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."
"Say, I hope now none of that outfit can read wigwag work!" Tubby remarked, with a new line of trouble appearing on his usually smooth forehead. "Because then they'd know what I told Rob, and of course they'd change their position so as to cover the ground all along."
"Not one chance in a thousand that a single Federal ever took a lesson in signal work with the flags," Merritt told him. But evidently he was not so wholly free from fears himself, for immediately afterward he went on to say: "Perhaps I'd better be hunting Lopez up and telling him all that's happened. Out of gratitude for what Rob has done to save them from being taken by surprise, these rebels may consent to make a little sortie and chase the three fellows up there away."
"A splendid idea, Merritt!" declared Andy, while Tubby burst out:
"Gee! but wouldn't it be just glorious to turn the tables on that lot and send them flying over the hill? Hurry up, and see if you can't get our rebel friends to make a start. They could charge right up that hill and scare the ambushers off like hot cakes. Go along, Merritt, and don't let the grass grow under your feet!"
Merritt was off even while Tubby spoke. He was something like Rob, for whenever he had an idea he believed in carrying it out with speed. In this case it was essential that no time should be lost, for at any minute one of the armed men who lay there in wait for Rob might find an opportunity to get a shot at him, with a result that neither Tubby nor Andy dared allow themselves to consider.
Both of them continued to stand there, keeping their eyes glued on the side of the rise, at about the spot where they knew the soldiers lay hidden. More than a few times one or the other believed he could detect some slight movement, as though the men might be taking an observation; but the distance was so great they could not be sure, and no doubt their fears magnified many things.
"He's found Lopez, and is talking to him right now!" Andy said, referring to Merritt, after a little time had elapsed.
"Yes, and you can see that our guide believes the news mighty important, because already he's beckoning to that captain who's carrying a sword, even if he hasn't any uniform," Tubby continued. "I hope now the feller isn't going to show the white feather and just shrug his shoulders the way they're so fond of doing down here, as much as to say Rob'll have to take care of himself. That would be a burning shame, wouldn't it, Andy?"
"But I don't believe they'll act that way," the other told him consolingly. "I reckon these rebels are fighters, and they'll think it a bully good chance to get one back on the enemy by knocking over three of the Regulars. See, he's showing a whole lot of interest right now. There, Merritt is pointing up at the place where we know the ambushers are squatting. Will they sally out and chase them away? Oh! I hope so, I hope they will!"
"It looks as though they might be thinking of doing that very thing, doesn't it, Tubby?" Andy again burst out, a ring of satisfaction in his boyish voice. "See, that captain is yelling something to his men, for a lot of them are running up, waving their guns, and chattering all sorts of things – like a pack of monkeys finding a cocoanut. Make your mind easy, Tubby; there's going to be something doing soon!"
All Tubby made answer was expressed in one word:
"Bully!"
Evidently Merritt had managed to tell Lopez what a great service Rob had done in making his way to the top of the elevation, and sending word as to what the enemy was doing; and the guide had in turn transmitted this to the rebel chief, upon whom it must have made considerable impression, for he was plainly excited and bent upon discharging his obligations toward the signal sender, according to the plan suggested by the Eagle's corporal.
A dozen men were told off and given hurried instructions. They immediately ran the length of the train, and then with loud shouts and waving guns started for the foot of the rise, not bothering to take the trouble Rob had done to keep their movements secret. In fact, they must have meant to let the three Regulars know of their intentions as they scattered and started to climb the hill.
"There! Listen to that, will you?" shrilled the excited Tubby.
"It was a gunshot, sure as anything!" added Andy, hardly less stirred himself. "And I saw the puff of smoke up yonder where the three Regulars are hiding! Guess they know the game is up and mean to have a few cracks at the climbing rebels before they skip out!"
"And there goes a shot from below," said Tubby, "showing that our friends don't mean that the fun shall all be on one side. Yes, and listen to how the dogs of war keep on barking, will you, Andy? Whee! isn't this exciting, though? I can just imagine how the bullets sing as they fly past! Hear 'em slash against the rocks! That will make 'em flatten out like pancakes!"
"All the while the rebels are climbing right along and getting nearer and nearer," Andy remarked, though not once could he tear his eyes away from the scene upon the side of the elevation. "They may hang on there too long, and find it a hard job to make their get-away, after all."
"I hope Rob isn't in line with all this shooting, or that he happens to run across the Regulars when they're making off!" Tubby pursued, voicing his fears.
"Trust Rob, Tubby; give him credit for horse sense, won't you?" scoffed the other scout. "And let me tell you, Tubby, that, if they do run across him, chances are they'll be sorry! Remember, Rob's got a gun along with him, and you've seen yourself how he could shoot at flying game many's the time. If he has to defend himself, he'll wing that lot in one, two, three order, give you my word for it!"
"I know that, Andy, as well as you do," agreed the fat boy; "and I guess I'm only saying what I do because my nerves are all unstrung. It's just awful to have to stand here watching, not able to lift a finger to help our chum! If I could only be in the thick of the thing, I wouldn't be croaking like this."
"I believe you, Tubby," said Merritt, who had come up in time to hear the last few sentences spoken by the others. "But there's little danger of Rob falling into a trap, now that he's been warned. I wouldn't be surprised if he's just been lying low all this time in some nice hole under a rock, waiting to find out what would happen. To tell the truth, I'm more concerned about the rebels shooting at Rob, under the belief that he's one of the enemy, than that those three Federals will catch him napping."
Unfortunately, these words gave poor Tubby fresh cause for alarm.
"Oh! I hope that doesn't happen," he kept on saying, as they all stood and watched the little puffs of smoke that broke out in ever so many places along the side of the rugged slope. These told that the rebels were advancing steadily upward toward the spot where the men who had meant to waylay the wigwag operator had taken up their positions.
All the people who had been on the stranded train, men, women and children, had come out of their various hiding-places, and now stood in groups, along with the rebels at bay, behind the line of cars. Their eyes were glued on what was happening up there on the heights. For by now it had been circulated that one of the Americano boys had gone aloft to spy upon the enemy, and had reported important news, which fact had acted so favorably on the commander of the Villa forces that he had sent a detachment of his men to try and save the gringo lad from being captured or shot.