In a corner Señora Vallejo, some wives of ranchers and a few loyal Indian women and children crouched, the most of the time at their prayers. Dead men were against one wall, wounded against another, a fray attending to the latter. At the windows and both sides of the doorway stern men waited with muskets and pistols to fire whenever a hostile could be seen through the smoke. Thanks to the action of the comandante in removing supplies from the presidio, there was an abundance of ammunition.
Yet the defenders were being cut down one at a time, and it seemed only a question of hours until the enemy would triumph. It was the sudden, unexpected rushes those in the church feared, for if enough hostiles could invade the church at one time the defenders would be scattered and cut down.
“A ghost, eh?” Cassara was shouting in Gonzales’s ear. “So this Captain Fly-by-Night is in the mortuary chapel, eh? I told you I saw him go into the church. He has been hiding there!”
“The imbecile trooper declares Señorita Anita is with him, and how can that be?” Gonzales wanted to know. “We are all aware that she was left behind in the guest house, and that Rojerio Rocha went there to save her. Since the guest house is in flames, it is to be supposed both died there.”
“The trooper saw double,” Cassara replied. “He had been wounded. But Captain Fly-by-Night is there, nevertheless, and presently we shall attend to him. Hah! When I stand before him——”
“If I do not face him first,” Gonzales interrupted.
“Bar the door, will he? ’Twill not take me long to break it in when I am at liberty to do so. ’Ware the window, good pirate! They are coming again!”
The hostiles had prepared for another rush, and now they made it, plunging through the smoke and into the church in an effort to exterminate their foes. A concentrated fire met them, as it had several times before. Some fell; others rushed on.
Here and there the combat was hand-to-hand. Every foot of the way they found disputed by a determined man. They were driven out again, leaving dead and wounded behind them; and those inside placed another man against the wall and bound up more wounds.
The smoke was stifling now. Women and children hung around the big water jars, gasping for breath. The faces of the men were grimy, their eyes red. Comandante and ensign rushed from one part of the church to another, alert for possible tricks of the enemy, taking advantage where it was possible. Frailes were building a barricade in a corner, preparing for the forlorn hope.