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The descent into the ravine took time, and Poke Stover was still some distance from the cave's entrance when he heard a commotion among the bushes and rocks. "A mustang a-comin' this way," he muttered to himself. "And somebody ridin', too. It must be one of them dirty greasers trying to git away. I'll cut him short." He raised his rifle, and stepped out into the open to get a better aim.
"I wonder how the second division is making out," said Lieutenant Radbury, as the day wore away and the cracking of firearms continued. "They seem to be doing about as much firing as we are." "They are at the vice-governor's house," announced one of the other officers. "We could join them were it not that the greasers are sweeping Soledad Street with their twelve-pounder."
"We begin work in the morning. Abe is in charge." "Hurroo!" exclaimed the delighted Irishman. "An' ut's men ye'll be wantin' av course; wan to handle the greasers, which is cake to me, an' wan to boss the mule skinners, which is pie for Tex. I'm thinkin' the Company will be short handed at Number Three in the mornin'." "I have been holding these places open for you," Abe laughed.
An' he up an' said he wouldn't give a two-bit piece fer my life. I asked him why. "'You're double-crossin' the boss an' Chess, he said. "'Jack, what 'd you give fer your own life? I asked him. "He straightened up surprised an' mean-lookin'. An' I let him have it, plumb center! He wilted, an' the greasers run. I reckon I'll never sleep again. But I had to do it."
But Haley's shack was too near Pine Flat, and now with a reward probably offered, he feared the Garcias greasers, father and son, not to be trusted. The wisest course was to lie low and keep to himself, anyway till he knew more. So he tracked across the country from landmark to landmark, a cave, an abandoned tunnel, the shell of a ruined cabin.
It took as good a man as Rufe, here, to put me wise; but I leave my gun in camp after this. I've got them Greasers buffaloed, anyhow, and Jasp knows if he plugs me when I'm unarmed it'll be a sure shot for the pen. The time may come when guns is necessary, but I move that every man leave his six-shooter in his bed and we'll go after 'em with our bare hands. What d' ye say, Ben?"
Anyhow, I'm flying the rattlesnake flag of Bunker Hill, 'Don't Tread on Me! Whether the Rurales see it or not, I've saved their hides. If the Apaches had got to this fort first, gee, how they would have crumpled up the Greasers as they came along the trail!"
His mind was fixed upon Harding's rascality, and the probable dilemma in which his father now was. Buck Bradley noticed the boy's despondent air, and sought to cheer him up. "Brace up, Jack," he roared in his hearty way, "your pop is all right. According to my way of thinking, those greasers just lured him away from here, so that they could have easy access to the specie room.
When told that the ghost showed itself only to Mexicans he had shrugged his shoulders eloquently and laughed, also eloquently. "A Greaser," he replied, "is one-half fear and superstition, an' the other half imagination. There ain't no ghosts, but I know the Greasers have seen 'em, all right. A Greaser can see anything scary if he makes up his mind to.
"By heaven! it is Lincoln's voice!" "Yer cussed whelp! ye'd see the cap'n hung, would yer? a man that's good vally for the full of a pararer of green-gutted greasers; but I ain't a-gwine to let you look at his hangin'. If yer don't show me which of these hyur pigeon-holes is his'n, an' help me to get him outer it, I'll skin yer like a mink!"
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