CHAPTER XXVI.
A MIDNIGHT RAID.
THE Spaniards sharing the sick man's tent willingly complied withCharley's request and moved their belongings to the other tents inwhich there was plenty of room for them. With Walter's assistance thelad cleaned the tent out thoroughly and tied back the flaps at bothends to permit the free circulation of air. Rama was made to go to bedon a second cot and given a dose of the same medicine given the other.This done, Charley called the balance of the graders and ground mentogether and gave them a large bottle of carbolic acid and a box ofsalve, instructing them how to use both. It was now getting dark, andafter a hasty supper the boys with their two Spaniards repaired to theguard line. Before night, however, Walter had climbed a small tree andtaken a survey of the country. Much to his disappointment, he had seensmoke rising from the convicts' old camping place, showing that thegunmen had returned to their old haunts.
"I wonder how they manage to find our camp so easy at night," the ladremarked, as he and his chum met on their rounds. "When McCarty and Iwere out hunting that time we could not see this camp from theirs, andafter we camped in the thicket we could not see their camp, although wewere not over half a mile away. The white mist blotted out everything."
"That digging light way up on the machine's boom guides them," Charleyanswered. "The mist is densest close to the ground. The further up onegoes the thinner it gets; consequently they can see that light evenwhen they can't see our campfire."
"Simple enough, after all," Walter commented. "It's the simple thingsthat puzzle one the most sometimes."
"Which reminds me of what Mr. Bruce hinted," Charley said, "that thesolution of our mystery was in plain sight all the time, but hanged ifI haven't puzzled over it till I made my head swim and can't make itout."
"Same here," Walter said. "I hope he is right and can make an end tothis trouble, but I doubt it."
"Well, we will know in a few days. He promised to be out again within aweek."
The lads turned back on their patrol and the conversation ceased.
The hours slipped slowly away while the four guards kept up their slow,weary, monotonous pacing back and forth. Three times Charley slippedin and administered doses of quinine. On the last trip he passed by thecook tent and, striking a match, glanced at the clock inside.
"It's just midnight," he said as he rejoined his chum. "That seemsto be the favorite time for their devilment. I suppose we can lookfor trouble any minute now." He had hardly finished when there camethe sharp crack of rifles from about the machine. "Good," Charleyexclaimed, "they haven't all got silent guns this time. Those reportswill give our men an idea where to shoot."
"Hadn't we better go out there?" Walter asked.
"No, we may have our hands full here," his chum replied. "Besides, theengineer will whistle if he wants us. Gee, look at that!"
The swinging platform of the machine was turning around and around atgreat speed and from it burst forth little jets of flame as the machinemen answered the enemy's fire.
"Good boy, McCarty," Walter exclaimed. "I guess they will have a jobhitting any of your men." He ducked as a bullet whizzed close by him.
"Watch out!" Charley cried, "they have got the camp surrounded, too."
"Shoot wherever you see a flash, then step to one side so they won'tlocate your position."
The Captain, Chris and the two engineers came running from the camphalf dressed with their guns in their hands. By the time they reachedthe line, the rifles of both defenders and attackers were cracklingmerrily and the bullets were whining back and forth. For half anhour the firing continued on both sides, then the attacking partyslowly withdrew, firing as they retired. The attempt on the machinehad quickly been silenced, and McCarty was digging again as thoughnothing had happened. Lanterns were lit and the defenders took stockof the damage done. Captain Westfield had a scratch on the leg where abullet had grazed, one of the Spaniards had lost a finger tip, and acow staked out within the line had been killed. Whether the enemy hadsuffered from their fire they could not tell.
"I doubt if they were hurt much," Charley observed. "I think they didmost of their fighting from behind trees. We want to take a lesson fromthem on that. To-morrow we will have to fix up some kind of protectionto get behind when the fun begins. I do not expect we will get off aslucky next time as we did this. I believe they were trying to scare usthis time more than anything else."
Satisfied that the trouble was over for the night, the Captain and hiscompanions returned to bed while the lads resumed their weary round ofsentinel duty. Nothing more occurred to disturb them, and they wereheartily glad when day at last came. As soon as it grew light enoughto see well, the two lads went out and examined the place from whichtheir enemies had fired. They found nothing, however, but a few dropsof blood on the grass beside a tree. "Some one got barked a littlehere," Charley observed. "It wasn't anything serious, however, or therewould be more blood around."
The boys had just finished breakfast when one of the Spaniards came infrom the machine.
"Boss, McCarty want you to come out to the machine," he said to Charley.
"I wonder what the trouble is now," said the boy wearily, as he aroseand put on his hat. "Want to walk out with me, Walt?"
"Sure," his chum assented.
"What's the matter?" Charley asked of the white-faced Spaniard whoaccompanied them back.
The Spaniard hastily crossed himself. "God knows," he said with ashudder. "It's blood that we wash in and blood that we drink. May theBlessed Virgin forgive us."
As they were near the machine, the lads did not question him further,but hastened on to where McCarty was standing a little ways beyond theroad.
"What's the matter?" Charley asked the engineer.
"You can see for yourself," was the reply. "Look at that little brookover there where we have been getting our water. Last night it was justordinary sweet, pure, cold water, but just look at it now."
The two lads stepped over to the tiny brook McCarty pointed out. It wasonly a few feet wide and three or four inches in depth, except wherethe machine men had dug a hole a couple of feet deep to make possiblethe dipping up of a few bucketfuls at a time. The boy's eyes openedwide with wonder and surprise, for the waters of the little rill werered like blood.
"Queer, isn't it?" said McCarty. "Hanged if I can account for it."
"I have seen brooks of that color where the water flowed over red baytree roots," Walter volunteered.
"That color does not come from bay roots," objected the other. "Youwant to remember that it was all right and colorless yesterday. We gota fresh pail of water about two hours ago. Of course we did not noticethe color then because it was dark, but one of the men went to get adrink a while ago and I thought he would throw a fit when he saw thecolor of the stuff he had been drinking. Bossie washed his face andhands in the brook a couple of hours ago and just look at him now." Thelads glanced at the Spaniard, whose frightened face was a bright red."They want to quit," McCarty continued in a low voice. "This, comingafter all the other mystery, has scared them out of their wits. Unlessyou can hit upon some reasonable explanation of this thing and do itquick, I am afraid the whole gang will quit. They have been crossingthemselves and muttering prayers to the Virgin for the last hour."
A glance at the three frightened Spaniards convinced the two lads thatMcCarty was not exaggerating the seriousness of the situation.
"Keep them here until I come back," Charley told him softly. "Come on,Walt, I am going to follow that rill up to its source."
They had not far to go. A couple of hundred yards from the machinethey found the rill's source among a clump of willows. Here a littlespring bubbled up from the ground. Near its mouth, fastened tightlyto a stake, was an object that caused the boy to utter exclamationsof surprise and relief. It was a muslin bag capable of holding eightor ten pounds and it was stained a bright red. It had been cunninglyplaced in a narrow part of the rill and the dirt banked up on bothsides so that all the water from the
spring would have to pass throughor over it.
"Don't touch it," Charley said. "Go bring the machine men here. I wantto make this an object lesson to them."
While Walter was gone on this errand, the lad gathered up severalpasteboard packages that lay scattered around on the ground. He notedwith satisfaction that the directions on them were printed in Spanishas well as English.
In a few minutes Walter was back with the wondering Spaniards. Reliefbegan to replace the look of fright on their faces as Charley silentlypointed out to them the red stained bag and, untying it from the stake,undid the string closing its mouth and shook out on the ground a massof water-soaked red powder. He picked up three of the packages hehad collected and gave one to each of the Spaniards. "Read," he saidshortly. The Spaniards burst out laughing as they grasped the cause ofthe thing that had so frightened them.
"Our enemies want to stop us from building this road," Charley saidin Spanish. "They are fools. They think by firing off their guns inthe air at night, starting fires in the grass, and coloring water redwith dyes, that they can frighten away the brave, noble sons of Spain.Surely they are fools."
"They are fools," agreed Bossie, now completely recovered from hisfright. "They might frighten children, but Spaniards never. No otherrace is as brave and fearless as the sons of Spain."