CHAPTER XXIV
THE RUSE OF ROSEMARY
Well it was that a body of fighters with the experience of the UnitedStates troopers and the cowboys from Diamond X ranch went up againstthe Yaquis, and not some brave but rash band of rescuers. The latterwould have been defeated almost at once for the Indians had picked outan admirable place in which to make their last stand.
They had retreated into the mountains, along a trail that only the mosthardy could follow. Then, finding, as they doubtless did, that theirpursuers were ever at their heels, they hastened to what was,virtually, a natural fortress--a nook among the rocky walls of thedefile. From there they shot at the approaching troopers and cowboys.
"No useless risks!" ordered Captain Marshall, as he and his men came upto the attack.
The Yaquis had several distinct advantages in their favor. They wereup above the rescuers and could fire down on them, while the boyranchers and their friends had not only to fight but to climb up, andthe latter was a handicap.
Then the Indians had what was almost like a rocky fort to protect them,while those making the attack had to approach pretty much in the open.Of course there were rocks that could be used as cover, but these wereso scattered that it prevented the approach of the men in a body.Individuals could creep from rock to rock, and so advance, but therecould be no concerted rush against the Yaquis, and that was what wasneeded to overcome them.
However the fight was only in its early stages yet, and, like afootball game, one could not tell what would happen until the finalwhistle was blown. Captain Marshall was a veteran fighter and could bedepended on. His men realized this, and so did the outfit from DiamondX.
There was nothing very spectacular about this fight. Little of itcould have been seen by an observer, if you except the spurts of smokefrom unseen guns and the echoes caused by the shots. For each man, onboth sides, was firing from cover. The Yaquis had the advantage thattheir cover--a big wall of rock--sheltered many of them in an almoststraight line, and they could fire in volleys on signal, while thesoldiers and cowboys had to fire individually and at odd times, as theymade their way from one sheltering stone to another.
Thus the Yaquis could concentrate their fire on one man if they had aglimpse of some incautiously exposed arm or leg, while no one soldiercould hope to inflict much damage on a crowd of Indians behind a thickstone wall.
But the fight was not so unequal as seemed at first sight. For whilethe Yaquis were strongly entrenched, they were outnumbered--of thatthere was little doubt. And they were fighting picked men, who hadbeen in many dangerous skirmishes and fights, whereas the Indians wereat best but a sort of brigand bushwhackers.
Each side was desperate, perhaps the Indians more so, for they musthave realized that they would be given short shrift if any harm nowcame to Rosemary and Floyd. The soldiers and cowboys would nothesitate to take swift and sure vengeance. So the Indians must fightto the bitter end, selling their lives as dearly as possible.
"I just wonder if Rosemary and Floyd are up in that nest of beggars?"mused Bud, as he and his cousins were at last allowed to proceed up thedefile, toward where the Yaquis were making their last stand. Bud hadbegged so hard to be allowed to go to the front, to at least help hiscousins load their weapons if nothing else, that permission had beengranted.
The boy ranchers were close together now, each sheltered behind a rock,and almost in line with the foremost of the attackers who were underthe shadow of the natural fort, behind the wall of which the Yaquiswere making their last stand.
"I hope they are up there," said Nort, answering Bud's question. "Ifthey brought them this far they probably wouldn't do away with themnow. They must be up there!"
"I wish we had them down here," said Dick. "It's going to be hard workto get the imps out of their den!"
"You supplied two good earfuls that time, kid!" said Rolling Stone."Ah, you will, will you!" he added quickly, and he fired at an exposedhead over the top of the wall that hid the Indians.
There was a howl of pain mingled with rage, that could be heard abovethe din of the fighting.
"You nipped him!" cried Yellin' Kid.
"I tried to," grimly said Rolling Stone.
And so the fighting went on, in pot-shot fashion, with occasionalvolleys from the Yaquis.
"They're only wasting their lead," spoke Captain Marshall. "But Iwonder where they got so many cartridges?"
"Likely they made another raid," suggested Snake.
This, later, was found to be the case. A store keeper had been killedand his stock looted, provisions and arms being taken.
If the boy ranchers and their friends could have looked behind thenatural wall of rock, which constituted the fort that proved to be thelast stand of the Yaquis, and if they could have looked farther, into abig cave, the mouth of which was concealed from a view below by thissame wall, their questions as to Rosemary and Floyd would have beenanswered.
For the captives were there. Weary, apprehensive, tired and fairly illfrom their hardships, Rosemary and her brother had been thrust into thecavern when the Yaquis reached this vantage place, knowing theirpursuers were close behind them.
"Something's up!" Floyd had said as they were rudely hustled into thehiding place.
"I hope it's the end," said Rosemary dismally. Poor girl! She wasabout done up, and she no longer had her weapon as a means of defence.By a ruse it had been taken from her, though she and Floyd foughtdesperately to retain it. But Mike, as one of his men snatched itaway, only laughed at them.
"The end! What do you mean?" asked Floyd.
"I mean I think this will be the last fight. You can tell by the waythey thrust us in here, and hurried out with their guns, that somethingunusual is taking place. I believe our rescuers are coming!"
"That's what we thought when they sent us off in charge of Mike and thesmaller gang," observed Floyd.
"Yes, but this is different!" declared Rosemary. "They can't get outof this place in a hurry, and once our friends, whether soldiers orcowboys from Uncle Henry's ranch, get this far, they'll never give upuntil they break through the Indians."
"If they only do!" murmured Floyd. He was cut and bruised from a fighthe had with two of the Yaquis, when he endeavored to go to the aid ofhis sister, as her weapon was wrested from her. Floyd's left arm wasbadly wrenched, so he could hardly use it.
And then, after the hurried thrusting into the cave of the captives,had come the first shots of the soldier scouts in response to the fireof the Yaqui sentry.
"They're here!" cried Floyd, when it became very evident that an attackin force was going on.
"Oh! I'm glad!" exclaimed Rosemary, and tears of relief came to soothher ragged nerves.
They went as close as they dared to the mouth of the cave to look atthe backs of the Yaquis who were lined up along the wall firing down onthe soldiers and cowboys. No guard was stationed at the entrance tothe cavern--none was needed. The rear was a wall of solid rock, asRosemary and her brother had discovered soon after being rushed intoit. In front of the entrance was a rocky platform, and extending alongthe outer edge of this, in the form of a semicircle, was the defendingwall of stone.
This rocky wall dropped abruptly down into the defile where the cowboysand soldiers were making the attack. It would be almost impossible todescend it. The way up was by a narrow passage which was now choked byrocks the Indians had piled there.
On either side of the cavern's entrance the rock rose in steep slopes,not altogether impossible of being scaled, but a hindrance to a quickretreat. That is what Captain Marshall meant when he said the Yaquiswere practically backed up against a stone wall.
The firing became sharper and quicker and the reports of the guns ofthe attackers sounded nearer. They were, in fact, creeping up, takingadvantage of every bit of cover.
There were casualties on both sides, Dick being put out of the game bya bullet through his right arm. Fortunately it only entered the flesh,breaking no bones. But h
e was ordered to the rear, much to hisdisgust. Nort and Bud still stuck, Bud helping Nort in loading.
Perhaps the situation was hardest on Rosemary and Floyd, for they wereobliged to remain in the cave, doing nothing, and fearing the worst.If the Indians succeeded in standing off the rescuers, or in killing somany of them that the survivors would not dare rush the place, whatwould it mean to the captives?
Rosemary dared not think of it.
Then, following a period of unusually heavy firing, the plucky girlmade up her mind to act.
"Floyd!" she exclaimed, "I'm desperate! I'm going to do something!
"Not--you're not going to--"
Floyd stumbled over expressing the fear that she was going to rush outand throw herself over the rocky wall.
"It's just a chance," went on Rosemary, "but I'm going to take it. Adesperate chance!"
"But what, Rosemary?"
"I'm going to play a trick on these Indians! I think I can do it!"
"A trick?"
"Yes. As soon as the next period of heavy firing quiets down I'm goingto rush out, yelling, and point back to the cave. I want you to do thesame."
"But what good will it do?"
"It will give the Indians the impression that our friends--or someone--has managed to get up the rocks, and that they are coming from therear. There may be an entrance into that cave from the back. I don'tknow, and I don't believe these Indians do. Anyhow if we rush out, allexcited, yelling as hard as we can, and pointing to the cave back ofus, I think the Yaquis will take the alarm and become so confused thatour friends, whoever they are out there, will be able to rush thisposition."
As yet, you must understand, Rosemary and her brother were unaware ofthe identity of the attackers.
Rosemary started up from where she was sitting in their extemporizedand miserable prison cave. It was evidently her intention to put intooperation at once her desperate plan.
"Wait a minute!" exclaimed her brother.
"What for?" she questioned.
"I'm not so sure that it is the best thing to do," he answered.
Floyd was rather less impulsive than his sister--that is on occasions.There were times when he could be more hot headed.
"Well, what else is there to do?" Rosemary asked.
She was going to be perfectly fair about it, and if Floyd had anythingbetter to offer as a suggestion she would listen to him.
"Let's think about it a bit longer," he finally said, with a longintaking of breath, which told more plainly than words, how thesituation was oppressing him. "I'm sure it's mighty plucky of you,Rosemary, to lay out such a plan as this, but I don't believe I oughtto let you try it. Something might happen."
"Something is going to happen anyhow," she said, with ominous quiet,and a grim tightness showed in the lines of her mouth. "I believethese Indians have just about reached the end of their rope. They havebeen very patient with us--that is patient from their standpoint. Nowthey have met with opposition, and they must know if they areoverpowered it will be to our advantage, and that our friends, orwhoever is out there firing, will take revenge."
"That's so," agreed Floyd.
"Well then, we've just _got_ to do something!" said Rosemary,desperately. "And I'm going to do it."
Again she started up.
"Wait a minute!" exclaimed her brother again.
He seemed to be listening. He leaned forward, and then softly arosefrom where he was sitting and went forward.
"What is it?" asked his sister in a low voice.
"I thought I heard voices--good old United States voices, and not thisjargon of Mexican and Spanish," was the reply. "Maybe some of theattackers, whoever they are, have broken through."
A look of delighted joy came over the face of Rosemary. But a momentlater it faded away and she seemed hopeless.
"It can't be," she said. "There'd be a lot of yelling and shouting ifany of those who are attacking the Yaquis had broken through theirlines," she went on. "There's no use waiting, Floyd. Let's try myplan!"
But her brother was not yet convinced.
"It will be all right if it works," he agreed. "But if it fails, andthey only have the laugh on us, we'll be treated so much the worse. Idon't mind on my own account--but yours!" and he glanced at his sister.
"I hadn't thought of that," spoke Rosemary in a low voice. "If itshould--fail--why--"
She did not complete the sentence.
"It would only make them more angry, I'm afraid," went on Floyd.
There was silence, for a time, between brother and sister. It wasbroken only by occasional and distant shouts, punctuated, now andagain, by a shot. But the heavy fusillade had subsided for a time.
"Well?" questioned Rosemary.
She was eager to get some action.
"This is what I'll do," said Floyd, after some tense consideration,"I'll take a look around and see how matters shape up."
"Then what?" asked Rosemary.
She was evidently not going to let the matter go by default.
"Well, then if I can't see anything better to do then what youproposed, we'll go to it!" decided Floyd. "You sit here and I'llscurry around. I won't be long."
"No, please don't," begged Rosemary. "If we're going to do anythingwe'll have to do it very soon. This can't last--much longer!"
Floyd did not stop to ask his sister just what she meant. In fact hedid not dare question her as to what it was that could not last "muchlonger." He had a desperate fear that it was Rosemary's own spiritthat was on the point of breaking.
Up to now she had kept up her courage remarkably well. But there was alimit, and if the breaking point had been reached Floyd did not knowwhat would follow.
He shot a quick look at the girl before he started out on what hethought might be a last desperate venture. He felt that he mightdiscover something to do--some way of escape--that would not make itnecessary for his sister to virtually rush into danger.
And he was relieved when he saw the calm and cool look that was onRosemary's face.
"She isn't going to give up!" decided Floyd.
There was an exultant feeling in his heart.
During this talk between brother and sister the dirty Indian detailedto guard the captives had sauntered within view of them every now andthen. To quiet his suspicions, in case he should have any, Rosemaryand Floyd had spoken most casually on these occasions.
The lad waited until the guard had come on one of his periodic trips ofinspection and had dropped out of sight on a ledge of rock, and thenFloyd started out.
"Don't be too long!" called Rosemary in a low voice.
"I won't!" he promised.
Walking as aimlessly as he could pretend, Floyd started toward a breakin the natural wall that ran in front of the prison cavern. He wantedto see if he could catch a glimpse of the Yaquis below him.
"And I'd give a whole lot of money--if I had it--to see who is fightingthem," thought Floyd. "But I haven't much left."
He glanced ruefully down at his now soiled and torn garments. And ashe thrust his hands into his pockets he missed many a trinket andpossession. For nearly everything had been taken away by Paz, Mike orsome of their rascally followers.
Two or three Indians, some of them wounded, were coming back "from thefront," so to speak. One of them glanced scowlingly at Floyd, as hepassed the lad, evidently associating his wounds with the presence ofthe prisoner.
"I'd give you a whole lot worse than that if I had a chance--UglyFace!" thought Floyd.
Another member of the renegade band grinned or--Floyd took it for agrin--as he passed. But none of them seemed to care where the lad wentor what he did, and for this Floyd was glad.
"I seem to be getting somewhere," he murmured. "Whether I can hit onany scheme to beat Rosemary's is a question, but I don't want her totake the risk unless there's nothing else to do."
He had now reached a low spot in the natural rocky wall. He felt thatif he could once get a glimpse at this poi
nt he might see somethingthat would help him and Rosemary.
And to his great delight, when he had sauntered, as casually as hecould make it, to an observation point, what he saw made him gasp forbreath.
For, grouped closely together, below him, on a sort of big table ofrock, were a number of the Yaquis. They appeared to be holding a sortof council or parley, and were gathered about an Indian to whom Mikeand Paz often delegated certain duties.
But this was not what caused the heart of Floyd to thump so desperatelyagainst his ribs, making such a noise, he wildly feared, that thepounding would be heard by some passing Indian.
What caused him fairly to gasp for breath was the sight of a greatboulder, poised on the edge of the natural wall, and hanging almostdirectly over the group of talking Indians.
"If I can push that rock down on them it will do the trick!" thoughtFloyd. "It'll put some of 'em out of business, and the rest will be sofrightened that they'll retreat. Then whoever is out there trying tobreak through to help us, will have matters their own way. That's whatI'll do. Ill pry that rock loose and let it dash 'em on the heads."
It was a horrible thing to think of, much more horrible to do, but thesituation of Rosemary and Floyd was desperate indeed. The end seemedto justify the means.
"The point is," mused Floyd, "can I shove that rock down?"
Looking about him he saw that he was not observed. He quickly made hisway nearer to the rock, and then, reaching out his hands, he pushed.
Gently at first he exerted the pressure, and then putting more powerinto the shove he thrust with all his might.
"It's giving! It's giving!" thought Floyd, with a desperate catch ofhis breath. "I can shove it down on 'em and dash 'em all up!"
He exerted all his strength. The rock was moving, and even with allthe villainies the Indians had to their discredit Floyd's nerve almostfailed him as he saw the great boulder sway as if for the plunge.
But to his chagrin he felt the rock move back toward him again. Hetried to hold it away--to thrust it from him--but nature, in the guiseof the attraction of gravitation--pulled the rock back into thesocket-shaped bed where it had rested so long.
It rolled back with a grinding sound, and Floyd feared, for a momentthat he had loosened it so that it would topple back and fall upon hisfeet.
But this did not happen. The great half-round stone oscillated to andfro and then came to rest. Floyd had only caused it to sway a little.
"Well, I moved it!" he said with a gasp. "I'll try again. If I canonly get it started it will do the trick."
Again he pushed, with all his might, but again the same thing happened.He managed to make the rock sway outward, a little farther over theedge of the wall, but back it came again into its hollow resting place.
Then Floyd understood the nature of the matter.
"It's a balanced rock," he said to himself. "She's been resting herefor ages, and you can move it just so far but no farther. It wouldtake a team of army mules to dislodge it."
He looked over the wall again. The Indians were still in the sameplace, eagerly talking--a score or more of feet below the boy.
"It's too good a chance to miss!" whispered Floyd desperately. "Iwonder if I can't find some sort of a lever and pry it loose."
He looked about him. Not far away was part of a dead tree branch,thick as his arm.
"Just what I need!" he exclaimed.
He ran to pick up the branch and, returning with it, set one end underthe balanced rock, that was still swaying slightly from his exertions.
"Now for a last try!" murmured the lad.
He bent his weight on the long end of the improvised lever. The rockseemed to rise from its socket bed, and to sway outward. There was anexultation in the boy's heart. He thought, in another instant, that hecould send the great stone crashing down into the midst of the Yaquis.
Then, suddenly there came a sharp report, and Floyd felt himselffalling.
His first feeling was that he had been shot and that this was the end.But he felt no pain, save a sudden bump as he sprawled on the rocks,and then he realized what had happened.
He had pressed so heavily on the old and dried piece of wood that ithad snapped and broken with a report like that of a pistol, and he haddropped.
"Too bad!" murmured Floyd.
As he picked himself up he saw two of the Yaqui Indians running arounda rocky corner. They had evidently been drawn to the place by thesound.
"No good letting them know what I tried to do," quickly decided Floyd."It would only make it worse for us."
Having decided on a line of action it did not take the lad an instantto carry it out. Quickly he picked up the broken pieces of his leverand started back with them toward the cave where he and his sister wereheld captives.
"Make fire!" he said to the Indians. "Make fire--cook grub!"
"Ugh!" they grunted. They evidently accepted this obvious explanation.
Their suspicions lulled, they turned and went back the way they hadcome, pausing long enough, however, to watch Floyd enter the cave whereRosemary waited.
"Well," she questioned, as he threw the broken ends of his lever on therocky floor.
"No go," answered Floyd despondently. "I had a peach of a chance toplay a trump hand on them, but luck was against me."
He told what he had tried to do with the rock.
"Oh? I--I'm almost glad it didn't succeed!" said Rosemary with ashudder. "It would have been--terrible!"
"Nothing is too bad for these devils!" cried Floyd. "But I give up. Ican't think of anything more to do."
"Then shall I try my way?" asked his sister.
"It is a desperate chance," Floyd murmured.
"But don't you think we ought to try it? We may be able to reach thewall, and get over, or go down the trail we came up. It was too steepfor the horses, but maybe we can make it."
The horses had been abandoned by the Yaquis as they entrenchedthemselves for this last stand. The animals could not make the ascent.
"Well?" asked Rosemary of her brother.
"I'm with you!" he said, with a sharp intaking of his breath.
Then they got ready for the ruse Rosemary had proposed.
CHAPTER XXV
"ALL'S WELL!"
What was taking place down below, Rosemary and Floyd could only guessat. But that the rescuers were taking advantage of everything possiblewas evident from the occasional hits they made among the Yaquis. Morethan one was killed and several wounded as they fired over the top ofthe wall, or through loopholes amid the rocks.
Then, soon after the determination at which Rosemary had arrived, therecame a more violent fusillade than any that had preceded. In thisseveral Indians were forced to retire because of serious wounds. Thenthe firing died away.
Though the captive lad and his sister did not know it, this suddencessation in the firing of the attackers was due to an order of thecommander of the troopers. The captain was, also, nominally in commandof 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 bitslow. No telling how long we may have to camp on the trail of theseimps."
It was a wise determination as they all agreed, and the word went upand down the line of attackers to be sparing of powder and lead. Thisis what caused the troopers and cowboys suddenly to cease firing,following a desperate fusillade which they hoped would turn the tide ofbattle in their favor, but it had not done so.
"We must size the situation up," decided the captain. "Find out justhow many more rounds we have left--counting also the supply of ourfriends from Diamond X," he ordered an officer.
And the taking stock of the situation was soon under way. That theYaquis were as glad of the respite, as were our friends, need not bedoubted.
Advantage was taken of the lull to look after the wounded, and to bringwater to the fighting men, for they were sorely in need of dr
inks. Andwarm as the water was, it seemed the best that had ever trickled downtheir throats.
Back in their prison, Rosemary and Floyd noted the sudden silence thatfollowed 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'sranch, 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 muchas you are, Rosemary. Something has to be done! Are you sure youwon't weaken at the last minute, and cave in?"
"Did you ever know me to do a thing like that?" she asked with flashingeyes.
"No, I never did."
"Well, I'm not going to start now! Don't worry, Floyd. Somehow I feelsure that this will pull us through! I thought of it in thenight--perhaps I dreamed it--and I have a feeling that it is going towork 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'replaying a 'hunch,' so to speak, that's different. You always werelucky!"
He laughed grimly, and Rosemary joined in. It was the first time theyhad 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 thosewhich 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 Indianslined up, with their backs toward them, along the wall of theimprovised 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. Andas 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, andsome football yells, for he had been a cheer leader at one time for hiscollege team.
Whatever was said little mattered. It was the character of theshouting of the desperate youth and maiden, and their actions thatcounted. Coming as Rosemary's ruse did, after the hardest firing yeton the part of the attackers, it rather got on the nerves of the Yaquisif they had such organs, which is doubtful.
To every one of them it appeared, as Rosemary and Floyd intended itshould, that an attack from the rear was about to take place. AsRosemary had guessed, the Indians knew no more about the cave than shedid. They had hastily examined it and decided there was no rearentrance or exit, as the case might be. But they might have overlookedsome hidden passage, and this is what all of them evidently thought hadbeen done.
At any rate, as Rosemary and Floyd rushed out, yelling almost likeIndians themselves, a panic started among the Yaquis. They sawthemselves caught between two fires, with no retreat possible.
With whoops of despair some threw themselves over the cliff. Othersrushed into the cave, while some climbed up the rocky walls at eitherside. A few remained, firing down at the attackers below.
Rosemary's yells, and those of her brother, carried to the soldiers andcowboys. At first they thought a sally was about to take place.
But when they saw some Indians come over the wall, one luckless impslipping and falling to his death, some idea of what was taking placebecame manifest to Captain Marshall.
"They're in a panic!" he cried. "Something has frightened 'em! Comeon, men!"
He led a rush forward, just as Rosemary appeared at the top of thewall, waving her neck handkerchief in a frenzied signal.
"There she is! Rosemary!" cried Bud, not exactly recognizing hiscousin, but guessing the girl could be none other.
The rush of the attackers, together with the panic that had run throughthe ranks of the Indians like wildfire, was all that was needed to turnthe scale. The Yaquis, with howls of fear, not knowing what it was allabout, threw down their guns and sought for means of escape.
Mike, the leader, seemed dazed at the suddenness of it all. But hegathered his wits together and, seeing Rosemary at the wall, waving tothe soldiers and cowboys below, the desperate Yaquis sprang toward her.
But Floyd was watching his sister. The lad picked up a revolver fromwhere it had fallen as its owner retreated and fired point blank atMike. The ruffian crumpled up and went down in a heap, as Rosemaryherself, 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 whomade prisoners of such of the renegades as were left alive--and thesewere not many, though they included Mike, who had only been wounded byFloyd.
"Oh, Bud! I'm so glad! So glad!" murmured Rosemary, as her cousin puthis arm around her--only one arm for the other was still sore.
"So'm I!" murmured Bud. "This is another cousin--Nort," and he noddedtoward his boy rancher companion. "And there's a third one downthere--Dick--but he's hurt!"
"Badly?"
"Oh, no, just a piece of lead through his arm. He'll be all right in afew days. But say, Rosemary, what did you and Floyd do to turn thetables so quickly?"
"Rosemary did it all," Floyd said with a cheerful grin. "It was just abluff!" 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 itall up.
The prisoners secured, the dead on both sides buried and the story ofthe capture and rescue briefly told, arrangements were made forreturning to civilization.
The raid of the Yaquis was over, and so severe was the lesson taughtthem that it was many years before another trick like that was tried.
Rosemary and Floyd, though they had suffered many hardships, were notphysically harmed, except for the youth's wrenched arm, which waspainful 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 Ican't bear to think of it. I just _dreamed_ of clean bath tubs filledwith 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 fromthe time he's born until he dies."
In order to give everyone a chance to rest, it was decided to camp fora few days in a favorable spot, which was found a few miles from wherethe Indians had made their last stand--a final stand for many, as morethan 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 nearestplace where there was a telegraph station, to send the good news backto Diamond X.
"And now we can take it easy," observed Bud as he with his cowboycousins and the newly rescued captives enjoyed the first real mealwithout anticipations of a fight immediately after it.
"You must have had a dreadful time, Rosemary," said Dick, whose arm wasin a sling.
"Well, it seemed so at the time, and yet I want to laugh when I thinkhow I fooled those Indians just by screaming."
"It isn't the first time you've brought help by screaming!" laughedBud. "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 Rosemaryand her brother, with our boy heroes reached Diamond X, parting fromthe soldier escort. And once at the ranch, which had been theirobjective before the kidnapping, the visitors were royally e
ntertained.
"Well, it was the best adventure we ever had," declared Nort, and hisbrother agreed with him. But it was not to be the last of the excitinghappenings in which they were to be involved.
For these were lads of action, ever in the van when there was a chancefor a fight. And those who wish to follow the further adventures ofBud, Nort and Dick, may do so in the next volume of this series, whichwill be entitled "The Boy Ranchers in the Flood; or Saving the Stock atDiamond X."
In that we shall see how they fared when again called on to act theirparts in the face of danger. But, for the present we shall leave themto enjoy the company of Rosemary and Floyd at Diamond X and in HappyValley.
THE END
Boy Ranchers Among the Indians; Or, Trailing the Yaquis Page 23