CHAPTER XV.
ANDY SCATTERS THE SERENADERS.
The first thing that Rob noticed was that it did not seem nearly as darkand gloomy as when he had lain down. Could it be he had slept the wholenight through, and that daylight was at hand? He settled this mysterywith his first glance upward; for there he discovered that a palefragment of a once proud moon had arisen in the east, and was lookingmournfully down upon their hidden camp.
Next he made out the form of Lopez, the Mexican guide, who was sittingwith his back against a tree, as though that might be his favorite wayof sleeping. But he was very much awake now, for he moved even as Robtook notice of his presence.
The queer chorus of sounds continued to arise from various points nearby. Rob made up his mind that they must be actually surrounded by somespecies of animal that certainly sang away off the proper key, for theymade a noise that jarred on his ear terribly.
"Hear 'em, don't you, Rob?" continued Andy, who doubtless must have beenobserving the movements of the acting scout master all this while by theaid of that friendly moonlight.
"Do I? Well, I'd have to be pretty deaf not to, Andy," Rob replied.
"What do you reckon it can be? I never in all my life heard such anawful lot of discord," continued the other scout apprehensively.
"I'm only giving a wide guess," Rob told him; "but I should think only apack of wolves could make a racket like that; or perhaps now, coyotes."
"How about that, Lopez?" Merritt struck in; and the guide, chuckling,replied:
"Last is what it is, young senors; kiote make much noise when hungry. Itis our food they scent. Kiote happen to have a very keen nose. Notrouble, no danger as long as they hang around. Too much coward to sneakin; and long as we hear kiote sing, we know no spy can be near, or theyrun away."
"Sing!" burst out Andy with a snort; "is that what they call it downhere? Mebbe some folks like that sort of song, but let me tell you itgrates on my ears like the screeching of a pack of cats at night. Sing!Whoo-ee! are you joshing us poor tenderfeet, Lopez?"
"Oh! there's nothing like getting used to things, Andy," Rob assuredhim, while at the same time he was in doubt whether he himself could goto sleep again if all that noise kept up right along. "After a while,when you've heard that chant nightly, you may think it's the finestlullaby ever invented, and miss it the worst kind after you hike awaynorth."
"Don't you believe it, Rob," returned the other positively. "I wouldn'tmind being soothed to sleep by sweet sounds, like the thrumming of aguitar or a mandolin; but excuse me from that caterwauling. Listen to itrise and fall! That is just the way our old Tom used to sit on the backfence and talk to the moon till I rigged up a wire along there andconnected it with our electric circuit. After that, when I woke andheard him tuning up, all I had to do was to press the button, andeverything was still again. But he did always give one awful screech ashe lit out!"
"Well, suppose you rig up a switch and circuit here, so you can givethese singing coyotes some of the same medicine?" laughed Merritt.
"You know I can't do that," Andy admitted mournfully; "wish I couldright now; and let me tell you there'd be a heap of scatterin' out therewhen the circuit was closed. But what's the matter with me sneaking outand giving them a shot or two from my rifle? We didn't lug our guns allthis way just for ornament, did we? And surely they couldn't be used ina nobler cause than to get us poor tired fellows decent sleep."
"How about that, Lopez?" asked Rob. "Do you think there would be anydanger of the shots betraying our camp to others who might happen to bearound?"
"The danger it is not much," came the reply; "and as for that, thesinging of the kiote pack, it tell that a camp must be here; so there isno difference."
"That settles it, then," said Andy exultantly, as he began to unwraphimself from his blanket and grope for his rifle; "and mebbe I won'tsurprise a few of the noisy gents out there!"
"Don't go too far," Rob warned him, as he started to crawl away on hishands and knees, trailing his gun after him.
"I won't," Andy whispered back, turning his head and then giving alittle flirt with one hand in his customary jolly way.
"No use trying to go to sleep till the circus ends, is there?" Merrittdemanded, as he shuffled around, trying to get into an easier position.
"Just what I'd made up my mind to myself," replied Rob, following suit.
"Look at Tubby here, sleeping as sweetly as an overgrown baby," thecorporal of the Eagle Patrol went on to say with a low laugh.
"Oh! Tubby is the best sleeper I ever knew," Rob assured him. "He oftentalks as if he had been wakeful all the night, but it's a false alarm.He can sleep through a pretty good thunder-storm, and then remark inthe morning that he thinks it must have rained a little during thenight. But wait and see if he hears the noise when Andy lets fly withhis repeating rifle!"
"Cracky! that's a fact. Chances are he'll just sit up and say themosquitoes are beginning to get bothersome, for he just heard onesinging near his ear; and then he'll call out to ask you for the dope torub on," Merritt remarked, humorously.
"Wait and see," said Rob; "and it can't be long coming now, because Ishould think Andy must have crawled far enough to glimpse the circle ofmourners."
Hardly had Rob spoken than there came a loud report, instantly followedby a series of yelps, that were drowned in snarls and howls as the othercoyotes took after their wounded comrade.
Both boys had their eyes focused on the mound that stood for thesleeping Tubby. There was a sudden upheaval, and the blanket flew aside,revealing the fat scout trying to scramble to his knees with everysymptom of alarm.
"Oh! what was that terrible noise?" he stammered. "Rob! Oh, Rob, are weattacked by Injuns? Or was that thunder? Where am I at? Who's got atorch lighted up there? Whatever does it all mean, anyway?"
"Keep cool, Tubby," said Rob, while Merritt laughed at a great rate,although rather softly; "it's all right, no danger. The camp wassurrounded by a pack of coyotes, that's all; and their singing kept Andyawake, so he asked permission to crawl out and knock a few of them over.You heard him shoot, and he must have wounded a prowler, for the wholepack took after it at a hot pace. That's all!"
"Oh, is it, Rob? Then, what's the sense of sitting up in the cold andwasting time, when you might be getting forty winks?" With which remarkthe fat boy cuddled down again under his blanket, and settled himself toresume his interrupted slumbers.
Rob and Merritt laughed again and again over his matter-of-fact way; butbeyond a grunt or two, Tubby paid no attention to them. Presently Andycame back, a satisfied grin resting on his good-natured face.
"Told you I'd pickle one silly old coyote, anyway," he remarked, as heprepared to settle down again in his nest.
"We heard him call out, and then the whole pack seemed to chase awayafter him. Was that the way, Andy?" Merritt asked.
"They all went spinning off in the direction of the desert there; andthe one I hit must have been ahead of the pack, because I could hear himtooting up at a great rate. Sho! there must have been all of a dozen inthe lot! Bet you they don't come around here in a hurry again after thatlesson!"
But Andy was mistaken. In less than half an hour the howls started inonce more, at first from some distance, but gradually drawing closer,until apparently the coyote concert band was again at the old stand,appealing to Andy to try it once more, and provide them with somefurther pickings.
Andy, however, refused to be tempted, for Rob, who was also awake, toldhim he would have to sit up the balance of the night, since the animalswere bound to return time and again; nor would he be able to induce themto stop their wailing, since, driven from the vicinity of the camp, theywould stand afar off and start a new chant.
All of the boys were glad when the first peep of dawn drove the coyotesto their dens among the rocks in the hills, or some barranca near by.
Just as Rob had said, they would undoubtedly become more or lessaccustomed to such nightly serenades in time, and pay little heed to thehowling. To
one used to sleeping in the open, where wolves and coyotesabound, the chorus comes to be a species of protection; and if itsuddenly ceased in the middle of the night he would immediately rousehimself to investigate what had driven the pack away, for it must eitherbe a human enemy, or a jaguar.
The boys expected, after partaking of hot coffee and a light breakfast,to resume their gallop toward the south. Andy busied himself in layingthe fire, which they had allowed the guide to do on the previousevening, although any one of the boys knew as much about arranging thisas Lopez. He had had actual experience all his adventurous life; but,then, they had practiced the art of building cooking fires as one of theduties with which a scout should be familiar, and they knew just how toget the best results.
Besides, the boys had learned something from the way Lopez selectedtheir camp site. They could guess why it was screened by thickets onnearly all sides; and also why it lay in a slight depression, so thatthe glow of the little blaze might not draw inquisitive strangers, as anexposed light would.
They had learned long ago to keep their eyes open so as to seeeverything that went on around them. Rob in particular was always on thealert, and if he thought any of the others failed to grasp what acertain thing meant, it was his habit to call their attention to thecircumstances. For that is what a patrol leader is expected to do whenhe has been elevated to his important position.
Andy had just managed to get the cooking fire ready, and was askingTubby to bring him the frying-pan, because they expected to have arasher of bacon for breakfast, to go with the hardtack and coffee. Atthat moment the horse of the guide, staked near by, began to snort andprance, as well as give other indications of excitement. Lopez had beenin the act of rolling up his blanket into a small bundle that couldeasily be carried behind his saddle. He seemed to know instinctivelywhat these riotous actions on the part of his mount stood for; because,with an exclamation of alarm, he jumped for his gun that rested againsta tree trunk.
Rob did the same, ditto Merritt; while Andy continued to kneel there infront of his little fire as though frozen stiff. As for Tubby, hedropped the frying-pan in a panic and snatched up the camp hatchet.
Rob had already caught the sound of horses' hoofs near by; and even ashe turned his eyes in the quarter from which the sounds seemed tospring, there came around the end of the thicket a couple of horsemen,who, on discovering the camp with its surprised inmates, drew theirmounts in abruptly and sat there in their saddles staring hard.
Rob could see that the men were garbed in a sort of dirty white uniform;and from this he quickly judged that they must be a couple of Salazar'scavalrymen, sent out to burn bridges and demoralize the railroadcompletely between Chihuahua and Juarez. As Federals were bound to lookupon all Americans as their bitter enemies, on account of the attitudetaken by the Washington authorities concerning President Huerta, thepatrol leader guessed that they were in for another experience.