Covering the soldier with the weapon, he went back and swung the section of wall shut again. Then he whirled and advanced toward the other man, drove him ahead, hurried him through the door into the main body of the church and dropped the heavy bar.
“The last stand,” he laughed, clasping the girl to him again. “Foes behind; foes ahead; here we fight it out, beloved!”
They could hear the wounded soldier screeching the news to soldiers and frailes. Captain Fly-by-Night had appeared from nowhere in the mortuary chapel; Señorita Anita was with him! She was in the power of Captain Fly-by-Night!
But the caballero paid scant attention to the wails of the trooper he had startled. He was working frantically to block the opening in the wall. Benches, railings, adobe blocks, huge cubes of stone he tore from their places and piled against the movable section of masonry. The hostiles would have difficulty entering that way!
They heard the Indians in the tunnel screeching their anger at being thus blocked. Light from their torches came through the crack. From the main part of the church rolled the sound of volleys, the ringing of blades, groans, screams. Someone was pounding on the door of the mortuary chapel.
Anita Fernandez stood against the wall, breathing quickly, a whimsical smile on her lips, something of timidity in her manner now, and watched the man to whom she had given her kisses. For, despite danger and noise of battle, the caballero sat on a block of stone and loaded his pistol again—and as he loaded it he smiled and hummed a song.
CHAPTER XXIV
LOVE PROVES TRUE
The hammering at the door of the mortuary chapel ceased after a time, for those in the main part of the church had more serious business to occupy their attention than the attempted capture of Captain Fly-by-Night.
The front doors of the church had been battered in, and several times hostiles had invaded the building, but always to be driven back after suffering heavy losses, for men can fight with thrice their usual strength and courage when making a last stand against an overwhelming foe.
Now storehouse and hospital building and guest house were burning, the most of the loot having been removed, and clouds of heavy smoke poured into the church, half suffocating the defenders there, yet at the same time proving a blessing, since the dense pall made it impossible for those in the plaza to get good aim at a defender.