“You look like you had been in a coal mine. Are you hurt?”
“Not a scratch—none of us!”
“Then look after Ad, while I help dispose of these cutthroats.”
“Ad!” exclaimed Billie. “Is he hurt?”
“I don’t know. There he is. Find out and do something for him as soon as possible.”
Billie hastened to do Donald’s bidding, but Santiago was before him. He raised the boy’s head onto his knee, and from a small flask forced a few drops of liquid down his throat. A moment later Adrian opened his eyes, gave one look at the two blackened faces before him, and uttered a yell that brought everyone to “attention” as though a bomb had exploded.
“What is it?” asked Donald, jumping to Adrian’s side.
“That’s what I want to know! What is it?” pointing his finger at Billie.
Donald burst into a loud laugh. He had been under the most intense excitement for hours, and, as the ludicrousness of the situation struck him, he could not have kept from laughing had a howitzer been pointed at his head. His overwrought feelings simply relaxed, and he fairly screamed with laughter.
Realizing the humor of the situation, Billie speedily joined in, and the combined laughter of the two was so infectious that, without at all understanding what it was about, the rurales and smugglers also began to laugh. It is probable that no battle ever fought had such a remarkable ending.