FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>  
dead Mexican, not in uniform, who had been killed by the sailormen's fire, and a trail of blood that must have been shed by the wounded enemy as they were carried away. "Bandits---Cosetta's men---not soldiers, this time," was Dan's instant guess. The miscreants and their wounded, as the blood trail showed, had escaped by way of the rear of the house. None were in sight by the time the Americans reached the back yard. "Shall we pursue, sir?" asked the boatswain's mate, saluting. "In what direction?" asked Dalzell, scanning the ground. "The rascals can run faster than we can follow a trail of blood. But you may go back to Lieutenant Trent, report just what we have found, and bring me his orders." "Lieutenant Trent believes that you are not likely to catch up with the fugitives, and there would be danger of running a handful of men into a cunning Mexican ambush," the petty officer reported, two minutes later. After that the night dragged slowly. Trent allowed some of his men to sleep in doorways an hour or so at a time, but there were enough sailormen awake to handle any sudden surprise or attack. At four in the morning Trent's command was relieved by a company of marines with two machine guns. Lieutenant Trent, under orders, marched his command back to a park in which tents had been pitched. Here, under blankets on the ground, the tired sailormen and their three officers were allowed to sleep until noon. By daylight of that day, Wednesday, the first detachment ashore had been strongly reinforced. There was still much sniping in the city, though now the firing came mostly from the rear of the town. Slowly, patiently, the Navy detachments pushed their way forward, attending to snipers and also searching houses for concealed arms and ammunition. In the course of this search hundreds of Mexicans were arrested. Even some very small boys were found with knives. On the third day the residents of the city were warned that all who possessed arms must take their weapons to the provost officer's headquarters. About nineteen hundred men, women and boys turned in their weapons, running all the way from the latest models of rifles down to century-old muskets. Soon after orders were issued that all natives found armed were to be executed on the spot. To the average American this might have seemed like a cruel order, but now the list of dead sailormen and marines had reached twenty-five, and there
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>  



Top keywords:

sailormen

 

Lieutenant

 

orders

 

weapons

 

ground

 
Mexican
 

running

 

officer

 

allowed

 
marines

wounded

 
command
 

reached

 

snipers

 

daylight

 

forward

 

attending

 

concealed

 

officers

 

houses


searching

 

pushed

 

ashore

 

Slowly

 

strongly

 

patiently

 

detachment

 

detachments

 

Wednesday

 

firing


sniping

 
reinforced
 

century

 

muskets

 

rifles

 
turned
 

latest

 

models

 

issued

 

average


American

 

natives

 

executed

 

hundred

 

nineteen

 

knives

 
arrested
 

search

 

hundreds

 

Mexicans