“Down, down with you!” bawled sergeant and corporal. “Wait till the chargin’ order!”
The fight continued, but it was becoming a very one-sided fight. Bombarded by the rock artillery from above, and by the carbines from in front, and held by the cave wall behind, the Apache-Mohaves were being literally wiped out of existence. They were replying not at all; their brave medicine-man had disappeared amidst the murk—the occasional rifts showed him no longer.
Still, it was dangerous, here in front of the cave, for the bursting boulders, piling up in the entrance and shattering the rampart there, sent their fragments flying like pieces of shell, causing the soldiers to duck and laugh as they plied their cartridges.
Now the trumpet sounded—“Cease firing!” The shots died away as Major Brown, standing, waved his arm at the Captain Burns company, on the rim of the precipice over the cave, to signal them to stop rolling down their boulders.
“Prepare to charge!” the orders were repeated, along the line below. The sun was high, marking noon. The battle had been going on for at least five hours!
“Prepare to charge!” Up sprang the line, and at the instant down bounded the last of the boulders, which the officers above had been unable to withhold. It gave one final tremendous jump, and landed well out in front of the cave—“Boom!” Something struck Jimmie—yes, a piece of it caught him as he blindly dodged—and whirling him around knocked him head over heels.
He tried to pick himself up, and a fierce pain stabbed him in the right leg, making him dizzy. He propped on one arm, among the rocks, while his eyes cleared a little. Already the line was running and scrambling forward, soldiers and scouts both; nobody now might pause to tend to him. He stared, blinking weakly. What would happen? Were the Yavapais away back in the cave, somewhere, and where they were waiting, to defend it?
There was Micky, scooting about; and Nan-ta-je, and Joe, and Jack Long, and Captain Taylor and Lieutenant Bourke, their carbines and revolvers poised, as they advanced at double-quick. Right up to the top of the huge pile of shattered rocks climbed the first man—Corporal Thomas Hanlon, he—and glared in; jumped down, out of sight, and over and around poured the others. But not a shot was fired. Evidently all the Yavapais were dead. Oh!
With that, Jimmie sighed, everything swam before him, and he must have fainted, because the next that he knew, Joe Felmer was sopping his face from a canteen, and Micky was squatting beside, grinning.
From the cave sounded the hum of voices; the soldiers and scouts were still busy there. The Burns soldiers and Pimas had come down.