“Hm! You speak of being excited. What happened?”
“Why, just as I was closing the door to the cellar I heard a dull thud coming from the floor above. Then there was a muffled shuffling of feet, as if of men wrestling.”
Quickly Mr. Hampton continued. His first instinctive feeling, after hearing those strange noises from the rooms above, was to shout to his companions and ask them what was wrong? But he resisted the impulse. He feared that in some way the enemy had returned; and, if they did not already know of his presence, he had no intention of warning them. Taking off his shoes, he moved swiftly yet soundlessly up the stairs and along the corridor toward the front room. All the time he could hear sounds as of men grunting and straining, but no shouts, no exclamations.
And when he saw into the front room, the explanation was made plain. The three aviators, including Captain Cornell and his rescuers, evidently had been taken at a disadvantage. In fact, they here confirmed Mr. Hampton’s assumption that Ramirez and his assistants had stolen upon them while Captain Cornell was being freed from his bonds.
With revolvers leveled at them and under command not to make an outcry, there was nothing the Americans could do except to comply with the request to put up their hands. This they did.
“And what I heard,” said Mr. Hampton, “was the grunting and tugging of the Mexicans as they busied themselves at the task of roping and gagging our friends.
“Then I had a piece of hard luck,” he added, with a rueful smile. “I decided to take the Mexicans by surprise, as obviously they had taken my friends. If I could get the drop on them, I might force them into a corner and hold them until you returned. And I think I would have accomplished it, too. They had their backs turned and didn’t see me. But Captain Cornell was looking my way and—”
“And I gave you away,” interrupted the flyer, bitterly. “I didn’t mean, too,” he mourned. “But something in my eyes warned Ramirez, who was looking at me.”
“He whirled quick as a flash,” added Mr. Hampton. “And he shot toward the doorway as he turned. I jumped aside, but he caught me in the shoulder.”
“Yes, and I’ll say this,” declared Captain Cornell, admiringly, “you were game to the core. Why,” he explained, turning to his friend and rescuer, Captain Murray, “that bullet in the shoulder, at that close range, was enough to knock another man down. But Mr. Hampton leaped behind the door jam, and the next second his shots began streaming into the room. Say, you should have seen those rascals jump for the windows.”