CHAPTER XXII.
THE FIELD HOSPITAL IN OPERATION.
"What happened to the ambushers, Rob?" Andy inquired.
The scout master was beginning to look around in the throng of cheering Mexicans for Lopez, who must again act as interpreter for him if he expected the rebel captain to grasp certain ideas he had evolved while slowly making his way down from the lofty lookout.
"Oh!" replied Rob, with a laugh, "they slid out from under when things began to get too warm for their blood."
"What! d'ye mean they got clear away, and never left one feller on the gory field of action?" grumbled Tubby.
"Why, you're getting real blood-thirsty, Tubby!" said Rob. "I'm surely astonished to hear you talk like that!"
"But wouldn't it give you a real hard pain to see how the fellers that came back with you are strutting around and grinning! Why, that little runt with the gay jacket slaps himself on his chest every half minute, like he'd knocked over sixteen Regulars all by his lonely! What airs they take on! And yet you say every Fed got clean away? Huh! we've heard a heap of shootin' since we came on the spot; but only one man was hurt, and Merritt fixed him up fine. I reckon he broke his arm trying to hustle and get under shelter!"
"Wait here for me, boys," Rob said; "if Lopez won't show up I'll have to hunt for him, because it's important to do something right away, or they'll be taken by surprise after all."
"Sort of like I've heard my dad tell: 'If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, why Mohammed must go to the mountain.' Well, come right back again, Rob, when you get through talking with Lopez, because we want to know some things."
Rob soon found the guide in the crowd. Lopez was doing his share of shouting and hand-shaking, and even the women and children were taking part in the demonstration. It amused the boy about as much as anything he had ever seen.
"They're a queer lot," he told himself, suppressing a grin as he came up to the guide; "you'd think they'd done something real wonderful, now, instead of chasing up that rise and scaring off three skulkers who didn't want to fight at all. But then, I kind of think, these fellows can do considerable scrapping when once they get down to it. And they may have to yet, unless all signs fail before help comes."
Lopez, seeing his employer beckoning, quickly joined him.
"We ought not to be loafing the minutes away like this, Lopez," Rob began. "From what I saw when I was up there, chances are we'll have a shower of bullets dropping down on us from both sides before long. And think what that will mean when the women and children and unarmed travelers can't depend on the cars to hide them!"
Even Lopez seemed to be suitably impressed by the gravity of the conditions.
"The young senor has a plan? Let him tell it, and I will surely inform the brave captain of the valiant defenders of the train," he hastened to say.
Lopez had been studying Rob all the time that they had been in company, and evidently by now he had come to the conclusion that the boy was equal to any emergency. Plans seemed to be as easy for him to originate as for Lopez to roll a cigarette with his nimble fingers.
"Yes, I happened to notice a spot close to the foot of the hill as I was coming down that would afford shelter not only for the women and children, but for our horses as well. Some of the rebels have animals, too, and the Federals have been mean enough to shoot at them. Two lie out there now, done to death. Let the captain know about this so that he may order everybody who is not a fighter to get under cover in this sunken spot among the rocks right away. Minutes may count with us, Lopez."
"Si, senor, right away will I do the same," replied the willing guide, hurrying to the side of the captain. He must have explained the situation to the commander of the rebels in few words, because presently several men advanced toward Rob, Lopez and the leader among them.
"He has sent word to everybody to follow," explained the guide, as they came up, "and asks that you lead the way to the fort, senor."
So Rob beckoned to the other three scouts, and upon their coming up, he directed:
"Bring the five horses, boys; we're going to hide the lot with the women and kids in a rocky retreat close by, where they'll be safe from flying lead."
"That's a hunky idea!" declared Andy. "I was just bothering my head trying to think what we could do to protect our mounts; because, seeing how the cowardly Federals aimed to cut down the horses when they couldn't hit a man, made me reckon we might have to continue our journey afoot. We'll be right along after you, Rob. I'll see to your nag, and Merritt will take care of the guide's broncho."
Meanwhile, some of the rebels had made the crowd understand that they must leave the train for a brief time, because it would soon be as much as their lives were worth to remain out in the open. Once the enemy started shooting from both sides, the chances of being struck were bound to be tenfold as great as when they could hide behind the cars and use them as a fortress.
Some of the fugitives showed considerable concern about even temporarily abandoning the train; they acted as though they had treasures of some sort hidden in the luggage that was stored inside the cars. But the rebels would not stand for any delay or quibbling; and as a consequence the entire party, numbering almost a hundred, took up a line of march after Rob and the advance guard, heading directly toward the nearby foot of the rise.
Trailing in and out among the large rocks that lay around near the base, the young scout master led the way to the protected "sink" where the fugitives from Chihuahua could find shelter while the coming battle raged.
A couple of minutes later the three boys came up with all the horses belonging to Rob's party. Others among the rebels, understanding what was going on and able to take a hint, made haste to fetch the rest of the animals; for there was plenty of room in the sink to afford a shelter for all.
"Say, this wouldn't make a bad sort of fort, would it?" Tubby remarked, as he glanced around at the rock walls that arose on nearly every side.
"Now, tell me, Rob, why shouldn't the whole outfit stay in here, instead of sticking to the open and dodging bullets around that old train?"
"Why, don't you see," replied the other, always willing to oblige a comrade, "if the fighting men stayed here they could never tell where the enemy was located; and the consequence would be that the Regulars could drop down here and proceed to pour a hot fire right in among the bunch. No, that would never do, and the rebel captain knows it, too.
Back to the train for us, boys. There we'll be in a position to see whatever fighting happens along."
"And what is our share of the row going to be, Rob?" asked Andy anxiously.
"Oh! don't bother about that--yet!" said Rob quietly. "If there happens to be a lot of men struck, why we'll show them how scouts learn to bandage wounds and render first aid to the injured. I'd do that for a Federal just as quick as for a rebel, because we're supposed to be neutrals in this Mexican mix-up, you understand. So we'll try and imagine ourselves Red Cross workers for the time being."
"Well, the fun's going to begin right away, I reckon!" Andy called out, as there came the sharp crack of a gun from up on the side of the hill which, before this, had been entirely free from the enemy.
"Whee! Hear that bullet let out a yell as it jumped by over our heads, did you?" gasped Tubby, trying to make himself as small as possible and not meeting with very much success, for reasons that all of his chums could easily understand.
There was an immediate scurrying around of the rebels, each man trying to find some place where he could be safe from the rain of lead that would soon be falling.
A number stuck to the cars, believing they could manage to lie low and escape damage; while others, like the four boys, preferred to trust to the outlying rocks that in places offered little harbors of refuge.
In five minutes there was quite an exchange of shots going on, so that things began to seem "pretty lively," as Andy called it.
Acting on the advice of Rob, all of them had spread out what linen bandages they carried in their packs, as well as other things calculated to be of use in case of wounds.
"If I had dreamed that we should have to play the part of field hospital," Rob remarked, "I would have made sure to bring an extra supply along. But in case we run short of bandages, why there's that big night-shirt Tubby fetched, under the foolish impression he was going to sleep like he does at home. And when that's gone we'll begin on his day shirt. Like enough it will fill the bill!"
Tubby hardly knew whether to take this in the light of a joke or not.
"Now, I don't mind giving up the useless sack in my pack, because several times I've been tempted to throw it away before some of you fellers began to josh me about it; but I do draw the line about handing over my spotted flannel shirt that I'm wearing right now to be torn into bandages, and wrapped about the arms of these dirty--er, I mean, brave senors who are fighting so hard."
"Here comes a fellow who's got his dose, I guess, Rob," said Merritt, as one of the rebels staggered toward their little enclosure, holding his left arm rigidly with the clenched fingers of his right hand and trying to suppress a look of pain on his swarthy face.
The Federals attempted to add to his troubles by shooting at him, so that the dust arose in several little spurts around his feet as he came on; but luckily he was not struck again, and soon sank down with a groan at the feet of the "gringo" boys, who had let it be known that they were ready to treat any and all wounds.
Rob immediately took the man in hand. He had several pails of water handy, and was thus enabled to wash the fellow's arm first of all. It turned out that he had received a pretty serious hurt. It made Tubby shudder, but the fat scout showed plenty of grit, for he volunteered to assist Rob in any way possible.
Between them the wound was so well taken care of that when the bandage had been fastened the man declared in broken English that he was grateful, and would now dodge back to where he had dropped his gun, hoping to repay some venturesome Regular for his injury.
"There, I reckoned they had plenty of pluck once they got started!" Rob declared, on seeing the man run across the open space, jumping in a zig-zag fashion when the lead began to patter around him.
Another came crawling into the hospital, having also been touched; and before he could be discharged a third bounded toward them, now stopping to limp, as though he hardly knew where he was hurt.
"This is going some, let me tell you!" said Merritt.
"Good practice for us scouts, all the same," Tubby declared, puffing out his big chest with a suspicion of pride, and then as quickly subsiding when he heard a bullet spatter on the rock not three feet away, so that particles of stone even tingled his cheek.
For some time the battle at the stalled train continued, until hundreds of shots had been fired on either side and some seven or more rebels had been ministered to by the young field surgeons. But so far as the boys knew, there had thus far been no fatalities, at least on their side.