CHAPTER XXII.
THE FIELD HOSPITAL IN OPERATION.
"What happened to the ambushers, Rob?" Andy inquired.
The scout master was beginning to look around in the throng of cheeringMexicans for Lopez, who must again act as interpreter for him if heexpected the rebel captain to grasp certain ideas he had evolved whileslowly making his way down from the lofty lookout.
"Oh!" replied Rob, with a laugh, "they slid out from under when thingsbegan to get too warm for their blood."
"What! d'ye mean they got clear away, and never left one feller on thegory field of action?" grumbled Tubby.
"Why, you're getting real blood-thirsty, Tubby!" said Rob. "I'm surelyastonished to hear you talk like that!"
"But wouldn't it give you a real hard pain to see how the fellers thatcame back with you are strutting around and grinning! Why, that littlerunt with the gay jacket slaps himself on his chest every half minute,like he'd knocked over sixteen Regulars all by his lonely! What airsthey take on! And yet you say every Fed got clean away? Huh! we've hearda heap of shootin' since we came on the spot; but only one man was hurt,and Merritt fixed him up fine. I reckon he broke his arm trying tohustle and get under shelter!"
"Wait here for me, boys," Rob said; "if Lopez won't show up I'll have tohunt for him, because it's important to do something right away, orthey'll be taken by surprise after all."
"Sort of like I've heard my dad tell: 'If the mountain won't come toMohammed, why Mohammed must go to the mountain.' Well, come right backagain, Rob, when you get through talking with Lopez, because we want toknow some things."
Rob soon found the guide in the crowd. Lopez was doing his share ofshouting and hand-shaking, and even the women and children were takingpart in the demonstration. It amused the boy about as much as anythinghe had ever seen.
"They're a queer lot," he told himself, suppressing a grin as he came upto the guide; "you'd think they'd done something real wonderful, now,instead of chasing up that rise and scaring off three skulkers whodidn't want to fight at all. But then, I kind of think, these fellowscan do considerable scrapping when once they get down to it. And theymay have to yet, unless all signs fail before help comes."
Lopez, seeing his employer beckoning, quickly joined him.
"We ought not to be loafing the minutes away like this, Lopez," Robbegan. "From what I saw when I was up there, chances are we'll have ashower of bullets dropping down on us from both sides before long. Andthink what that will mean when the women and children and unarmedtravelers can't depend on the cars to hide them!"
Even Lopez seemed to be suitably impressed by the gravity of theconditions.
"The young senor has a plan? Let him tell it, and I will surely informthe brave captain of the valiant defenders of the train," he hastened tosay.
Lopez had been studying Rob all the time that they had been in company,and evidently by now he had come to the conclusion that the boy wasequal to any emergency. Plans seemed to be as easy for him to originateas for Lopez to roll a cigarette with his nimble fingers.
"Yes, I happened to notice a spot close to the foot of the hill as I wascoming down that would afford shelter not only for the women andchildren, but for our horses as well. Some of the rebels have animals,too, and the Federals have been mean enough to shoot at them. Two lieout there now, done to death. Let the captain know about this so that hemay order everybody who is not a fighter to get under cover in thissunken spot among the rocks right away. Minutes may count with us,Lopez."
"Si, senor, right away will I do the same," replied the willing guide,hurrying to the side of the captain. He must have explained thesituation to the commander of the rebels in few words, because presentlyseveral men advanced toward Rob, Lopez and the leader among them.
"He has sent word to everybody to follow," explained the guide, as theycame up, "and asks that you lead the way to the fort, senor."
So Rob beckoned to the other three scouts, and upon their coming up, hedirected:
"Bring the five horses, boys; we're going to hide the lot with the womenand kids in a rocky retreat close by, where they'll be safe from flyinglead."
"That's a hunky idea!" declared Andy. "I was just bothering my headtrying to think what we could do to protect our mounts; because, seeinghow the cowardly Federals aimed to cut down the horses when theycouldn't hit a man, made me reckon we might have to continue our journeyafoot. We'll be right along after you, Rob. I'll see to your nag, andMerritt will take care of the guide's broncho."
Meanwhile, some of the rebels had made the crowd understand that theymust leave the train for a brief time, because it would soon be as muchas their lives were worth to remain out in the open. Once the enemystarted shooting from both sides, the chances of being struck were boundto be tenfold as great as when they could hide behind the cars and usethem as a fortress.
Some of the fugitives showed considerable concern about even temporarilyabandoning the train; they acted as though they had treasures of somesort hidden in the luggage that was stored inside the cars. But therebels would not stand for any delay or quibbling; and as a consequencethe entire party, numbering almost a hundred, took up a line of marchafter Rob and the advance guard, heading directly toward the nearby footof the rise.
Trailing in and out among the large rocks that lay around near the base,the young scout master led the way to the protected "sink" where thefugitives from Chihuahua could find shelter while the coming battleraged.
A couple of minutes later the three boys came up with all the horsesbelonging to Rob's party. Others among the rebels, understanding whatwas going on and able to take a hint, made haste to fetch the rest ofthe animals; for there was plenty of room in the sink to afford ashelter for all.
"Say, this wouldn't make a bad sort of fort, would it?" Tubby remarked,as he glanced around at the rock walls that arose on nearly every side."Now, tell me, Rob, why shouldn't the whole outfit stay in here, insteadof sticking to the open and dodging bullets around that old train?"
"Why, don't you see," replied the other, always willing to oblige acomrade, "if the fighting men stayed here they could never tell wherethe enemy was located; and the consequence would be that the Regularscould drop down here and proceed to pour a hot fire right in among thebunch. No, that would never do, and the rebel captain knows it, too.Back to the train for us, boys. There we'll be in a position to seewhatever fighting happens along."
"And what is our share of the row going to be, Rob?" asked Andyanxiously.
"Oh! don't bother about that--yet!" said Rob quietly. "If there happensto be a lot of men struck, why we'll show them how scouts learn tobandage wounds and render first aid to the injured. I'd do that for aFederal just as quick as for a rebel, because we're supposed to beneutrals in this Mexican mix-up, you understand. So we'll try andimagine ourselves Red Cross workers for the time being."
"Well, the fun's going to begin right away, I reckon!" Andy called out,as there came the sharp crack of a gun from up on the side of the hillwhich, before this, had been entirely free from the enemy.
"Whee! Hear that bullet let out a yell as it jumped by over our heads,did you?" gasped Tubby, trying to make himself as small as possible andnot meeting with very much success, for reasons that all of his chumscould easily understand.
There was an immediate scurrying around of the rebels, each man tryingto find some place where he could be safe from the rain of lead thatwould soon be falling.
A number stuck to the cars, believing they could manage to lie low andescape damage; while others, like the four boys, preferred to trust tothe outlying rocks that in places offered little harbors of refuge.
In five minutes there was quite an exchange of shots going on, so thatthings began to seem "pretty lively," as Andy called it.
Acting on the advice of Rob, all of them had spread out what linenbandages they carried in their packs, as well as other things calculatedto be of use in case of wounds.
"If I had dreamed that we should have to play the
part of fieldhospital," Rob remarked, "I would have made sure to bring an extrasupply along. But in case we run short of bandages, why there's that bignight-shirt Tubby fetched, under the foolish impression he was going tosleep like he does at home. And when that's gone we'll begin on his dayshirt. Like enough it will fill the bill!"
Tubby hardly knew whether to take this in the light of a joke or not.
"Now, I don't mind giving up the useless sack in my pack, becauseseveral times I've been tempted to throw it away before some of youfellers began to josh me about it; but I do draw the line about handingover my spotted flannel shirt that I'm wearing right now to be torn intobandages, and wrapped about the arms of these dirty--er, I mean, bravesenors who are fighting so hard."
"Here comes a fellow who's got his dose, I guess, Rob," said Merritt, asone of the rebels staggered toward their little enclosure, holding hisleft arm rigidly with the clenched fingers of his right hand and tryingto suppress a look of pain on his swarthy face.
The Federals attempted to add to his troubles by shooting at him, sothat the dust arose in several little spurts around his feet as he cameon; but luckily he was not struck again, and soon sank down with a groanat the feet of the "gringo" boys, who had let it be known that they wereready to treat any and all wounds.
Rob immediately took the man in hand. He had several pails of waterhandy, and was thus enabled to wash the fellow's arm first of all. Itturned out that he had received a pretty serious hurt. It made Tubbyshudder, but the fat scout showed plenty of grit, for he volunteered toassist Rob in any way possible.
Between them the wound was so well taken care of that when the bandagehad been fastened the man declared in broken English that he wasgrateful, and would now dodge back to where he had dropped his gun,hoping to repay some venturesome Regular for his injury.
"There, I reckoned they had plenty of pluck once they got started!" Robdeclared, on seeing the man run across the open space, jumping in azig-zag fashion when the lead began to patter around him.
Another came crawling into the hospital, having also been touched; andbefore he could be discharged a third bounded toward them, now stoppingto limp, as though he hardly knew where he was hurt.
"This is going some, let me tell you!" said Merritt.
"Good practice for us scouts, all the same," Tubby declared, puffing outhis big chest with a suspicion of pride, and then as quickly subsidingwhen he heard a bullet spatter on the rock not three feet away, so thatparticles of stone even tingled his cheek.
For some time the battle at the stalled train continued, until hundredsof shots had been fired on either side and some seven or more rebels hadbeen ministered to by the young field surgeons. But so far as the boysknew, there had thus far been no fatalities, at least on their side.Though no one could say whether or not any of the Federals up thereamong the rocks on the slope had been struck by the bullets the rebelscontinued to send aloft so industriously.
Boy Scouts Under Fire in Mexico Page 22