CHAPTER XXII.
THE FIELD HOSPITAL IN OPERATION.
"What happened to the ambushers, Rob?" Andy inquired.
The scout master was beginning to look around in the throng of cheering Mexicans for Lopez, who must again act as interpreter for him if he expected the rebel captain to grasp certain ideas he had evolved while slowly making his way down from the lofty lookout.
"Oh!" replied Rob, with a laugh, "they slid out from under when things began to get too warm for their blood."
"What! d'ye mean they got clear away, and never left one feller on the gory field of action?" grumbled Tubby.
"Why, you're getting real blood-thirsty, Tubby!" said Rob. "I'm surely astonished to hear you talk like that!"
"But wouldn't it give you a real hard pain to see how the fellers that came back with you are strutting around and grinning! Why, that little runt with the gay jacket slaps himself on his chest every half minute, like he'd knocked over sixteen Regulars all by his lonely! What airs they take on! And yet you say every Fed got clean away? Huh! we've heard a heap of shootin' since we came on the spot; but only one man was hurt, and Merritt fixed him up fine. I reckon he broke his arm trying to hustle and get under shelter!"
"Wait here for me, boys," Rob said; "if Lopez won't show up I'll have to hunt for him, because it's important to do something right away, or they'll be taken by surprise after all."
"Sort of like I've heard my dad tell: 'If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, why Mohammed must go to the mountain.' Well, come right back again, Rob, when you get through talking with Lopez, because we want to know some things."