"Si, senorita," replied the old Indian."What can poor old Jose do to serve the beautiful senorita?""You can carry a message to one of Pesita's officers,"replied the girl."I have heard much about you since I came to Mexico.I know that there is not another man in this part of Chihuahua who may so easily reach Pesita as you." She raised her hand for silence as the Indian would have protested.Then she reached into the pocket of her riding breeches and withdrew a handful of silver which she permitted to trickle, tinklingly, from one palm to the other."I wish you to go to the camp of Pesita," she continued, "and carry word to the man who robbed the bank at Cuivaca--he is an American--that his friend, Senor Bridge has been captured by Villa and is being held for execution in Cuivaca.You must go at once--you must get word to Senor Bridge's friend so that help may reach Senor Bridge before dawn.Do you understand?"The Indian nodded assent.
"Here," said the girl, "is a payment on account.When Iknow that you delivered the message in time you shall have as much more.Will you do it?""I will try," said the Indian, and stretched forth a clawlike hand for the money.
"Good!" exclaimed Barbara."Now start at once," and she dropped the silver coins into the old man's palm.
It was dusk when Captain Billy Byrne was summoned to the tent of Pesita.There he found a weazened, old Indian squatting at the side of the outlaw.
"Jose," said Pesita, "has word for you."
Billy Byrne turned questioningly toward the Indian.
"I have been sent, Senor Capitan," explained Jose, "by the beautiful senorita of El Orobo Rancho to tell you that your friend, Senor Bridge, has been captured by General Villa, and is being held at Cuivaca, where he will doubtless be shot--if help does not reach him before tomorrow morning."Pesita was looking questioningly at Byrne.Since the gringo had returned from Cuivaca with the loot of the bank and turned the last penny of it over to him the outlaw had looked upon his new captain as something just short of superhuman.
To have robbed the bank thus easily while Villa's soldiers paced back and forth before the doorway seemed little short of an indication of miraculous powers, while to have turned the loot over intact to his chief, not asking for so much as a peso of it, was absolutely incredible.
Pesita could not understand this man; but he admired him greatly and feared him, too.Such a man was worth a hundred of the ordinary run of humanity that enlisted beneath Pesita's banners.Byrne had but to ask a favor to have it granted, and now, when he called upon Pesita to furnish him with a suitable force for the rescue of Bridge the brigand enthusiastically acceded to his demands.
"I will come," he exclaimed, "and all my men shall ride with me.We will take Cuivaca by storm.We may even capture Villa himself.""Wait a minute, bo," interrupted Billy Byrne."Don't get excited.I'm lookin' to get my pal outen' Cuivaca.After that Idon't care who you capture; but I'm goin' to get Bridgie out first.I ken do it with twenty-five men--if it ain't too late.
Then, if you want to, you can shoot up the town.Lemme have the twenty-five, an' you hang around the edges with the rest of 'em 'til I'm done.Whaddaya say?"Pesita was willing to agree to anything, and so it came that half an hour later Billy Byrne was leading a choice selection of some two dozen cutthroats down through the hills toward Cuivaca.While a couple of miles in the rear followed Pesita with the balance of his band.
Billy rode until the few remaining lights of Cuivaca shone but a short distance ahead and they could hear plainly the strains of a grating graphophone from beyond the open windows of a dance hall, and the voices of the sentries as they called the hour.
"Stay here," said Billy to a sergeant at his side, "until you hear a hoot owl cry three times from the direction of the barracks and guardhouse, then charge the opposite end of the town, firing off your carbines like hell an' yellin' yer heads off.
Make all the racket you can, an' keep it up 'til you get 'em comin' in your direction, see? Then turn an' drop back slowly, eggin' 'em on, but holdin' 'em to it as long as you can.Do you get me, bo?"From the mixture of Spanish and English and Granavenooish the sergeant gleaned enough of the intent of his commander to permit him to salute and admit that he understood what was required of him.
Having given his instructions Billy Byrne rode off to the west, circled Cuivaca and came close up upon the southern edge of the little village.Here he dismounted and left his horse hidden behind an outbuilding, while he crept cautiously forward to reconnoiter.
He knew that the force within the village had no reason to fear attack.Villa knew where the main bodies of his enemies lay, and that no force could approach Cuivaca without word of its coming reaching the garrison many hours in advance of the foe.That Pesita, or another of the several bandit chiefs in the neighborhood would dare descend upon a garrisoned town never for a moment entered the calculations of the rebel leader.
For these reasons Billy argued that Cuivaca would be poorly guarded.On the night he had spent there he had seen sentries before the bank, the guardhouse, and the barracks in addition to one who paced to and fro in front of the house in which the commander of the garrison maintained his headquarters.
Aside from these the town was unguarded.
Nor were conditions different tonight.Billy came within a hundred yards of the guardhouse before he discovered a sentinel.The fellow lolled upon his gun in front of the building--an adobe structure in the rear of the barracks.The other three sides of the guardhouse appeared to be unwatched.
Billy threw himself upon his stomach and crawled slowly forward stopping often.The sentry seemed asleep.He did not move.Billy reached the shadow at the side of the structure and some fifty feet from the soldier without detection.Then he rose to his feet directly beneath a barred window.
