CHAPTER XII.

THE BATTLE AT THE CAVE.

Mustering his band, the captain of the rurales quickly formed his plan of attack. Ten of the company were to seize the two boats at the mouth of the creek and take their positions at the side of the big rock, whose slippery top had proved so disastrous to Billie. Ten others were to secrete themselves on the bank of the stream opposite the water entrance to the cave. The balance of the band were to force the door whose outer guard had been overpowered and bound by Donald and Adrian.

Having thus disposed his forces, the captain started with his division of thirty toward the door, with the understanding that he would not attempt to force an entrance until a shot from the river should advise him that the water forces were in position.

"What will you have us do?" asked Donald.

"Keep out of the way, so that you will not be shot," laughed the captain. "That's the proper thing for boys."

"We're not that kind of boys," declared Adrian.

"Oh, well then," answered the captain, "you just skirmish around on the outside to pick up any who might succeed in getting away! I don't think you'll have a great deal to do, for my men intend to bag the entire band."

The plan suited the boys first rate and they proceeded immediately to take advantage of the instructions.

"I'll have to station myself somewhere in short range," declared Donald. "Having loaned Billie my Marlin, I have nothing but my six-shooter."

"I reckon that'll be sufficient. It looks to me as though the whole thing would be at short range and of short duration. I hope so. We're not down here looking for trouble."

"That's surely the truth," laughed Donald, "but somehow or other, we seem to have a faculty of getting mixed up in all sorts of things."

"That's because you are always trying to help some one out of trouble," declared Pedro. "If it had not been for me, you would never have been mixed up in this at all."

"It does look that way, doesn't it?" laughed Adrian. "But appearances are sometimes deceitful, eh Don?" and he gave Donald a knowing look.

"They sure are; but let's be hunting a place where we may be of service."

"I'll tell you what," exclaimed Adrian after they had stood undecided for several minutes, trying to decide upon a position of vantage, "let's station ourselves on that little knoll just above the door. Then if any should get by those guarding the river entrance I could pick them up with my rifle; while if any should be able to dash past the captain's party, you can stop them with your Colt."

"How about me?" asked Pedro.

"You can either stay with us, or follow Don Antonio."

"I think I'll stay with you. As you say, you seem to have a faculty for getting mixed up in things and this is one of the things I want a hand in."

The boys had hardly reached the place they had selected, when a shot from the river front told that the flanking party had taken its position and a minute later the boys could hear the blows that were being rained upon the door to force it from its place.

"It isn't quite as easy a job as the captain thought," said Donald after the battering had continued for several minutes.

"I should say not!" declared Adrian. "He never will get in that way. Why doesn't he blow it open?"

"Maybe he doesn't know how!"

"Then we'd better go and show him! He's wasting time."

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the air was rent by a terrific explosion and great pieces of rock and a cloud of dust and dirt were thrown high into the air, almost burying the Broncho Rider Boys and their companion in the débris.

The smugglers had fired a mine which had been arranged for just such an attack.

As soon as the boys could gain their feet and free themselves from the pile of dirt which had been thrown up, they turned their attention to the rurales to see what might have been the damage done. Fortunately it was slight. Two men had been killed and three wounded, but not seriously. The worst feature of the explosion was that the rear entrance to the cave had been so blocked with the falling rock, that an entrance was impossible without much digging and clearing away of the rubbish.

However, if the rurales could not get in, neither could the smugglers get out, except by the river entrance. That they had no desire to do so was soon evident, for before the main force, accompanied by the boys, could reach the river front, the smugglers--or as many as could be loaded into three skiffs--emerged from the cave on the river side.

That they had not expected to meet any resistance in that quarter was evident from the fact that they were not at all prepared to fight, nor did they take any precaution to defend themselves until greeted by a volley from the rurales stationed on the opposite side of the creek.

But no sooner had they received the first volley, than they turned sharply up stream and a minute later replied with a well directed fire.

Immediately thereafter the ten men who had been posted behind the big rock clambered up to the top and from this position of vantage poured a volley into the boats. Almost at the same moment the captain led the main force around from the other side, thus taking the boats between two fires.

Seeing their hopeless position and realizing that they were greatly outnumbered, the smugglers threw down their arms and surrendered. The boats were quickly drawn ashore and the captured smugglers landed and placed under a guard.

"There must be at least as many more," said Donald to the captain, when he had counted the prisoners and found there were only twenty-four. "During our scouting we have seen fully forty."

"Is that true?" the captain asked one of the prisoners.

"_Quien sabe_" was the unsatisfactory reply.

"You don't know, eh?" said the captain.

"No, _señor capitan_."

"Perhaps I can help you," said the captain. Then turning to one of his men: "Here, corporal, stand this man up against that rock, and if he doesn't answer by the time I count ten, shoot him."

Without a word the corporal obeyed and told off six men as a firing squad. The smuggler's hands were tied behind him and he was placed with his back to the rock, while the rurales with carbines leveled stood ready to fire.

"Look, you," said the captain as he took his position a little to one side. "At the word ten the men will fire and I shall not count very slowly either. Ready. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight----"

"There are forty-five besides the captain and Santiago," broke forth the smuggler.

"Nine, ten, fire," finished the captain, and at the word the carbines cracked and the smuggler pitched forward and lay motionless!

An exclamation of horror burst from both the American boys.

"Captain!" cried Donald. "It's murder."

"How could you after he had spoken!" exclaimed Adrian.

The captain shrugged his shoulders and lighted a cigarette.

"It had to be done sooner or later. It might as well be now as later."

"But you broke your word!"

"Not at all. I told him if he did not speak I would shoot. I did not tell him I would not shoot if he did. You Americans are too tender-hearted."

"I shall report the case to your superior officer," declared Donald.

Again the captain shrugged his shoulders.

"I shall report it myself," he said. "The man simply tried to escape and we shot him. It is the _ley de fuga_."[2]

"Can such things be?" queried Adrian.

"You can see that they are," answered Don Antonio, who had come up in time to hear the conversation. "In dealing with men of this class, when revolution is plotted on every hand, things are done in Mexico which would not be done could a stable government be established."

"Before we are through with this band, you may wish that more of them could be thus disposed of," declared the captain. "Remember that you have a companion in there who has not yet been rescued."

The boys started as though they had been stung. In the excitement of the tragedy they had just witnessed Billie had passed entirely from their thoughts.

"We're a nice pair of chums, ain't we?" exclaimed Adrian. "No knowing what is going on inside that cave. Let's get busy."

Without waiting to see what the others might be going to do, Adrian started on a run for the window in the cave.

"If I can't do anything more," he thought, "I can at least tell Billie to keep up his courage! I wish I was in there with him."

As he climbed up the mound, he noted that a little volume of smoke was coming out of the window, which now served as a chimney for the cell in which Billie was confined.

"Powder smoke!" he exclaimed as he drew near enough to get a whiff. "It must be from the explosion."

He bent over the hole and tried to look into the cell, but could see nothing.

"Billie!" he called; but there was no response.

Again he called, this time more loudly, but still there was no answer, and Adrian's heart fairly stood still with apprehension.

"I wonder what can be the matter?" he gasped. "By George, I wish I was in there!"

He had hardly uttered the words, when the place on which he was standing seemed to give way beneath his feet and he felt himself slowly falling.

It was not a long nor a hard fall, and, as he felt himself once more on a solid foundation, and looked up toward the sky, he saw he had not fallen more than twenty or twenty-five feet. What had really happened was that the roof of the cell, cracked by the explosion, had caved in with Adrian's weight, and he was in the very place he was wishing he was, although the condition of the cell had materially changed since Donald had looked down into it less than twenty minutes before.

Before the explosion, the cell had been a room some thirty feet square and twenty or more feet high. Now it was half filled with dirt and pieces of rock, the door which had guarded its entrance had been crushed, and through the opening Adrian caught a glimpse of the front entrance to the cave and the water beyond.

But there was no sign of Billie or the smugglers.

Pulling himself together and grasping his Marlin firmly, so as to be ready for any emergency, Adrian stepped cautiously toward the broken door. Hiding himself as well as he could behind the shattered casemate, he peered out into the cave.

The room was empty and at first there appeared no way in which the smugglers could have left except by the river, seeing which Adrian breathed easier.

"They must have gone out like the others," he thought, "and have been captured by the rurales."

Having arrived at this decision, he walked boldly out toward the river entrance.

But he had not advanced ten paces into the main cave before a noose fell silently over his shoulders, and he felt himself jerked violently backward.

The very act, however, caused him to tighten his grip upon his rifle, and the weapon was discharged, the report vibrating with an echo that made it seem almost a cannonade. At the same time his head came into contact with the hard floor with such force that it completely stunned him.

In the moment of consciousness between the report of the rifle and the time his head struck the floor, he saw a figure leap forward out of the darkness, and as he lost consciousness the sound of his own rifle seemed to be taken up and echoed back by an innumerable number.

And that was just exactly what happened.

The figure that had leaped forward was Donald, and the volley came from the carbines of a score of rurales, who had followed him into the cave, and fired pointblank at the smugglers over Adrian's prostrate form. The lariat in the hands of one of the smugglers had pulled Adrian to the earth, just in time to save him from the fire of the rurales.

For the next few minutes the battle in the cave raged with the utmost fierceness. The smugglers had taken their stand in an alcove, hewn into one side of the cave, a little above the floor level. A projecting shelf afforded them a slight shelter, and from this partially fortified position, they made a desperate fight. In fact, they were doing great damage among the rurales, and it had begun to look as though they might succeed in driving them to shelter, when a rattle of shots from their rear completely disconcerted them, and they threw down their guns and called out that they surrendered.

The next instant there emerged, seemingly out of the solid rock, three figures with blackened faces and tattered garments, who advanced toward the rurales. They were Billie, Santiago and Guadalupe.

"Don't shoot!" cried Billie, as the rurales, thinking them some new foe, raised their carbines. "We are friends!"

"Billie!" shouted Donald, dropping his revolver and grasping his stout comrade in both arms. "What has happened to you?"

"We were in the explosion."

"You look like you had been in a coal mine. Are you hurt?"

"Not a scratch--none of us!"

"Then look after Ad, while I help dispose of these cutthroats."

"Ad!" exclaimed Billie. "Is he hurt?"

"I don't know. There he is. Find out and do something for him as soon as possible."

Billie hastened to do Donald's bidding, but Santiago was before him. He raised the boy's head onto his knee, and from a small flask forced a few drops of liquid down his throat. A moment later Adrian opened his eyes, gave one look at the two blackened faces before him, and uttered a yell that brought everyone to "attention" as though a bomb had exploded.

"What is it?" asked Donald, jumping to Adrian's side.

"That's what I want to know! What is it?" pointing his finger at Billie.

Donald burst into a loud laugh. He had been under the most intense excitement for hours, and, as the ludicrousness of the situation struck him, he could not have kept from laughing had a howitzer been pointed at his head. His overwrought feelings simply relaxed, and he fairly screamed with laughter.

Realizing the humor of the situation, Billie speedily joined in, and the combined laughter of the two was so infectious that, without at all understanding what it was about, the rurales and smugglers also began to laugh. It is probable that no battle ever fought had such a remarkable ending.

For Adrian, it was the best thing that could have happened, for it brought him to himself, and he discovered at once who the three black-faced individuals were; but it was a bad thing for the rurales. While they were indulging in their most enjoyable recreation, Don Rafael quietly withdrew into the darkness and disappeared into the opening through which Billie and Santiago had made their entrance.

Footnote:

[2]: Fugitive law.