CHAPTER XXI.
THE LANCERS' CHARGE.
The forlorn hope started off at full gallop behind the trio, in aflight through the obscurity which was as lugubrious as fantastic.The sweet and sadly wan moonbeams stretched the cavaliers' shadowsimmeasurably over the land. Every detail of the landscape took gauntaspects. The trees, waving white and grey beards of Spanish moss,and endless creepers in loops and knots, seemed spectres that werestationed to catch and hang the riders. No such headlong course couldhave been performed by any but such Mexican centaurs. It lasted over anhour, till Oliver reined in and called out--
"Pull up!"
"_Alto! iAlto!_" was reiterated down the line, till the column was allin quiescence on the edge of a boundless virgin forest.
"Where are we?" inquired Gladsden.
"Three leagues from the farm," answered Oliver, after the Tigrero hadgiven him a clue. "I thought more. We have turned the main body of theinsurgents, and are on their rear if they are about to fall on the bigfarm. I am going to cache the squad under the leaves, and go on thescout myself."
"Had you not better send one of these, who are so familiar with thecountry?" remonstrated the Englishman. "Your place as commander--"
"Tush! There are too many lives at stake for me to hesitate to riskmine. I kin never make by big throws onless I hev sartin news. That OldSilvano could be trusted to see all that I shall see, but he hasn'ta passle (_parcelle_, particle, used in that sense by the CanadianFrench trappers) o' jedgment, and on jedgment depends the ha'r o' themSpanish in the hacienda. I do this scout," said he shortly. "If I knowanything, I b'lieve it's scouting."
"Since things are so, go ahead."
Oliver alighted, gave some orders, delegated his authority to theEnglishman with Silvano as his sub., and glided into the woods. Thoughthere was no underbush, he was lost to the view almost instantly, soinstinctively did he cover his body by the trunks.
During his absence, the Mexicans rode under the branches, and dozedin the saddle, with pickets thrown out upon all sides. Gladsden lethimself be absorbed in his reflections, marvelling that after a briefperiod, he, the English gentleman of wealth, could be in the heartof an unexplored wood, on the borders of a desert, guarded by a bandof men complete strangers not ten hours before, and exposed to beingoverwhelmed by a whole army of revolted slaves.
In the midst of his reverie, without any warning, a hand was abruptlyslapped on his knee, and a jesting voice said--
"How many mile in'ard of the Land of Nod?"
"I was not asleep, Oliver," cried Gladsden, indignantly, as, however,he opened his eyes, and blinked them in a way that belied his denial.
The scout had returned and come right up to his side so stealthily thathe had not been aroused. But the tiger slayer had perceived him, andwas smiling slightly at the practical joke which was, also, a lesson.
"Well, what's the news?"
"Things are a good deal as I s'posed," he answered. "Thar are somethinglike three or four thousand of the critters, and sich a rabble! Veryfew have firearms, and, likely enough, no powder, and, if powder, noball, so that they will top the loading with stones and gravel and blowtheir blamed topknots off at the first pull. The others hev come outpowerful with spears, sheep shearers divided and the blades thong'd onto poles, scythes, reaping hooks, and all kind o' things ugly to lookat of which they have made we'pins. Some 'stonishing black niggers arethe head men of gangs. They are in a valley there away, on a road. Theyhave no flankers out, and no look out, for they have no idee they moutbe _attackted_."
"So we can manoeuvre without any apprehension of being discovered, youmean, Ol.?"
"Jess so, gineral! One of them mountain howitzer our army promenadeswith could pepper 'em up sure from hyar."
"Where's their left?"
"On a little village half a league tharabouts."
"And their right?"
"On a little cluster of shanties that Old Silvano says is called RanchoNuevo--nigh enough to be seen in the crack o' day from hyar."
"Can the signal rockets of the hacienda be seen from the two points youmention, and the road occupied by the mass of the rebels?"
"For why not? They are three high p'ints over the sink they are in."
"This looks promising enough."
"What! Do you think to cut up three or four thousand niggers?"
"My dear Oliver, I am sure that you have your idea in your head fullymatured, and that we have nothing to do but put it into execution."
"I don't know rightly about that. In any event, I am going to executewhat the army men call a divarsion. If the innymy accept it asdivarting, I'm satisfied. I should give it another name, myself, butthar! Thar's no 'counting for tastes. Besides the bulk of the Yaquis,thar is a long straggling train, with the plunder, the fat, cowardly,and cunning, who are drinking and singing, _and_ dancing like allpossessed. They are coming almost dead to'rds us, and we hev no more'n time to receive them properly. If we turn them back, scattered,they wilt not be in condition to reinforce the army. That's the firstarticle on the bill o' fare."
He beckoned the tiger hunter to him.
"Capitano," said he, "pick out your bullwhackers, and add to themenough more to make about forty strong. Them's your _cuadrilla_, savvy!Thar's a right smart sprinkle of cattle straying over the plain,bewildered, whom those barbarians hev scared, some--well, into a fever.Lasso a dozen in a herd, tie up and throw down, and send one to reportprogress. Meanwhile, collect a heap of fat (resinous) candlewood. Cookaway--_cuca_, cap'en!"
Silvano, delighted with his rank, and beaming with smiles to theeyebrow, soon departed with one-third or so of the little party. Therest were divided into two troops, of which the American and Gladsdentook the leadership. The mufflers were removed from the hoofs asuseless, and each troop was arranged in three ranks, twelve, fifteen,and eighteen in a line. Thus in order, they moved off under the trees,tall ones whose boughs only sprang out at an altitude of great degree,and parting at a silent signal, ranged themselves one each side of atrack through the woodland, dignified by the title of road. They werestationed one above the other.
Two hours had passed in these dispositions.
The moon had gone down lower and lower in the heavens, till, in theend, it dropped beneath the eyeline, and opaque shadows enveloped thecountry and blended all objects into one mass. In the stillness of acemetery, the two cavalcades, no longer visible to one another, awaitedthe forthcoming enemy.
Wild Indians detest this hour, under the influence of a belief thatthe soul of a warrior killed in the dark spell before dawn is doomedto dwell everlastingly in gloom; but the converted peons had had thissuperstition modified or obliterated altogether.
At all events, there was soon heard a confused murmur, which changedspeedily into a blending of shouting, monotonous chanting, andoccasional shots, while yellow flares crossed the darkest glades of thepine woods.
In twenty minutes, the vanguard of a tumultuous gathering of brownand black skinned men, women, and youths, filled the track. They werealmost naked, or merely attired in fragments of clothes to which theyhad never been accustomed, some bearing torches, some crucibles frommines, filled with oil and coarse wicks, and others candles of greatlength taken from chapels.
They were allowed to pass unchallenged.
After them the more active insurgents, drunken, frenzied, hoarse, tiredwith a long march, but demoniacal with their features twitching ininsatiable passion, surged up in a tolerable order, brandishing andclashing their weapons, mostly of the improvised nature hinted at bythe scout in his description.
All of a sudden, the harsh croak of a sandhill crane was audible inthe thicket to the north of the road where Oliver had posted himself.Immediately the man at the side of Gladsden imitated the clatter ofthe beak of the same bird clearing it of the debris of a gobbled frog,by tapping his pistol barrel on his lance shaft. The next instantthere was a rush of horses to the side of the forest track, and "_VivaMejico!_" resounded full throated from Oregon Ol.
/> "_Y Libertad!_" was the completion of the signal and war cry from thefollowers of Gladsden, as they, too, set spurs to their steeds.
"Mexico and liberty!"
Simultaneously, therefore, the two companies burst upon the column ofIndians, cutting through and leaving a layer upon layer of piercedmortality like in the track of a tornado. Having crossed, they madea circuit, and, coming out on the road once more, one higher up, andthe other lower down the line of the previous charges, completed thesurprise of the insurgents.
"Wheel, face forward in chase!" was the next command.
In half an hour, the riders came into the rendezvous agreed upon,having effectually frightened that column, and sent the survivingmembers reeling and flying in panic through the woods, back whence theycame.
Five only of the Mexicans were missing. The wounds received wereunimportant. The horses were breathed; the cavaliers allowed tocongratulate themselves and their leaders. Oliver had a devotedfollowing now, for these Mexicans are too unused to easy triumphs notto idolise the commander who gluts them with such a feast of vanity.
The collected horsemen rode off, slowly groping, to the appointedplace on the open ground where Silvano and the herders were to havesecured the semi-wild cattle. It was a little less dark, the falsedawn, in fact, and thus Gladsden, though not so accustomed to the nightmarching as the rest, could see the horsemen of the Tigrero forming awide circle; in the centre were several strange objects, writhing andbeckoning to the stars. They were long-horned, thin, wiry cattle, ofthe breed of old which never will fatten in Mexican pastures, fleet asantelopes, savage as tigers. By dexterous casts of the lariat, they hadbeen roped, hurled to the ground, and secured there, heels in the air.They were daunted but disdained to bow, mutely protesting by glaringeyes, full of congested blood, and twitching of the tails. A little wayoff, a heap of resinous wood was formed.
"Prime!" ejaculated the hunter, perceiving all this almost as clearlyas by day. "Don Benny shall give you a silver medal, old coon."
He issued instructions which were forthwith carried out with delightedcomprehension. The cattle were allowed to rise, but still held, halfchoked and much hampered with the leather ropes, whilst some activehands bound fat branches to their long horns, so that they soon assumedan apologetic appearance of stags adorned with magnificent antlers,which was amusing. Overcoming their humiliation on being anew on allfours, the beasts began to chafe. Bushes of prickly nopals were madefor attaching to the animals' tails and hind quarters, like the pendentgoads to the bulls in the arena.
When the cattle were finally supplied with these prickles and thewooden headgear, they were released of their trammels, and drivenforward before a crescent shaped formation of the horsemen, increasingthe pace perforce in order to keep up with them. Presently, the sparkswhich had been applied to rags round the gummy wood, were fannedinto perceptible flames. By the time these living candelabra andtheir remorseless goaders saw the hill of the hacienda loom up, thefrightened cattle were adorned with long streamers of flame. But asthey were broadened out into a line, one beside another, there was noscare to make them turn back, and their only instinctive hope was tocontinue their mad charge.
A deep hubbub as of bees around the hive was audible over and above thebellowing of these fiery cattle, and a vivid glare seemed to encirclethe hacienda.
All at once, a yellow streak rose up in the sky, and a white star shoneover the buildings and enclosures, and the multitude surging up againstthe pickets. Then the sky was striped luminously once more, but, thistime, a rosy glare surrounded a red star.
"Now we come whooping!" shouted Oliver, participating, like even theEnglishman, in the excitement of this frantic race at the heels of theterrified bearers of the flames, forming a line of fire of continuousaspect to the Yaquis in the hollow. "Level your lance--no! Draw rein!Draw rein! And swerve to the left! What in thunder is that cry behindus--on the sword hand? Great Jehosaphat! whar the Old Harry have _they_sprung up from! Apaches, by the living thingumbob! Apaches!"
In plain earnest, the "hugh-ug-hugh!" of the Apaches rang out of thepine forest, with an intonation of joy as if the sight of the rocketsand the disclosures thereby of the farm which had already been theirmark for massacre and pillage, had delighted them beyond control.
Then was heard, too, in a voice quite as gleeful and fiendish, thevociferation of a number of white men, in Spanish and in English.
"_iViva!_ The Rustlers! _Los Ruidores_ of Captain Pedrillo forever!"
"The Rustlers!" repeated Oregon Ol., in perfect stupefaction. "Openyour airth and swaller me! The 'Pache' and the skunks they exchangedshots with--that shed their blood--'malgamated, by gum! Take me into agully an' bury me! I'm licked!"
Meanwhile, not having the reasons for a halt that had checked theMexicans in the very commencement of a charge, the cattle infuriatedwith the falling sparks from the wood beginning to become detached fromtheir horns, and blinded with the smarting smoke, tore down the inclineinto the very vale where the Yaquis were crowded. Certainly their onsetwould create a consternation, preventing any attention being bestowedupon Oliver's little party, as it obeyed his earnest injunction andwheeled off into an island of trees.
In ten minutes, as the dawn grew upon the scene, they could very welldiscern, boldly emerging from the piney woods, not only some of thestragglers of the column the Mexicans had discomfited, but two bodiesof mounted men, together over their own number, whom Oliver recognisedas the Apaches and the banditti, whom they had left at daggers drawn,or, more exactly, at long shots with each other.
To explain this unparalleled occurrence in border records, the union oftwo hostile forces in brotherly ties for active operation, we must turnback a few pages.