"And we must go on opening and closing gates and running errands in Arizona. Santa Fe was a good place for boys. But this is the pokiest place we've struck yet. But come; let's shut the gates, and watch for the expressman afterwards. We haven't much time before retreat."
The gates closed a stockaded post near Prescott, Arizona. Pine logs ten feet long had been set up vertically in the ground, two feet of them below the surface and eight above, enclosing an area of a thousand square feet, in which were store-rooms, offices, and quarters for two companies of soldiers and their officers. At corners diagonally opposite each other were two large block-house bastions commanding the flanks of the fort. The logs of the walls were faced on two sides, set close together, and were slotted every four feet for rifles. At one of the bastionless corners were double gates, also made of logs, bound by cross and diagonal bars, dove-tailed and pinned firmly to them. Each hung on huge triple hinges of iron.
The two boys went back to the gates, and setting their backs against one of them and digging their heels in the earth, swung it ponderously and slowly until its outer edge caught on a shelving log set in the middle of the entrance to support it and its fellow. Then, as the field music began to play, and the men to assemble in line for retreat roll-call, they swung the second gate in the same way, and braced the two with heavy timbers.
As the companies broke ranks, the boys went to the fifth log on the left of the gates and swung it back on its hinges. This was one of two secret posterns. On the inside of the wall, when closed, its location was easily noticeable on account of the hinges, latches, and braces; on the outside it looked like any other log. It had been sawed off close to the ground, and being over three feet in diameter, afforded a convenient night entrance to the fort. Their work being completed, the boys went to the Adjutant's office to report.
"Very well, sergeants," said the commanding officer; "no further duty will be required of you to-day."
Frank and Henry ran through the postern, and arrived on the crest of the bluff overlooking the Prescott road just as a horseman turned up the height. The news that the La Paz courier had arrived spread quickly through the quarters, and every man not on duty appeared outside the walls.
Joining the boy sergeants, I said,
"Boys, if you want to drop the job of opening and closing the gates, it can hereafter be done by the guard."
"Thank you, sir. We took the job, and we will stick to it," replied Sergeant Frank.
"I wonder if Samson could pack those gates off as easily as he did the gates of Gaza?" said Henry, seating himself on a log which had been rejected in the building, and taking Vic's head in his hip and fondling her silken ears.