The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1916-06-30
CHAPTER lV-Contlnued.

you stay here, sergeant, with tn
rest of the detachment, on the Amer
can side. | will cross over, and If
lind need you | shall start a fire
You can see it for ten miles. If yol
see a fire show three times, come righ
into Mexico with all the men. | shal
take one man with me.
1T is just possible that we may b,
able to help the people without gettinl
ourselves into trouble. In any case
we must not get into a row on tn,
wrong side of the line. Be sure t
keep a man on the lookout. shal
make two flares if l want you. Nolan
you come with me-"
The old soldier would have liked tc
r1monstTate with his officer, but the
habits of discipline of twenty years
were too strong. He saluted, and, bid
ding his men dismount and loosen
their cinches, watched his young su,
periOT and Nolan as they walked their
horses down the hill in the growing
light
When they reached the level ground
they took up the trot, and presently
were out of sight among the scrubby
cacti and the mesquit bushes that COW
cred the face Of the land.
1t was great risk to take; not that
the danger u actual conflict was great,
but thsse was the certainty that if his
Interference should become known to
the higher authorities Kynaston would
have to be offered up as a sacrifice to
Mexican complaints.
Wen move up to that hill just
above the minehouse, Nolan, and see
what we can from there. There go
some more shots. 1t looks to me as
though the place is being attacked
from the southern side. If so, we will
hide under cover on the range to the
north and work down toward the
house. Wen hide our horses among
the powders and scout down afoot."
So, moving very carefully along the
bowlder-strewn hillside, they tied their
horses to a great mesquit bush that
stood in the bottom of an arroyo. TAX
ing their rifles from the scabbards,
they picked their way warily up the
slope to the summit, a point from
which they could plainly see the at
tack.
The Santa Cruz mine lay some six
hundred yards below them little
cottage built of adobe showed where
the superintendent lived, and across
from it stood the general store. Be
hind this again, surrounded in front
with adobe walls that marked the cor
rails where the mine mules were kept,
stood the long engine house.
Dark, yawning mouths gaping at
them from the hillside showed where
the lines of the ore-cars we're loaded
in the drift, for the Santa Cruz was
fortunate above most mines in that it
was possible to tunnel straight into
the breast of the hill without digging
a shaft.
Far below the line of the buildings
Kynaston and Nolan, looking down
from the vantage-point Of their hill,
saw in a far hollow a group of rider
less horses, with one or two dismount-
ed men guarding them
There's their herd. Look Nolan!
Do you see their line?"
Before Nolan could speak the long
crack and rattle of rifle fire broke out !
from the line of giant cottonwood |
trees that marked the bottom of the |
now dry watercOurse.
The bullets whined over the house;
some of them kicked up spurts of dust
from the adobe walls. An answering |
shot from the house told that the de- |
tenders we're wide awake Kynaston |
saw the shot take ground on the slope |
below him.
At once awake to the necessity Of !
finding some way of getting to the |
house undiscovered, Kynaston scanned |
the ground in his front carefully.
The hillside where he lay was cut
up by many acequias, OF little bitches,
made by the rains of past years. These |
little bitches ran straight down the
slope toward the house. Where these |
ran out into the burned alfalfa patches |
stood the cottage, and beyond this
again the corrals and the stables.
Still farther TO the south, beyond
the lines of the adobe walls, the
ground sloped more gently to little
stream bed bordered with cotton
woods. along which the attacking
party had taken up its position.
HIM It's a good thing for us that
The house is between US and harm.