THE TRICK DISCOVERED
Truly enough, this had happened. On top of one of the jagged rocks,
behind which they had conducted the defense that had failed, stood a
ragged Yaqui Indian. To and fro, on the end of his gun, he waved not
exactly a white flag, but a dirty rag that once might have been white.
Objects of this hue did not long remain like the driven snow among the
Yaquis.
"Cease firing!" blared the bugle, and the spiteful rattle of the
soldiers' guns stopped abruptly.
"Cover the beggar, some of you," ordered Captain Marshall, "and a few
of you get ready in case this is a trick and they try a rush. I'll
look into this."
"Let me go!" pleaded Lieutenant Snow eagerly. "I can sling their lingo
a bit, Captain."
"Very well," assented the commander. "But watch yourself, Mart. I
don't trust the devils, though if they try any of their tricks we'll
wipe out the whole band. I wish I had a rapid fire gun. We made a
mistake coming off without it. But we had to leave in a hurry."
During this brief talk, during which none of the soldiers or cowboys
exposed themselves, the figure of the Indian continued to stand in full
view and easy shot, waving the flag that told of a desire to surrender.
Or did it? Was it but a trick? That remained to be seen.
Seeing that his men were in readiness for quick work, Captain Marshall,
himself holding his carbine where he could easily get at it, signalled
to Lieutenant Stone to advance, under the flag of truce, to listen to
the capitulation of the Yaquis. A trooper went with the lieutenant,
carrying one of the company guidons, which, while not exactly a flag of
truce served the purpose well enough. Besides the outfit from the fort
and Diamond X were not surrendering.
"Had enough, Yaqui?" asked the lieutenant, as the Indian came down from
his perch, and advanced to a point midway between the hidden Mexicans
and the equally concealed troopers. In the rear was another band of
soldiers, so, if it had been necessary, the Indians could have been
withered by a cross fire.
"We stop," grunted the Yaqui.
It was the giving up.
Then followed a talk between the officer and the representative of the
Indians. This was not Paz, who probably was too cowardly to trust
himself in the open under the guns of his rightful enemies.
"Unconditional surrender, lay down every gun you have, march out and be
made prisoners!" was the ultimatum of Lieutenant Snow.
It was the only terms that could be offered the treacherous band that
had broken over the border from Mexico.
"And tell 'em," shouted Snake, who, with his friends had understood the
import of what was said, "tell the beggar if any harm has come to
Rosemary or Floyd, we'll kill every one of the Greasers!"
Lieutenant Snow waved his hand for silence. He listened to something
the bearer of the flag of truce had to say, and then the officer
announced:
"The captives aren't here!"
"Aren't here!" cried Bud, Nort and Dick together.
"Don't let nim fool you!" shouted Yellin' Kid.
"Order them to march out, unarmed and then we'll search their camp,"
called Captain Marshall.
Seeing that it would be useless to prolong matters, and knowing his
entire band would be wiped out if he continued the fight, now that his
rear was attacked, Paz growled out the necessary orders to his
followers, and they came out from amid the rocks--that is those who
could walk.
They were a sorry-looking lot. Always of a nondescript type, dirty,
ragged and greasy, the Yaquis were even worse now, for they had been on
the trail for some time, and had taken part in at least two fights.
They had had no time to recuperate since making the raid in La
Nogalique.
As they filed out, miserably enough, they were passed into a sort of
hollow square, formed by the troopers, and there each Indian was
searched for a hidden knife or revolver. One or two were found and
confiscated amid the snarls of rage on the part of the owners, who,
doubtless, meditated treachery.
Paz and his followers having been secured, a guard placed over them,
and the wounded of the troopers being cared for as well as possible,
search was made of the place where the Yaquis had made their stand.
Several dead Indians were found, and some so badly wounded that death
was only a question of a short time. These were made as comfortable as
possible, for though they were entitled to little consideration while
the fight was on, matters were different after the surrender.
"But where can Rosemary and Floyd be?" was the question asked over and
over again by the boy ranchers and their friends, when it was seen that
the captives were not in the Yaquis camp. At first it was supposed
they had been sent to the rear with the Indians who were guarding the
ponies. But there was no trace of the youth and his sister who had
been carried away.
Then the more sinister thought came.
"Could they have been made away with?"
No one asked this in so many words, but it was in the minds of all, and
a careful search was made to disclose if the ground had been recently
dug up. Nothing of the sort was found, however, and then the boy
ranchers and their friends breathed more easily.
But though the main body of Yaquis had been captured the prisoners were
not found. And one of the objects of the rescue party--the main object
in fact--was to locate Rosemary and Floyd.
"We've got to get it out of Paz what has happened to them, if we--if we
have to torture him!" declared Snake. "Can't you make him talk,
Captain?"
"Well, of course we dare not, for the sake of the good name of Uncle
Sam's men, resort to torture. But we can try some modern police
methods--putting him through the third degree, so to speak."
"That's it!" cried Bud. "Give Paz the third degree!"
Once the prisoners were secured, the wounded attended to and the dead
buried, the whole attention of the rescue party was given to locating
Rosemary and Floyd. That Paz knew the secret of their disappearance
could not be doubted--at least our friends did not doubt.
"Though of course," said Captain Marshall, when preparations were going
on for putting Paz through the third degree series of questions, "of
course there may have been several bands involved in this raid, and
some other body of Yaquis may have taken away the young man and his
sister."
"It was Paz, I'm sure of it!" declared Bud.
"He looks guilty!"
Certainly the Yaquis leader looked ugly and mean enough to have
perpetrated this deed. But he maintained a scowling silence as he sat
on the ground before his captors.
"Now, Paz," began Lieutenant Snow, who acted as interpreter, "you may
as well tell the truth first as last, for we're going to get it out of
you, if we have to resort to--well, you know what I mean. _Sabe_?"
"No _sabe_!" grunted the Indian.
Then the work began. It was not a pleasant task, and it was only
excusable on the plea of dire necessity. The Yaquis were entitled to
no mercy.
But through ft all Paz maintained a grim silence. When he did speak it
was to deny that he or his followers had even seen Rosemary and Floyd,
much less had they kidnapped them for a ransom.
It remained for Buck Tooth to expose the trick. The wily Indian,
perhaps knowing the habits of the race he had forsaken, had been
prowling about among the sullen prisoners. He openly laughed at them
for the plight in which he found them, taunting them as cowards of the
first water.
Then, having wrought them up to the desired pitch of anger, Buck Tooth
laughed and played a trump card, so to speak. In his own way he told a
group of the captives that not only had they been caught, to be sent
back to Mexico there to suffer long imprisonment, but the object for
which they had risked so much had been snatched from them.
"We have the boy and girl!" boasted Buck Tooth.
This was vehemently denied and then, in a burst of anger, as Buck Tooth
insisted this was so, the Yaqui blurted out the truth that Paz was
endeavoring to conceal. Rosemary and Floyd had been taken away from
the main body by a squad under the leadership of the Indian whom
Rosemary had dubbed "Mike."
"Ugh!" grunted Buck Tooth. He had found out what he wanted to know.
The trick was discovered.