"That wasn't so bad," cried Bridge."I'll venture a guess that Mr.Pesita is some surprised--and sore.There they go behind the office.They'll stay there a few minutes talking it over and getting up their courage to try it again.Next time they'll come from another direction.You two," he continued, turning to the Mexicans, "take positions on the east and south sides of the house.Sing can remain here with Mr.
Harding.I'll take the north side facing the office.Shoot at the first man who shows his head.If we can hold them off until dark we may be able to get away.Whatever happens don't let one of them get close enough to fire the house.That's what they'll try for."It was fifteen minutes before the second attack came.Five dismounted troopers made a dash for the north side of the house; but when Bridge dropped the first of them before he had taken ten steps from the office building and wounded a second the others retreated for shelter.
Time and again as the afternoon wore away Pesita made attempts to get men close up to the house; but in each instance they were driven back, until at last they desisted from their efforts to fire the house or rush it, and contented themselves with firing an occasional shot through the windows opposite them.
"They're waiting for dark," said Bridge to Mr.Harding during a temporary lull in the hostilities, "and then we're goners, unless the boys come back from across the river in time.""Couldn't we get away after dark?" asked the Easterner.
"It's our only hope if help don't reach us," replied Bridge.
But when night finally fell and the five men made an attempt to leave the house upon the side away from the office building they were met with the flash of carbines and the ping of bullets.One of the Mexican defenders fell, mortally wounded, and the others were barely able to drag him within and replace the barricade before the door when five of Pesita's men charged close up to their defenses.These were finally driven off and again there came a lull; but all hope of escape was gone, and Bridge reposted the defenders at the upper windows where they might watch every approach to the house.
As the hours dragged on the hopelessness of their position grew upon the minds of all.Their ammunition was almost gone--each man had but a few rounds remaining--and it was evident that Pesita, through an inordinate desire for revenge, would persist until he had reduced their fortress and claimed the last of them as his victim.
It was with such cheerful expectations that they awaited the final assault which would see them without ammunition and defenseless in the face of a cruel and implacable foe.
It was just before daylight that the anticipated rush occurred.From every side rang the reports of carbines and the yells of the bandits.There were scarcely more than a dozen of the original twenty left; but they made up for their depleted numbers by the rapidity with which they worked their firearms and the loudness and ferocity of their savage cries.
And this time they reached the shelter of the veranda and commenced battering at the door.
At the report of the rifle so close to them Billy Byrne shoved Barbara quickly to one side and leaped forward to close with the man who barred their way to liberty.
That they had surprised him even more than he had them was evidenced by the wildness of his shot which passed harmlessly above their heads as well as by the fact that he had permitted them to come so close before engaging them.
To the latter event was attributable his undoing, for it permitted Billy Byrne to close with him before the Indian could reload his antiquated weapon.Down the two men went, the American on top, each striving for a deathhold; but in weight and strength and skill the Piman was far outclassed by the trained fighter, a part of whose daily workouts had consisted in wrestling with proficient artists of the mat.
Barbara Harding ran forward to assist her champion but as the men rolled and tumbled over the ground she could find no opening for a blow that might not endanger Billy Byrne quite as much as it endangered his antagonist; but presently she discovered that the American required no assistance.She saw the Indian's head bending slowly forward beneath the resistless force of the other's huge muscles, she heard the crack that announced the parting of the vertebrae and saw the limp thing which had but a moment before been a man, pulsing with life and vigor, roll helplessly aside--a harmless and inanimate lump of clay.
Billy Byrne leaped to his feet, shaking himself as a great mastiff might whose coat had been ruffled in a fight.
"Come!" he whispered."We gotta beat it now for sure.
That guy's shot'll lead 'em right down to us," and once more they took up their flight down toward the valley, along an unknown trail through the darkness of the night.
For the most part they moved in silence, Billy holding the girl's arm or hand to steady her over the rough and dangerous portions of the path.And as they went there grew in Billy's breast a love so deep and so resistless that he found himself wondering that he had ever imagined that his former passion for this girl was love.
This new thing surged through him and over him with all the blind, brutal, compelling force of a mighty tidal wave.It battered down and swept away the frail barriers of his new-found gentleness.Again he was the Mucker--hating the artificial wall of social caste which separated him from this girl;but now he was ready to climb the wall, or, better still, to batter it down with his huge fists.But the time was not yet--first he must get Barbara to a place of safety.
On and on they went.The night grew cold.Far ahead there sounded the occasional pop of a rifle.Billy wondered what it could mean and as they approached the ranch and he discovered that it came from that direction he hastened their steps to even greater speed than before.
"Somebody's shootin' up the ranch," he volunteered.
"Wonder who it could be."
"Suppose it is your friend and general?" asked the girl.
