Lacaud said: “I don’t think that would be clever. As it is, they don’t know how many of us there are. They may think there are ten of us. That is greatly to our advantage. If we all step out, they will know our number. I suppose we are pretty safe here in this trench. They have no idea how many of us there are, how many guns we have, or whether we might go round and attack in their rear.”
“The question is,” said Curtin, “how long we can resist before we have to surrender.”
“If we live very economically, we can stay here for two weeks. The only thing that might prevent that is the lack of water. Of course, in the morning there is always dew; a bit is running down the rock right into our kettles. We may also have rain very soon.” Howard seemed to have thought everything over carefully.
The burros were braying in their little corral. The bandits heard them, but took no particular notice. They had no need for burros, and besides they seemed rather far away; perhaps they were burros belonging to the villagers. To get to the animals the bandits would first have to be in full possession of the trench. It would have made a deeper impression upon them if the neighing had come from horses. This would have been evidence that soldiers were in the trench, and the bandits might have been induced to leave rather than take up battle.
“Had we prayed to the Lord for a little bit of help,” Howard said, “certain things couldn’t have been better. We have full moon. Moonlight practically the whole night. By this excellent light we can see the whole camp before us, whereas these rascals can see nothing of us. Against the dark rock behind us they can’t even see our heads rising above the rim.”
“Right, old man,” Curtin admitted. “We are really not so bad off as it seemed a few hours ago.”
“For the night, we shouldn’t keep the stations we kept during the day,” Howard explained. “We stay in two groups. Dobbs and I take the left section, and you, Curty and Laky, you take the right section. As long as there is no move in sight one may have a nap and the other watch. As soon as things start, you just kick the sleeping guy in the ribs and he will be up. Better still, two of us lie down right now. I’m positive there will be no move on the other side for the next six hours. It will be different around three in the morning. All right, Dobbs and Lacaud, dismissed. You two take your sweet slumber now.”
7
It was half past four in the morning when Dobbs kicked Howard and Lacaud kicked Curtin in the buttocks.
“I think they are coming,” Dobbs said to Howard in a hushed voice. “I’ve seen them moving.”
Both Howard and Curtin were up like partridges surprised by a fox.
The camp-site was flooded with moonlight, so that even a cat could not have crossed it without being seen.
Howard walked quickly to the right section to make sure that Curtin and Lacaud were awake and at their posts. He gave orders to fire the very moment four men should reach the middle of the camp and to take careful aim and, if possible, to kill. “There is no longer any other way out. It’s us or them,” he said. “They know no mercy.”
The bandits seemed to be sure that the besieged were asleep, so they were not too careful when making their attack. On reaching the center four shots whipped simultaneously across the camp, and two men cursed and shouted for their saints, because they had caught bullets. Somehow they seemed not to mind. They could not only send out bullets but also take them like real bandits. Gangsters they were not.
Most likely they still thought that Curtin had played a trick on them in some way or other. They felt sure that only one shot could be expected when storming the trench. All lay down on the ground and crawled farther on toward Curtin. The last third of their way they meant to run and so make it impossible for Curtin to shoot more than once or twice. A few appeared not to be patient enough to go slow, for the one who had the gringo by the collar first would have his choice of the guns of the victim. They jumped up and began to run out of line. Hardly had they risen when again four shots were fired, and three men seemed to have been hit. None was dead, however, so far as the partners could see. They still seemed to be in possession of all their faculties. Anyway, the lesson they had received made them more careful. That four shots had been fired twice and that all had been well aimed upset their plans. None knew what to think of the situation. There might be two dozen soldiers in this trench. Yet when they arrived once more at the bushes and discussed new plans, they came to the conclusion that if there really were two dozen men hidden in the trench, they would have attacked from ambush just before the bandits entered the camp, where they would have had no chance to defend themselves.
8
Morning came in a hurry.
The bandits now settled down to cook their breakfast. The hurt were doctoring their wounds in a way that would have thrown a hospital interne into a coma. They spat into their wounds, rubbed dirt and chewed leaves plucked from the bushes into them to stop bleeding, and bandaged them with strips of their filthy shirts.
In the trench the partners also had their breakfast. It is a strict rule of Mexican bandits and of Mexican soldiers fighting bandits or revolutionaries that no attack be made by either side while they have their meals. To do so would be considered as tactless as shooting at trucks bearing the Red Cross sign or at men waving a white flag among civilized nations at war.
“Now, don’t you boys make any mistake,” Howard warned them when Curtin mentioned that they might be left alone from now on. “You don’t know them if you think that. They will come again, likely late in the afternoon. They need our guns and our ammunition more than they need bread. The more we shoot, the better they know that here is a sort of armory worth fighting for. If I judge these killers right, they are not going to repeat the attack the same way. They will look for a new way to get us. Every shot we fire is a shot lost to them. They don’t want us to waste the ammunition which they feel is theirs already. I mean to say, they are going to prevent us from shooting, some way or other.”
“I’d like to know how they think they can get us without making us fire at them,” Lacaud said.
“Let’s wait and see. Don’t forget all these men have been soldiers during the last revolutions, or if not soldiers, then fighters against the regulars. They are trained and have all sorts of experience. I’ll get a rest now.”
The old man made himself comfortable on the ground. So did Lacaud. Curtin and Dobbs were watching the camp leisurely.
The bandits had gone down the trail, except two who were left to keep watch. They got drowsy after half an hour and fell asleep.
9
About the middle of the forenoon Curtin called Dobbs: “Do you see what I see?”
“Those goddamned devils! If we could only send them all to hell!” Dobbs answered as he roused Howard and Lacaud.
“What is it?” Howard asked. “Coming again?”
“Just have a look at a fine performance; you don’t have to go to the movies this afternoon to learn new tricks.” Dobbs whistled through his teeth out of excitement.
Howard watched the bandits for half a minute. “I reckon they are going to trap us now. We have to think awfully fast to meet their old Indian trick. Doggone it to hell, I’ve got to get an idea what to do now and, hell knows, I haven’t any. If none of you mugs knows anything new, and pretty quick too, then we may as well say our last prayers, if you still know some.”
The bandits were busy cutting saplings, branches, and twigs. They were constructing movable barricades, Indian-fashion. Once ready, they would push these barricades before them, using them as shields while steadily moving on. All the attacked could do would be to fire against the thickly interwoven branches and foliage. The bullets might not even penetrate, and the man crawling behind could not be aimed at. The possibility of being hit was reduced tenfold. It could be reduced still more by forming two attacking lines, one closing in behind the first.
“If they use that trick at night or early before sunrise,” Howard said, watching them eagerly, “then we
