The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1922-03-10

Emery; IL years you've wyted for
vengeance. my love, but toby yOu'll
get it,
She waddled out into the street and
held up her hand in a gesture as au-
thOritative and imperious as that of a
traffic officer. "Batter-r-ry ALT !" she
crOaked. She had heard the late En-
cry give that command often enough
to have acquired the exact infection
necessary to make an impression upon
men accustomed to Obeying such
command whenever given. Instinc-
lively the column slowed up; some of
the Foreign Legion, old coast artil-
lerists, no doubt, came to halt with
promptness and precision; all stared
at Mother jerks.
Cow. about 'arf a dozen cases O.
good brandy for the wounded?" Moth
err jerks suggested. AN 'ow about a
bally old woman for a Red Cross
| nurse?"
you're on, ma'am," the foreign
leader replied promptly, and translat-
ed the old lady's suggestion TO DR..
Pacheco, who accepted gracefully and
thanked Mother jerks in purest Cas-
lillian. SO a detail of six men was
told off to carry the six cases of
brandy out of Ell Buen Amigo and
load them on the ammunition carts;
then Mother jerks crawled up into
the armored truck with the machine
gun crew, and the column once more
took up its line of rapid march.
The objective of this unsupported
force within the city was, as Ricardo
Ruey shrewdly suspected it might be.
poorly garrisoned. Usually force of
fully 500 men was ST toned at the
national arsenal, but the sharp, saw
age attack from the west, so sudden
and unexpected, had thrown Sarros
into panic and left him no time to
plan his defense carefully His first
thought had been to send all his
available forces to support the troops
bearing the brunt of the rebel attack
and it was tremendously important
that this should be done very prompt
ly, in view of the lack of information
concerning the numerical force of the
enemy; consequently he had reduced
the arsenal force to 100 men and re-
tanned only his favorite troops of the
guards and one company of the Fiji
teenth infantry to protect the palace.
Acting under hastily given tele-
phonic orders, the commanding Off
Ger at the cantOnment barracks had
detailed few hundred men to fight a
rear-guard action while the main army
fell back in good order behind rail-
way embankment which swept in a
wide arc around the city and offered
an excellent substitute for breast
works. This position had scarcely
been attained before the furious adj
vance of the rebels drove in the rear
guard, and pending the capture of the
arsenal, Ricardo realized his opera
tons were at an impaSSe. Promptly
he dug himself in, and the battle de-
velOped into a brisk affair of give and
take, involving meager losses to both
factions. but an appalling wastage of
ammunition.
The arsenal, large, modern con-
crete building with tremendously
thick walls reinforced by steel, would
have offered fairly good resistance to
the average field battery. Surround
ing it on all four sides was a rein
forced concrete wall 80 feet high,
with machine gun bastions at each
corner and platform along the wall
inside and % feet from the ground
which afforded foot room for infantr!
which could use the top five feet o.
the wall for protection while firms
over it. There was but one entrance
a heavy, barred steel gate which was
always kept locked when it was no
necessary to have it opened for in
gress or egress. Given warning of al
attack and with sufficient time to pre-
pare for it, 100 of the right sort %
fighting men could withstand an in
definite siege by a force not provid
ed with artillery heavier than an or
binary field gun. With full realiza
| ton of this, therefore, Ricardo ant
his confreres had designed to accom-
plish by strategy that which could no
be done by the limited forces at thei
command.
As the column approached tn
neighborhood of the arsenal, three dc
tachments broke away from the mail
body and disappeared down sid
streets, to turn at right angles late
and march parallel with the mail
command. Each of these detachment
! was accompanied by one unit of tn