"ALL'S WELL!"
What was taking place down below, Rosemary and Floyd could only guess
at. But that the rescuers were taking advantage of everything possible
was evident from the occasional hits they made among the Yaquis. More
than one was killed and several wounded as they fired over the top of
the wall, or through loopholes amid the rocks.
Then, soon after the determination at which Rosemary had arrived, there
came a more violent fusillade than any that had preceded. In this
several Indians were forced to retire because of serious wounds. Then
the firing died away.
Though the captive lad and his sister did not know it, this sudden
cessation in the firing of the attackers was due to an order of the
commander of the troopers. The captain was, also, nominally in command
of the boy ranchers and their friends.
"There is too much indiscriminate firing," decided Captain Marshall.
"We haven't an unlimited supply of ammunition. We've got to go a bit
slow. No telling how long we may have to camp on the trail of these
imps."
It was a wise determination as they all agreed, and the word went up
and down the line of attackers to be sparing of powder and lead. This
is what caused the troopers and cowboys suddenly to cease firing,
following a desperate fusillade which they hoped would turn the tide of
battle in their favor, but it had not done so.
"We must size the situation up," decided the captain. "Find out just
how many more rounds we have left--counting also the supply of our
friends from Diamond X," he ordered an officer.
And the taking stock of the situation was soon under way. That the
Yaquis were as glad of the respite, as were our friends, need not be
doubted.
Advantage was taken of the lull to look after the wounded, and to bring
water to the fighting men, for they were sorely in need of drinks. And
warm as the water was, it seemed the best that had ever trickled down
their throats.
Back in their prison, Rosemary and Floyd noted the sudden silence that
followed the brisk firing. Brother and sister looked at each other,
and there was fear in their faces.
"Do you suppose that means they have quit?" asked the girl.
"Who?" her brother wanted to know.
"The ones who are out there trying to help us--cowboys from our uncle's
ranch, I hope."
"I hope so, too, and I hope they haven't had to quit," spoke Floyd.
"But we've got to go on with what we planned now. I'm for it as much
as you are, Rosemary. Something has to be done! Are you sure you
won't weaken at the last minute, and cave in?"
"Did you ever know me to do a thing like that?" she asked with flashing
eyes.
"No, I never did."
"Well, I'm not going to start now! Don't worry, Floyd. Somehow I feel
sure that this will pull us through! I thought of it in the
night--perhaps I dreamed it--and I have a feeling that it is going to
work out all right. Don't be afraid. Let's try it with all our might!
Are you ready?"
"As ready as I ever shall be," was the grim answer. "But if you're
playing a 'hunch,' so to speak, that's different. You always were
lucky!"
He laughed grimly, and Rosemary joined in. It was the first time they
had laughed since being taken captives.
As her brother had said, Rosemary was "lucky."
For a moment brother and sister looked about them. They must act soon,
and, after all, the consequences could not be much worse than those
which continually were hanging over them.
"Whenever you're ready--give the word!" whispered Floyd.
"Now!" suddenly called Rosemary to her brother.
"Come on!" he echoed.
Together they rushed from the cave, straight toward the band of Indians
lined up, with their backs toward them, along the wall of the
improvised fort.
What Rosemary said she never really knew. It was a burst of wild,
hysterical yelling, such as girls and women alone are capable of. And
as she screamed and ran she pointed back toward the cave.
As for Floyd he declared that what he yelled was something like:
"They're coming! They're coming! They're attacking in the rear!"
To this he added some improvised warwhoops of his own devising, and
some football yells, for he had been a cheer leader at one time for his
college team.
Whatever was said little mattered. It was the character of the
shouting of the desperate youth and maiden, and their actions that
counted. Coming as Rosemary's ruse did, after the hardest firing yet
on the part of the attackers, it rather got on the nerves of the Yaquis
if they had such organs, which is doubtful.
To every one of them it appeared, as Rosemary and Floyd intended it
should, that an attack from the rear was about to take place. As
Rosemary had guessed, the Indians knew no more about the cave than she
did. They had hastily examined it and decided there was no rear
entrance or exit, as the case might be. But they might have overlooked
some hidden passage, and this is what all of them evidently thought had
been done.
At any rate, as Rosemary and Floyd rushed out, yelling almost like
Indians themselves, a panic started among the Yaquis. They saw
themselves caught between two fires, with no retreat possible.
With whoops of despair some threw themselves over the cliff. Others
rushed into the cave, while some climbed up the rocky walls at either
side. A few remained, firing down at the attackers below.
Rosemary's yells, and those of her brother, carried to the soldiers and
cowboys. At first they thought a sally was about to take place.
But when they saw some Indians come over the wall, one luckless imp
slipping and falling to his death, some idea of what was taking place
became manifest to Captain Marshall.
"They're in a panic!" he cried. "Something has frightened 'em! Come
on, men!"
He led a rush forward, just as Rosemary appeared at the top of the
wall, waving her neck handkerchief in a frenzied signal.
"There she is! Rosemary!" cried Bud, not exactly recognizing his
cousin, but guessing the girl could be none other.
The rush of the attackers, together with the panic that had run through
the ranks of the Indians like wildfire, was all that was needed to turn
the scale. The Yaquis, with howls of fear, not knowing what it was all
about, threw down their guns and sought for means of escape.
Mike, the leader, seemed dazed at the suddenness of it all. But he
gathered his wits together and, seeing Rosemary at the wall, waving to
the soldiers and cowboys below, the desperate Yaquis sprang toward her.
But Floyd was watching his sister. The lad picked up a revolver from
where it had fallen as its owner retreated and fired point blank at
Mike. The ruffian crumpled up and went down in a heap, as Rosemary
herself, unable to stand the strain longer, sank down half fainting.
Her ruse had succeeded. The Yaquis were on the run.
A few minutes later the place was filled with soldiers and cowboys who
made prisoners of such of the renegades as were left alive--and these
were not many, though they included Mike, who had only been wounded by
Floyd.
"Oh, Bud! I'm so glad! So glad!" murmured Rosemary, as her cousin put
his arm around her--only one arm for the other was still sore.
"So'm I!" murmured Bud. "This is another cousin--Nort," and he nodded
toward his boy rancher companion. "And there's a third one down
there--Dick--but he's hurt!"
"Badly?"
"Oh, no, just a piece of lead through his arm. He'll be all right in a
few days. But say, Rosemary, what did you and Floyd do to turn the
tables so quickly?"
"Rosemary did it all," Floyd said with a cheerful grin. "It was just a
bluff!" and he told the story.
"Nerviest thing I ever heard of!" complimented Captain Marshall.
"Heap good squaw!" was Buck Tooth's opinion, and that seemed to sum it
all up.
The prisoners secured, the dead on both sides buried and the story of
the capture and rescue briefly told, arrangements were made for
returning to civilization.
The raid of the Yaquis was over, and so severe was the lesson taught
them that it was many years before another trick like that was tried.
Rosemary and Floyd, though they had suffered many hardships, were not
physically harmed, except for the youth's wrenched arm, which was
painful but not dangerous.
"Oh, but we want some water to wash in!" Rosemary confided to Bud.
"They've kept us so much on the go, ever since they captured us, that I
can't bear to think of it. I just _dreamed_ of clean bath tubs filled
with white soap suds!"
"We'll soon be at the ranch," Bud said.
"Oh, but I can't wait until then."
"Same here!" put in Floyd. "I don't believe a Yaqui touches water from
the time he's born until he dies."
In order to give everyone a chance to rest, it was decided to camp for
a few days in a favorable spot, which was found a few miles from where
the Indians had made their last stand--a final stand for many, as more
than a dozen were killed.
The others were sent back under guard as prisoners, Mike among them,
scowling blackly as he was led away. A scout was sent to the nearest
place where there was a telegraph station, to send the good news back
to Diamond X.
"And now we can take it easy," observed Bud as he with his cowboy
cousins and the newly rescued captives enjoyed the first real meal
without anticipations of a fight immediately after it.
"You must have had a dreadful time, Rosemary," said Dick, whose arm was
in a sling.
"Well, it seemed so at the time, and yet I want to laugh when I think
how I fooled those Indians just by screaming."
"It isn't the first time you've brought help by screaming!" laughed
Bud. "I remember once when I tried to kiss you--"
"Tut! Tut!" laughed Rosemary. "That's past history."
And so, in time, was the raid of the Yaquis. In due season Rosemary
and her brother, with our boy heroes reached Diamond X, parting from
the soldier escort. And once at the ranch, which had been their
objective before the kidnapping, the visitors were royally entertained.
"Well, it was the best adventure we ever had," declared Nort, and his
brother agreed with him. But it was not to be the last of the exciting
happenings in which they were to be involved.
For these were lads of action, ever in the van when there was a chance
for a fight. And those who wish to follow the further adventures of
Bud, Nort and Dick, may do so in the next volume of this series, which
will be entitled "The Boy Ranchers in the Flood; or Saving the Stock at
Diamond X."
In that we shall see how they fared when again called on to act their
parts in the face of danger. But, for the present we shall leave them
to enjoy the company of Rosemary and Floyd at Diamond X and in Happy
Valley.
THE END