The Argosy, November 1908 — page 32: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

598 “See?” he asked, squinting along his arm and extended forefinger. ‘Them Yaquis.” I did not need to: look but once to be convinced. My heart sank. Huts, indeed, they lived in, but if there were aS many Yaquis as I saw huts I could imagine our own little band being wiped out of existence in less time than it would take to empty the rifles we carried. But Billy Barefoot was not the kind to be wiped out. “You,” he said to me, his face as solemn and inscrutable as an owl’s, “ stay with horses. Can’t fight Yaquis all at once. You wait. You watch.” He spoke in a low tone, and a jargon I did not understand, to the other Mo- quis, and they dismounted. The small horses were placed in a row, a long lariat running between two trees being used to hold them in a straight line. It was Billy Barefoot’s way of doing things. “You stay and watch,” he said. And then followed some more of the low muttered instructions that I was not supposed to know anything about, and didn’t. I looked with curiosity and wonder at these five men, taken from their chosen home in the San Jacintos, as they obeyed the old chief. Billy Barefoot himself strutted away, with his rifle slung across his shoulder, much the same as though he was going after jack-rabbits. Then Little Elk dis- appeared in a totally different direction, losing himself from my sight in a clump of trees. Then, with a grin and a grunt, Red Two Legs went off on an entirely differ- ent route. Almost following him, but taking a direction somewhat more east- erly, Bill Faraway glided noiselessly out of our little camp. And so Tom Mud and Run Fast Jim went away, and I was left with the seven horses. That Billy Barefoot was pursuing some form of Indian warfare of which I was ignorant I knew, of course. But it was amazing that six men of a peaceful tribe should venture to attack a town filled with the fierce Yaquis. “Alone I sat and smoked. Billy Bare- foot had told me to wait and watch. I could wait ; but there was little for me to THE ARGOSY. watch, unless I felt like exposing myself to the Yaquis. I peered through the bushes that screened me, and they all seemed to be going about their usual vocatiens, un- mindful of the presence of an enemy. And to me that enemy seemed wofully inadequate to the work before them. I thought of Consuelo, wondering where her father had taken her. Suddenly there was a rifle-shot. It was so sharp, so unexpected, that I did not know from which direction it came. But the effect on the Yaqui village was wonderful. I saw nobody fall, but men stood still in the lanes between the huts, and women rushed from the huts with children in their arms. And then there came another shot. I saw nobody fall, but the Yaquis gathered into groups, and I could see that they were excited. And then another shot from a different direction. Whatever the game Billy Barefoot was playing, it seemed to be played well. This continuance of single shots from every point of the compass seemed to paralyze the Yaquis. ‘They were ambush fighters themselves, and had held the Mexican army in contempt for many years. And now they were getting a dose of the medicine they thought they owned, and it was disconcerting. I saw one fellow, looking no more like a chief than Billy Barefoot, run into a hut and emerge with a gun. This seemed to be a signal for the others, although there was probably some seo com- mand. It seemed as though every man and boy in the place dived into a hut and came out with a gun. They drew together in an excited group, and then the single firing began again. After each shot, which seemed to hit nobody, but which certainly alarmed the Yaquis, they would look toward the direction whence it came. This made them turn around, so that in the space of three or four minutes they had turned to all points of the compass. The leader, who had been waving his gun in the air, suddenly started on a run. And then, to my complete demoraliza- comicloooks.cormn