“That’s something we have yet to learn!”
As they started off, finding it difficult to hold the frightened, snorting mustangs in check, a small army of mounted rurales and citizen volunteers were seen advancing on a trot. A few shots sent them scurrying to cover. Then from behind the shelter of isolated houses they began to pour forth an answering fire.
The clatter of pounding hoofs as the cavalrymen galloped furiously over the roads and across the fields, the savage yells of the combatants, and the sharp cracking of rifles, made a veritable pandemonium of sound.
Following the first hot clash with the citizen defenders, riderless horses and pack-trains of mules were stampeding through the hot, dusty streets, adding to the panic and terror of the fleeing people.
Bending every effort to keep far in the lead of the victorious host of charging cavalrymen, the boys rode hard. They felt neither the heat nor the perspiration streaming down their dust-begrimed faces. No shells were falling now on the town, but the farther they progressed the more menacing the danger became.
Several of the narrow streets were still occupied by little groups of Federal soldiers, who, rounded up by their officers and bullied, threatened or coaxed, were prepared to make a last desperate stand.
Blocked from these thoroughfares the Americans clattered headlong into others, always in the thick of so many thrilling events, in which panic, passion, and violence played equal parts, that their brains could grasp only a confused and jumbled impression.
At the rear, urging them on, ever faster, faster was the sound of strife as the cavalrymen, smashing and crushing all opposition that lay in their path, continued their triumphal advance.
And above the general hullabaloo made by shots, the hoofs of dashing horses, and human voices raised to a pitch of frenzy, came the reports of dynamite bombs exploding with fearful force. This was the work of the Federals, who had threatened to destroy the town, if forced to evacuate.
Through the thick yellow smoke from burning buildings, with sputtering sparks like a hail of fire dropping about them, rode the lads, making desperate efforts to reach the plaza in the shortest possible time.