For the number of shots that kept ringing out, the amount of damage done must have been remarkably small, from the accounts Andy kept giving him.
The Indians were creeping along wherever they could find protection by way of the sand dunes; and the watcher in the air declared that he believed they meant to completely surround the man at bay, when doubtless they could pour in such a hot fire that he would either have to surrender, or else be wiped out.
It was a pretty exciting time for the two young aviators while they were thus speeding toward the scene of the desert warfare. The biplane was doing its level best, and yet so impatient was Andy to arrive before the Indians had succeeded in accomplishing their terrible work that it seemed to him they were fairly crawling along.
“Oh! can’t we go faster, Frank?” he begged more than once.
“We’re doing the limit right now,” Frank would answer.
“I suppose so, Frank, but don’t you know it seems like we’d never get there at this pace,” Andy would go on to say.
“Keep cool,” was the advice of the other.
“I’m trying as hard as I can to do that, but it makes me shiver all over when I think of poor little Becky being exposed to that shooting,” said Andy, between his clenched teeth.
“Well, let’s hope Jose has been merciful enough to keep her lying flat on the ground behind the ponies. They must be dead, Andy, because with all that lead flying around no cayuse would ever consent to lie still, wounded perhaps at that. And their bodies would protect the child, even if they didn’t do the same altogether for the man. Is he still shooting?”
“I haven’t noticed a puff of smoke over the spot for some time—but there, I did get a glimpse of one just then; and Frank, believe me, he must have done it again, because I can see several of the others crawling toward one that seems to be kicking on the ground. There, they’re helping him away. Let me tell you that same Jose is no slouch when it comes to using a gun. He must have had a lot of practice in the revolutions they have every little while down in Mexico since Diaz was kicked out. I take off my hat to Jose when it comes to knocking chips off the shoulders of half-drunken reds.”