There was blood gushing out from the faces of both. I saw that both were corpses!
Story 1, Chapter XXIV.
A Scattering of Salteadores.
I was less astonished than delighted by a phenomenon that might have appeared mysterious.
But there was no mystery about the matter. The explanation had already reached me in the “crack, crack,” quickly following each other, easily distinguished as the detonation of a brace of rifles, whose reports I had often heard before.
I raised my head, and looked in the direction whence the shots had proceeded. I could see no one; but the cloud of blue smoke fast scattering upon the edge of the chapparal, scarcely twenty paces from the spot, was sufficiently significant. I knew who had created that sulphureous vapour.
A wild cry arose among the terror-stricken brigands, who stood transfixed to the spot, as if uncertain how to act.
It was not until the “crack-crack” had been repeated, and two more of them went sprawling upon the grass, that the whole of the band put themselves fairly in motion, each running towards the horse that stood nearest him.