your rifles and pistols. If we are not
attacked before we reach the top I shall admit that I have been wrong,
and that the attack upon me was, after all, the work of street
ruffians."
The four vaqueros were ordered to look to their pistols before
remounting; they did not carry guns.
"Do you expect an attack, master?" one asked. "I have not heard of
there being any bands on the road just lately, but of course there may
be some, and this bit of road is their favourite lurking-place, as the
traffic between San Filepi and the Chatenezonais Valley all comes this
way."
"I do not know that I expect to be attacked, Lopez, but I have grounds
for suspecting that it is possible. If we should be ambushed, dismount
at once, and take up your position behind the rocks and fight them in
their own way. If the road were good enough I should say gallop on, but
it is too steep and too rough for that."
Will Harland soon found that his friend had not exaggerated the
difficulty of the pass. On both sides the hills sloped very steeply and
were covered by boulders. The track in the middle of the ravine was just
wide enough for a cart, but at distances of two hundred or three hundred
yards apart the rock had been cut away for some twenty yards, so that
two or three carts could draw aside there to allow others coming the
other way to pass. As it was inconvenient for two to ride abreast, Juan
said: "We had better go in single file."
"Yes, and I will ride first," Will replied. "If there should be a fellow
hiding among these rocks, it will be you they are after, and, riding
first, you would present an easy mark for them; whereas, if I am first,
they won't be able to aim at you till you are pretty nearly abreast of
them."
"I don't like that," Juan began, but Will pushed his horse forward. Both
had unslung their rifles from their shoulders, and were carrying them in
readiness for instant use.
"Keep your eyes on the rocks," Juan said to the men behind him; "if one
of you sees the least movement give a shout, and all throw yourselves at
once off your horses."
It would, however, have been no easy matter to distinguish a man's head
among the masses of rock and boulders through which in many places
brushwood and small trees had sprung up, and, although all kept scanning
the hillsides minutely, nothing suspicious was heard, until suddenly a
shot was fired from a spot some forty feet up the rocks on the left-hand
side. Will instantly swung himself to the ground, gave a sharp slap on
his horse's quarters, and ensconced himself behind a rock, while the
animal, relieved from the weight of his rider, made his way rapidly
along the path. The first shot had been followed by half a dozen others.
These came from both sides of the ravine, and a ball striking the rock
close to Will's head, showed him that his position was no more safe
there than it would have been on horseback. He therefore made a rush
upward, and took up a position between two rocks which covered him from
either side. Then he took advantage of some bushes and crawled some
yards farther along, until he came to a spot where he could lie in
shelter, and yet obtain a view through the bushes both above and below
him.
"Are you all right, Juan?" he shouted.
The answer came from rocks on the other side. "Yes; the ball aimed at me
has killed my horse, but I am unhurt. Lopez is killed."
For some time shots were fired at intervals. Juan shouted to the
vaqueros not to use their pistols.
"You would have no chance of hitting them," he said, "and they would
only pick you off one by one. Lie quiet for the present; keep your shots
till they come to close quarters. Now, Will," he said in English, "you
watch the rocks above me, and I will watch those above you. Mark, if you
can, where a shot is fired; lie with your rifle pointed at it until the
fellow stands up to fire again, and then let him have it."
Four shots were fired almost together from Will's side, the assailants
aiming in the direction from which the voice had come, but Will had no
doubt that Juan had foreseen this and was in shelter when he spoke.
Presently he saw a puff of smoke shoot out from the side of a large
rock. He brought his rifle to bear upon it and watched intently. Three
minutes later a head appeared cautiously round the rock, then a shoulder
appeared, and a rifle was pointed towards the spot behind which he had
first sheltered. He fired, there was a sharp scream, and the rifle went
clattering down, exploding as it fell. The moment that he had fired,
Will drew back into the shelter of the stone. Two other shots rang out,
and the balls cut up and scattered the small pebbles on which he had
been lying. He was able to observe, however, the position of one of his
assailants. While he was reloading he heard the crack of Juan's rifle,
followed by an exclamation of satisfaction.
"That is two of them, Will. They will soon get tired of this game."
The distances were so short, in fact, that it was almost impossible for
even an indifferent shot to miss his aim when he once caught sight of
the head of an enemy. Presently another shot struck the rock close to
Will. It was fired some paces from the stone that he was watching, and
showed that the assailants were using the same tactics that he had done,
and were shifting their positions after firing. He moved a few yards
away, and did not answer to the next two or three shots that were
fired.
"He is done for," he heard one of the men on the other side of the
ravine say. They were but some fifty feet away from him, and it was,
therefore, easy to catch their words as they shouted from one to the
other.
"Well, then, go down and attack the man we want," another voice said.
"No one but the Englishman had a rifle over there, so you are quite
safe."
"You had better come and show us the way. We did not bargain for this
sort of thing. You said we should settle it all in one volley."
"So you would have done, you fools, if you could have shot straight. Who
could have supposed that you were all going to miss at that distance.
Why, a child of ten years old would have fired straighter. However, I am
ready to lead the way. You, over there, make a rush when we do."
Will marked the exact position of the speaker. It was behind a large
boulder some fifteen yards up the hill and as much ahead of him; he saw
that to join the men who had been firing he would have to pass an open
space between that and some other large masses of rock, and he laid his
sights on that spot. The speaker, who was evidently confident that he
was killed, and that therefore there was no danger of a shot being fired
at him while he moved to join the others, appeared half a minute later.
He was stooping, and held a pistol in each hand. The moment his body
appeared in the line of fire Will pressed the trigger, and the man
rolled over like a log. A cry of dismay burst from the hillside above
Harland, where the men had evidently been watching also for their leader
to join his comrades and give the signal for a rush.
"I have shot Melos, Juan!" Will shouted. "At least if he is, as you
suppose, their leader."
"Well done, indeed! We shall have no difficulty with the rest of them if
their paymaster is dead; they will think of nothing now but saving their
own wretched lives."
The parties on the opposite sides of the ravine now shouted to each
other. Two or three of them urged their companions to make a general
rush, but the majority were altogether against this.
"Why should we throw away our lives?" one said. "They have all got
pistols, and even if we got the better of them, four or five of us would
be likely to go down before we had finished with them. Indeed, they
would shoot us down directly we showed ourselves, and half of us would
never reach the bottom."
There was a silence which showed that there was a general feeling that
he was right. Then the same speaker went on:
"Caballeros, we have been cruelly misled; we are poor men, and have been
led into this. Two of us have been killed; we ask your mercy."
As he ceased there was a general cry of "Mercy! mercy!"
"You dogs!" Juan shouted back, "if it were not that all of your lives
are not worth as much as a drop of the honest blood of those with me, I
would not move from here until I had put an end to the last of you.
However, you have had a lesson now. Come down one at a time into the
road. When you get there drop your pistols and knives to the ground, and
then go down the hill. When one man has started let the next man come
down. How many are there of you?"
"There are six of us alive," the man answered. "We were eight besides
our leader. My brother was killed by you in San Diego the other night,
and if it had not been for that I should not have come."
"Look here," Juan said, "I shall see every one of your faces plainly as
you come down, and when you have thrown down your arms you will stand
and face this rock so that I may have a good look at you. I warn you to
leave San Diego as soon as you get back, for when I return I will have
the town searched for you, and any of you found there will pay for this
with your lives. Now you come down first."
One by one the six men came down, placed their weapons upon the ground,
turned to the rock where Juan was lying, and then went down the pass
without a word being uttered. When the last had gone Juan stepped down
into the road, and was at once joined by Will, who had kept his rifle
pointed on each man as he reached the road, in case he should intend
treachery against Juan. Two of the vaqueros also stepped out.
"Where is Pedro?" Juan asked.
"He is dead, sir. He was shot through the body, but had just strength to
throw himself in among the rocks. I heard him groaning just at first,
but he was soon silent; I could see him from where I lay, and he has not
moved since."
"See if he is dead, Sancho. This is a bad business."
The man returned in a minute.
"He is quite dead, señor."
"Where is the man you shot, Will? Let us see if my suspicions are
correct."
Will led the way to the spot, followed by the others. Juan glanced at
the dead man.
"It is as I thought," he said. Then he turned to the vaqueros. "You may
as well search him. It is likely he has money upon him."
"He has a bag, and a heavy one, sir," one of them said, as he lifted a
canvas bag from the dead man's sash.
"Let us see what he valued my life at," Juan replied.
The two vaqueros counted over the gold pieces.
"There are eighty of them."
"Ten apiece," Juan remarked. "Put aside sixty for the widows of Pedro
and Lopez, and take ten each yourselves."
"Shall we do anything with the body, señor?"
"Fetch some big stones and pile them over it. There will be no search
for him, for you may be sure he has not mentioned to anyone in the town
what he was going to do, or where he was going. He probably asked for a
week's leave of absence, and would likely enough say that he was going
up to Los Angeles or Santa Barbara, and when he does not return it will
be supposed that he has been murdered on the way. When you have done
with him you had better do the same thing with the bodies of your two
comrades. The ground is too rocky to dig graves, and they will sleep as
well there as elsewhere. It would be impossible for us to carry them
home."
An hour's labour and the work was finished. Will assisted the men in the
work. Juan did not offer to do so.
"I have a bullet in my shoulder," he said. "Another fellow fired the
instant that I shot his comrade. He luckily hit my shoulder instead of
my head. I will get you to fetch Pedro's sash and make a sling for my
arm. We can do nothing for it until we go down to Monterey."
"Have the horses gone far, do you think, Juan?"
"No, we shall probably find them a few hundred yards up the pass. They
are trained not to go on without riders, and when their first alarm at
the firing has ceased they will halt."
When the cairns were finished the vaqueros cut down two saplings and
made a couple of rude crosses, which they fixed above their fallen
comrades. Then they all proceeded up the pass, and soon came upon the
horses, and, mounting, continued their way down into Monterey, where
they arrived just as the sun was setting. Here Juan's wound was attended
to. The injury was to the left arm, which had been thrown forward in the
act of firing. The ball struck just above the elbow, and had cut a
groove from that point nearly up to the shoulder.
"This is evidently my unlucky arm at present, Will," he said, with a
smile; "after having had three gashes below the elbow a week ago, it now
gets ploughed with a rifle-bullet."
"I should call it a lucky limb, Juan, considering that they are nothing
but flesh wounds, and that had not the arm received them, both knife and
bullet might have given you a vastly more serious wound elsewhere."
"Yes, that is true enough. There is one comfort in being wounded in
this country. You can't go into the smallest village without finding
half a dozen people capable of dressing an injury, more especially a
knife wound. In fact, knife fights are so common that very little is
thought of them unless really dangerous injury is inflicted."
"Will not this prevent your riding for a day or two, Juan?"
"Not a bit of it. We had intended to stop here to-morrow to give a rest
to the horses, but the next day we will push on. Happily, we shall not
have to be on our guard against danger, for the risk of falling in with
marauding red-skins is too slight to be thought of. Our next day's ride
will be an easy one, across a cultivated country. Then we have a long
day and a half of mountain work."
The passes which they had to traverse before arriving at Señor Sagasta's
ranch astonished Harland, who had no previous experience of such
scenery. Sometimes they were travelling up ravines so deep and rugged
that it was almost twilight below, while at others they wound along on
natural ledges on the face of precipices where a stumble of the horse
would mean certain death to it and its rider. Higher and higher they
wound, until, crossing a narrow shoulder of bare rock, they looked down
into the broad valley owned by Juan's father.
"Do you see that white speck in front of the dark patch of trees? That
is the hacienda. As the crow flies, I do not suppose it is more than
seven or eight miles away, but by the way we have to go it is five times
that distance, and if we are there by this time to-morrow we shall have
every reason to be satisfied."
When they started the next morning, Juan sent one of the vaqueros on
with the news that he would arrive two hours after his messenger.
"It is just as well to give them notice," he said to Will. "I told him
to mention that I have my arm in a sling, but that I have no serious
injury. It has been hurting me a good bit for the past two days, and as
I have not got much sleep I expect that I am not looking what you call
very fit, therefore it is as well that they should not think me in a
very bad way when I ride up; besides, I dare say they are getting
anxious about me. You see, they will have calculated upon my having
ridden a good deal faster than we have done, for with the two horses one
can push on rapidly, and, knowing when the horses would have arrived at
San Diego, they have, I am sure, been on the look-out for me for the
past three or four days. Of course the wound was nothing in itself, but
in such rough riding as we have had one gets sudden jerks that do not
improve its condition. You have bathed it for me night and morning, but
there is no doubt it has become a good deal inflamed, and I shall have
to keep quiet for a few days after we get there."
Will himself was by no means sorry that the journey was approaching its
end. Wholly unaccustomed to riding, he had been so stiff at the end of
the second day's journey that he could scarcely dismount unassisted from
his horse. This had to some extent worn off, but he still felt that
every bone in his body ached. The last ten miles were performed at a
canter. The horses seemed as glad as their riders at being on level
ground again, and were doubtless well aware that they were close to
their home once more. They were within three miles of the hacienda, when
they saw two mounted figures riding to meet them.
"It is my father and sister," Juan said. "I thought that they would lose
no time in starting after Antonio arrived with the news that I was close
at hand."