Minor hurts were thus quickly bound up, and Bud, having received a painful wound in the right hand, had to retire from the fight. He did not actually go to the rear, however, but remained with Nort and Dick, handing them cartridges to reload their weapons.
"Gosh! This is rotten!" bewailed Bud, looking at his bandaged hand. It was dismay not at the nature of the wound, but because he could no longer "pepper" the Yaquis.
And the Indians were being attacked with a vengeance and were being "peppered" to such good advantage that some of them rose up and started to run to the rear. This was the last running they did, however, for the unerring rifles of the troopers picked them off.
And then the strategy of Captain Marshall had its effect. For suddenly the troopers he had sent to attack the rear of the Yaquis opened up a fire and this, being augmented by shots from the main body, soon threw the Indians into such confusion that the end was only a question of minutes.
And it came suddenly. For just as Captain Marshall was preparing to order a charge, Snake gave a yell and shouted:
"The white flag! They're quitting!"
CHAPTER XXI
THE TRICK DISCOVERED
Truly enough, this had happened. On top of one of the jagged rocks, behind which they had conducted the defense that had failed, stood a ragged Yaqui Indian. To and fro, on the end of his gun, he waved not exactly a white flag, but a dirty rag that once might have been white. Objects of this hue did not long remain like the driven snow among the Yaquis.
"Cease firing!" blared the bugle, and the spiteful rattle of the soldiers' guns stopped abruptly.