The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-08-07
CHAPTER x.
Horses and Horses, Bayonets and
Bayonets.

A ROUND a turn the invading
n horsemen came on a little knot
"a of women and children, who
scurried. screaming, into the
ditch. A rider he ~ of a woman
who was carrying eliild. He stopped
to her from his tall black horse. Laugh
ing, he nodded and said something to
her in foreign language.
STOPPING still lower, he snatched the
child suddenly and swung 1t out Of the
trembling woman's arm. He lifted it
and danced 1t up and downs.
He fumbled in his saddle bar. and
brought out some chocolate, which he
fed to the baby. Then he handed it
back to the mother. roaring again with
laughter at her frightened face. The
other riders, laughing also, waved their
hands at the group and cantered on.
They entered the village, swiftly ex-
amined 1t, riding through gardens and
into alleys, assuring themselves that
there was nothing there to mask dan
ger for the troops that were behind
them. They passed out of the other
end and into the road leading past the
plowed field with the stone wall.
1t was still and very lonely. There
was not a living being in sight through
out all the softly tinted land. On a
tree branch that hung over the stone
wall a bluebird began to sing with all
the power of its little throat
It brought a hot choking to the
throat of farmer who was lying be-
hind the stone wall just under the bird.
It's song had welled out just as he was
raising his rife. But his gray Yankee
eye sought the sights. his sinewy
brown hand gripped the weapon, and
he fired.
He fred and pumped another car
fridge into the breech and fired again.
so quickly that his second shot had
roared out before a cayalryman who
had pitched forward with the first bull
let through his side had quite toppled
from his saddle.
All along the stone wall they fired
and pumped their magazines and fired
They were men who had hunted deer
in early autumn cover and learned to
send bullets diving after them at hot
speed on the jump. The big horses
and the big men, broad in the open
road, were easy targets. But they
were not deer They were men, More
than one of the rife bullets went wild
because the marksman's horror shook
his hand. ~
In the road lay two men, flashing in
the dust. Down the road went a
bleeding horse that screamed 1t drag
ged it's rider smashing his face against
the ground. In the field was a sol
der trying to balance himself on his
saddle, with one hand gripping at his
breast, while the other reached out
grotesquely as if cropping for some
thing to which he might hold
A farmer behind the wall, unable 10
endure the sight of the men who were
rolling in the road like animals trying
to bury their agony. fred at them and
made them lie still. My Godw he
said and cried.
The wounded man fell from the sad
die and squatted in queer hunched
posture in the field, his head between
his knees. 1t was the cayaIryman who
laQ IeQ Inc cnllQ.
The others scattered and charged to-
ward the wall. Instantly the defend
/ ers became cool. Their nerves stopped
jumping. These riders, looming big,
with swords out and fury in their eyes,
ceased to be men. They were killers.
The farmers shot as steadily asst they
were aiming at deer.
Two riders escaped and galloped
headlong down the road back to their
forces. The New England men arose
from behind the wall and ran across
the fields to gain the shelter Of wood
lot Before they could reach it there
was yelling behind them, and a doz-
en- troopers were in the fields, follow
I ing them desperately.
ITO the houseF' cried the sheriff. He
/ led the way to an old stone house,
built in Revolutionary times. The cav
alrymen refined up sharply. A glance
at the solid little bui.din.. with win
dow openings az deep as embrasures
showed them that it was dangerous.
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