a few hours.
Trusting the Mexicans in nothing, he was suspicious of everything, and
he watched with a gaze that missed no detail. But he seemed to be alone
in such thoughts. The recruits, enjoying the fresh air and the prospect
of speedy freedom, were talking much, and exchanging many jests.

They passed out of the little town, and the last Ned saw of it was the
Mexican women standing in the doorways and watching. They continued
along the road in double file, with the Mexican infantry still on either
side, and the Mexican cavalry in the rear. A half mile from the town,
and Urrea gave an order. The whole procession stopped, and the column of
Mexican infantry on the left passed around, joining their comrades on
the right. The recruits paid no attention to the movement, but Ned
looked instantly at Urrea. He saw the man rise now in his saddle, his
whole face aflame. In a flash he divined everything. His heart leaped
and he shouted:

"Boys, they are going to kill us!"

The startled recruits did not have time to think, because the next
instant Urrea, rising to his full height in his stirrups, cried:

"Fire!"

The double line of Mexicans, at a range of a few yards, fired in an
instant into the column of unarmed prisoners. There was a great blaze, a
spurt of smoke and a tremendous crash. It seemed to Ned that he could
fairly hear the thudding of bullets upon bodies, and the breaking of
bones beneath the sudden fierce impact of the leaden hail. An awful
strangled cry broke from the poor recruits, half of whom were already
down. The Mexicans, reloading swiftly, poured in another volley, and
the prisoners fell in heaps. Then Urrea and the cavalry, with swords and
lances, charged directly upon them, the hoofs of their horses treading
upon wounded and unwounded alike.

Ned could never remember clearly the next few moments in that red and
awful scene. It seemed to him afterward that he went mad for the time.
He was conscious of groans and cries, of the fierce shouting of the
Mexicans, wild with the taste of blood, of the incessant crackling of
the rifles and muskets, and of falling bodies. He saw gathering over
himself and his slaughtered comrades a great column of smoke, pierced by
innumerable jets of fire, and he caught glimpses of the swart faces of
the Mexicans as they pulled triggers. From right and left came the crash
of heavy but distant volleys, showing that the other two columns were
being massacred in the same way.