The Boy Scouts Under Fire in Mexico

Of course such talk created no end of a sensation among the rough men who were enlisted in the cause of the revolutionists. They feared their commanding general more than any man on earth; and after hearing what Lopez had to say about these American boys, they were ready to give them a wild cheer; especially when told that the newcomers stood ready to cast their lot in with them, and help disperse the enemy.

When the guide, turning to Rob, told him about what he had promised the rebels in return for the protection they were giving the fugitives, the patrol leader looked a bit grave.

"Of course we're willing to do all we can, you understand, Lopez, to help our new friends out; and if anybody is wounded, we know a whole lot about how to take care of bad hurts; in other ways, too, we'll do all we can; but except as a very last resort, I wouldn't want to shoot direct at those men over there. We're not soldiers, even if we do wear a uniform that seems to say we are; and the last thing a Boy Scout wants to do is to fight. But wait and see how things turn out. There are lots of ways we can assist without actually using our guns against the Regulars; though if it came to the worst, and they were charging this fort, you'd soon see how we'd pitch in and do our part."

After that Rob and his three chums noticed that they were being observed with even more curiosity. Later on it turned out that the cunning Lopez, meaning to do things wholesale while about it, had hinted that these young fellows might be secret messengers to Villa coming from Washington; and that there was a strong chance that the American Government was meaning finally to befriend the rebels, even allowing them to get arms at will from across the border. In this way they might be helped to hasten the fall of Huerta, who had never been recognized as president by the new administration.

Meanwhile, the fire of the Federals up there among the rocks had entirely ceased. Tubby, not being versed in such things, believed that the coming of reinforcements, in the shape of four boys and one man, must have given the Federals what he chose to call "cold feet," and that they had betaken themselves off. Rob, however, knew differently, for by using that convenient field glass of his, he could see that there were several men still up there. Evidently some sort of new scheme was being figured out by those who were besieging the train; and unless the defenders managed to learn its nature in advance, they might be given a disagreeable surprise shortly.

This gave Rob an idea.

Just as he had told Lopez, while the scouts would not like to be asked to fire on the enemy, unless the defenders of the train were hard pushed, there were plenty of ways whereby wide-awake young chaps, such as they were known to be, might make themselves useful.

He saw such an opening right then, and quickly began to look into it more closely to find out if it were indeed practicable.

Examining the topography of the country through his glasses, Rob found that it was possible for a smart fellow to climb up to a certain point, where he could observe all that was going on beyond, and doubtless find plenty of chances to transmit his discoveries to the other scouts below by means of a signal flag and the wigwag code. There was Tubby, who had done himself more credit with signal work than along any other line connected with scout activities; why should he not keep himself in readiness to receive whatever news the vidette on the pinnacle of rock chose to send?

After speaking about this idea to Lopez, and asking him to pass it along to the rather fierce-looking individual who seemed to be in command of the rebels, Rob sought out the fat chum.

As more than a full hour had passed since their arrival at the still burning railroad bridge, it was to be hoped that Tubby had, in some measure at least, recovered from his state of exhaustion, and that he would be in fit condition to manage his end of the receiving line.

As he drew near the spot where he had discovered Tubby squatted like a big bull frog on the ground, Rob had to smile to notice how carefully the fat scout had folded his blanket several times and used it as a seat; for Rob knew the reason why.

"Now I wonder what he is looking at so seriously," he said to himself on drawing closer. "It can't be either the magic ring that's going to make General Villa fall on our necks and embrace us, nor yet that paper Uncle Mark gave us for his old time friend; because I happen to have both on my person right now."

His curiosity aroused by Tubby's seeming fit of abstraction, Rob crept softly up behind the other and peered over his shoulder. What he saw caused him to chuckle, as though more amused than ever.

Tubby had something in his hand, at which he was staring, all the while muttering to himself; and Rob could even catch what he was saying. It ran something like this:

"That's a bully clew, all right, all right. Rob says so, and he ought to know. And you needn't think that I'm going to let the whole thing drop, just because I've been too busy with other jobs to follow it up. Just you wait till I get back, and see if I don't find the identical brace and bit that coward used to bore a hole in the bottom of Rob's sailboat, and make this creased shaving in the shape of a curl. And say, bet you that when I happen to mention the name of Max Ramsay I'm not very far away from the guilty party; though I ought not to accuse anybody till I'm dead sure.

"Oh! hello! that you, Rob? What's new? I was only making sure that I hadn't gone and lost that marked shaving we found in your boat, you remember, and which some fine day is going to make some feller I know start to shivering in his shoes. Sit down with me, won't you? I'd offer you a bit of my cushion, but seems like I can't spare it just now; you understand why."

"Yes, that's all right, Tubby, and small blame to you if you do feel badly. It was a tough ride for us all; and yet we ought to thank our lucky stars that we found a chance to give our pursuers the slip without a fight. But I wanted to ask if you thought you could bother taking a few short messages with the wigwag flags?"

Tubby became interested at once, and almost forgot how tired and sore he felt.

"Sure I can, and only too glad to be doing something in my particular line, Rob," he hastened to remark. "And it's just fine of you to come to me, when there's Merritt and Andy around. But what's doing? Have the Feds been sending messages, and do you want me to intercept what they say? Is that the game, Rob?"

"You're away off there, Tubby," replied the patrol leader; "but if you listen I'll try to explain. The idea struck me that perhaps I might manage to climb to that high rock you can see up there, and watch what the enemy is doing; because they must be up to some mischief, they keep so quiet lately. And after I get there you must stand by to take what I send and write it down. Have the other boys around to help, because three heads are better than one in receiving. If you should get all muddled up one of the others may carry the message through."

"Whee! that's a mighty clever scheme of yours, Rob; and if I wasn't so beastly tired and lame I'd ask to be allowed to go along with you. But p'raps it's better not, for the climbing would be tough, and I'm nearly all in for one day. But please don't go off alone that way, Rob, without carrying your gun along. Some of the tricky Regulars might manage to cut you off from us. And then wouldn't you be in a nice scrape without some means for defending yourself? You will, Rob, won't you?"

"Why, yes, I had thought it might be a bit foolish not to, with a chance always hanging over my head that I'd need something like a gun. But you can keep right on sitting here if you like, only turn around so you will have that crag in full view. Of course I don't know just how long it will take me to climb up there, because if they glimpse me they'll as like as not keep firing every time I show my head. But I ought to know how to creep, scout fashion. I've practiced it enough, goodness knows. Is it all understood, and have you the other flags handy? I want to take two along with me, after I've fastened them to a couple of sticks so I can wave them the right way, though I may only need one."

Tubby told him that all was clear, and Rob promised to send Merritt around to fix the other flags.

"When the time comes for you to send the first signal, guess I'll be able to get on my feet," the fat scout said as Rob moved away; "and if I can't make it alone, I reckon the boys'll give me a boost. You put your faith in me to get whatever you wigwag, Rob; but take mighty good care of yourself, hear?"

So the patrol leader went away, bearing the two white and red flags, which he meant to rig out with short staves before he started on his perilous mission to the crag that jutted out far up the slope. From there a splendid view could undoubtedly be obtained, not only of the stalled train and the burning bridge, but also of the Federal cavalrymen who were keeping out of sight among the small arroyos along the hillside.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE WIGWAG TALK

"Don't you think Rob ought to be pretty nearly up there by now, boys?" Tubby was asking, when about half an hour had crept by since the patrol leader left them.

He had become quite anxious, so much so, in fact, that with many grunts and "whees" he had actually managed to get upon his feet. Either Andy or Merritt would have been only too willing to lend the fat chum a helping hand, but Tubby was more or less proud and sensitive; he might accept assistance from Rob, who never made a habit of laughing in his face, but it was a different matter when any of the other scouts were concerned.

Then he had practiced waving his signal flags to and fro, making those particular movements that stood for letters in the Myers' code of wig-wagging. These had been readily interpreted by both Merritt and Andy, who were fairly up in the service, and could also relay messages by heliograph, using a bit of broken mirror to flash the rays of the sun from hilltop to valley.

"I'm looking to see him show up any old time now," Andy replied; for he was at that moment standing with his eyes glued on the lofty crag, from which the signal-sender expected to wave his message when the time came.

"But none of us have so much as glimpsed our chum even once on his way up there," Tubby complained; "which I take it is kind of queer. Gee! I hope nothing's happened to Rob! That would be a calamity, sure!"

"Oh! don't worry about Rob," Andy cautioned him; "he knows how to look out for himself, all right. You don't find him stumbling over roots and all sorts of things like – er – some of the rest of us fellows. No danger of Rob bringing up in one of those deep, dry ravines they call arroyos down here in Old Mexico."

"Yes, but sometimes accidents do happen even to the smartest scouts, don't they?" the fat boy persisted in saying, as though bent on allowing his feeling of anxiety to have full sway. "Huh! haven't you ever had a limb break when you believed it to be good and strong; or a stone slip out from under your foot, throwing you on your face? Even Rob, clever as he is, might run across a piece of bad luck. Then, how d'ye know but that one or two of those greaser cavalrymen might not have been camping somewhere along the trail Rob followed, and seeing him coming, decided to lie in ambush to knock him over? Any way, I'm getting what my mother calls 'fidgetty'; and I'll be glad when it's all over."

"Well, chirk up, then, Tubby!" exclaimed Merritt just then, with a low laugh.

"Oh! did you see him, Merritt? And is that why you speak so encouragingly?" demanded the stout boy with quivering lips and a look of intense eagerness on his round face.

The corporal of the Eagles nodded his head in the affirmative.

"Yes, I'm dead sure I had a glimpse of his khaki coat close to the crag, just while you were talking in such a gloomy way; and if you wait two minutes, chances are you'll see him wave his flag to let us know he has arrived."

"Bully for you, Merritt; that's the best news I've had for a 'coon's age.' But it is too bad we didn't think to bring a couple of mirrors along with us on this trip. Then, you know, we could have carried on our little confab by flashes of the heliograph. It's a whole lot easier than wigwag work, where your arms get so tired waving flags."

"There! See what's happened?" cried Andy suddenly.

"It's Rob, as sure as anything!" exclaimed the pleased Tubby. "He got up to that rock all right, didn't he? Watch him wave the O. K. sign, will you? And now I guess he'll take a good look around, so as to locate the enemy, and then begin to tell us what's doing."

Evidently Rob was taking advantage of his elevated position to survey the surrounding country in all directions. It would doubtless pay the besieged rebel forces to know what was going on, and if there was any hope of assistance coming to help drive the foe away.

The minutes began to drag horribly to impatient Tubby, and doubtless to the other scouts as well. They could see that Rob was turning this way and that, as though making good use of the excellent field glasses he had thought to carry with him on his ascent.

"Why doesn't he hurry and send something?" Tubby muttered for the tenth time as he walked to and fro, partly to work off his excitement, and partly to avoid the stiffness that overtook him whenever he stood still. "Here I'm all primed up for business at the old stand, and ready to receive any message that may come. I've practiced the whole code over and over, you notice, fellers; and if I do say it myself, that shouldn't, I never felt in such good trim as right now. If only Rob would get busy and whisper something! He must have learned a heap by now. Why, it seems like half an hour since he bobbed up serenely there!"

"Less than ten minutes, Tubby, because I timed him," interposed Merritt.

"Well, long enough for him to take a squint at a whole circle and see all sorts of things," grumbled Tubby, quite disconsolate over the delay. "If this keeps up, it's going to wear me away to a skeleton, that's what."

"No danger, Tubby, of that happening," declared Andy.

"And get busy now," added Merritt. "There comes your first signal! He is asking if you are ready to take a message. Answer him O. K., Tubby."

"Hurray! Now mebbe there won't be something doing!" exclaimed the other, aroused to a full consciousness that duty called.

Tubby in action was a sight to behold. He was so fat that, when his chubby arms got to working vigorously, he looked something like a Dutch windmill with the sails flapping furiously in a half gale.

But Tubby knew his Myers' wigwag code all right, and could receive better than nearly any fellow on the roster of the Eagle Patrol. When one masters the art of taking a message with fair speed, sending is what Tubby always called "pie." This is also the case in telegraph work. In sending, one knows in advance what is coming, and the brain can work ahead, but this is not so in receiving.

Rob made his flag do its duty with a vigor that kept both Tubby and Merritt keyed up to top notch in order to read the message, while, as the fat scout called out the letters, Andy wrote them down.

And this was what the boy on the rocky crag sent as a beginning:

"Can see enemy – number about sixty in sight – have started to turn flank, and make attack from other side – warn Lopez!"

That was alarming news, because, if the movement were undertaken without any notice to the rebel force, they would undoubtedly be caught napping; and it does not require much of a surprise to create a panic with troops who are unseasoned fighters.

"But how could they cross over to the other side of the railroad without being seen, I want to know?" Tubby asked, after the whole message had been received.

"We can't tell that from here, but you bet your boots Rob knows," Andy was quick to reply, showing what an amount of confidence the boys of the Eagle Patrol were wont to place in their recognized leader under any and all conditions.

"Yes, that's right," Merritt added. "It might be there is some gully that the road spans, which we didn't notice when making our dash here, where the Federals could dodge through without anybody being a whit the wiser. Anyway, Rob says that's what they mean to do, which settles it, Tubby."

"There, he's waving again!" called out the observant Andy. "Quick, get busy and let him know you're ready to take the next message, Tubby!"

"On deck!" chirped the receiving end of the air telegraph, which the boys often called their "wireless."

This time Rob went on a little further. Possibly he may have guessed that what he sent before was apt to mystify the boys, and wished to make it plainer. At any rate he took up the very subject they had just been discussing, as though he had some means of overhearing their little talk.

"One mile above, track passes over a little gulch. Shallow, but deep enough to answer purpose. Can see soldiers crawling under right now. Rocks lie beyond, and from that easy to creep close to train there. Warn Lopez, and have him tell captain of rebel forces. Get all that?"

Now came Tubby's turn.

Really, all he had to send back was the "O. K." signal, showing that he had read everything that had been sent; but, then, Tubby was a good talker, and it was hard for him to resist a golden opportunity like the present, where he could display his knowledge along the line of flirting with the flags.

So he started the wave, and in another minute was working industriously.

"Don't think we missed a single letter," he told the boy on the crag; "and you sure sent faster than ever before in your life. What are we to do if they attack the train? Ought we to join in and use our guns? We want to know, because it might be too late when you get back. Answer."

The two watching boys had started to spell out Tubby's message. Thinking it a waste of precious time at first, Merritt had even started forward to object when he caught some of the later words, and this halted him. After all, it was not so far out of the way for Tubby to want to know what their line of conduct should be under certain conditions. They had not anticipated anything like this when Rob left; and, as he was their leader, all orders had to come from him.

On this account, then, they waited to see what the answer would be. Apparently Rob had made out what Tubby asked, for he at once sent another message. As the letters followed each other in quick succession, even Andy could read their import.

"Hold back all you can, unless it seems absolutely necessary to join in. We have come down here on a peaceful errand, and don't want to side with either force more than we can help. This is a Mexican affair, and Uncle Sam is keeping his hands off. Understand?"

"What shall I tell him, Merritt?" questioned Tubby, eagerly waiting for orders, because, in the absence of the acting scout master and patrol leader, the corporal was looked upon as in charge.

"We'll try to be wise and cautious, tell Rob that," replied Merritt; "and we'll keep out of the muss till we think we've just got to help, in order to save our lives. That's all, Tubby."

Accordingly, Tubby started in again, for his arm had by now rested up more or less, so that he was in condition for work. The short message was possibly strung out considerably, because Tubby realized that in all probability it would be his last chance to flirt the flag, on this occasion, at least.

Then Rob waved them good-bye, and turned as though to take one last look over the country beyond, which was hidden from the sight of the boys at the stalled train.

Tubby still remained on his feet, though casting anxious eyes toward the spot where the comfortable blanket seat had been temporarily left, while Merritt was going over the message Andy had written down, so that he could give it to Lopez accurately for transmission to the rebel captain.

All at once Andy uttered an exclamation. There was such a note of alarm in his voice that Merritt looked up from his paper, and Tubby whirled around so as to face the other.

"What ails you now, Andy?" demanded Merritt.

"It's Rob!" exclaimed the scout addressed. "I just saw several soldiers creeping along the trail he must use coming back; and they mean to lie in ambush for him!"

CHAPTER XX.

"TRUST ROB!"

When Andy said that, both Tubby and Merritt felt a cold chill pass over them. It could be easily understood that if those vindictive Regulars had a chance to fire on the unknown party who wore the khaki of the United States soldiers, and who, they must know, had been sending messages from the rock jutting out above, there was no reason to believe that they would have the least pity because he turned out to be a boy. There were many mere lads bearing arms among the followers of Villa and of President Huerta – there always are when revolution stalks through a land and war clouds are in the air – so that the taking of a boy's life did not mean anything unusual to these grim fighters.

But Merritt was alive to the importance of letting Rob know of the peril that was lying in wait for him on the back trail. If he slipped away and started to come down the side of the rugged slope, there was always a terrible chance that he might know nothing of the three Mexican Regulars lying under the rocks like genuine bushwhackers, ready to pour a deadly volley in his direction as soon as they felt that he was in their grip.

"Quick, Tubby, try and attract his attention again – tell him for goodness' sake to wait up there and take another message!"

Merritt almost shrieked this as he sprang toward the fat chum. Tubby instantly started the human windmill in motion again, waving his flag at a great rate, and forming the signal "1111 – 3: Wait a moment," that would tell the boy on the crag there was still something of vast importance to be wigwagged to him.

"I can see him there yet!" said Andy, though his voice trembled as if he were quaking with suspense.

"Yes, but his back is this way!" groaned Tubby, still keeping busy with his flags.

Merritt even put his hands to his mouth and shouted the name of the patrol leader several times, as though hoping with this primitive megaphone to be able to attract the attention of the other; but apparently sounds did not travel upward as well as they do on the level ground. At any rate, they could not see Rob give the first sign of turning; and he seemed to be busy watching something beyond, perhaps the soldiers who were crawling through that little ravine under the railroad track, a mile or more away.

"What if he starts down without once looking this way?" asked Andy.

"Oh! Ginger snaps and pop-guns! Don't mention it!" groaned Tubby.

"But that wouldn't be like Rob!" asserted Merritt, just as though he might be trying the best way he knew to bolster up his own courage with this hope. "It would be more his style to take a last look this way to see if we had scattered to carry out his orders. Keep doing it right along, Tubby, while we all watch and hope he'll turn around soon!"

It was an anxious time for those three lads, and one they were not likely to forget soon, either.

All at once a whoop went up from Tubby.

"He's turned around, and is looking this way!" he exclaimed.

"Keep going, then; faster, Tubby!" cried Merritt. "Tell him to wait up – very important!"

"There he is, starting in to wave!" cried Andy.

"W-h-a-t d-o y-o-u w-a-n-t?" came the question from above, with every one of the three eager scouts below spelling it aloud.

"Stay where you are – great danger – three Federals in hiding on trail you took going up. If you must come down, pick another route!"

Tubby sent all of this, Merritt supplying him with the words in rotation; and evidently it was read correctly, for immediately after the message ceased, Rob sent back his "O. K.," and added: "Don't fear for me; I can take care of myself. So long!"

"He's gone!" cried Tubby, as the last fluttering letter came from above.

"Yes, and slipped out of sight just as if he meant to come back the same way he took going!" interjected Andy in dismay.

"That's all right," added Merritt. "Don't you see it must have been just a clever little stunt of Rob's, meant to fool the three cavalrymen who are lying in wait down on that depressed route he took going up? He reckons that they've been watching him all this while. So he just made out to have no suspicion that he knew about their game. Trust our Rob for keeping his wits about him! He'll slip around somehow, and leave them in the lurch."