than to go
unarmed in that country. Curly was telling Mr. Adams that I was
harmless. Indeed, that was true! In the bottom of this cup, target for a
circled rim of rifles, separated from the widely scattered Major and his
men, aware of nothing in particular, and seeing nothing in particular
but smoke and rocks and faces peering everywhere, I walked to a stone
and sat upon it, hypnotized again into a spectator. From this
undisturbed vantage I saw shape itself the theft of the gold--the first
theft, that is; for it befell me later to witness a ceremony by which
these eagles of Uncle Sam again changed hands in a manner that stealing
is as good a name for as any.

They had got two mules killed, so that there could be no driving away in
a hurry, and I saw that killing men was not a part of their war, unless
required as a means to their end. Major Pidcock had spared them this
necessity; I could see him nowhere; and with him to imitate I need not
pause to account for the members of our dismounted escort. Two soldiers,
indeed, lay on the ground, the sergeant and another, who had evidently
fired a few resisting shots; but let me say at once that these poor
fellows recovered, and I saw them often again through this adventure
that bound us together, else I could not find so much hilarity in my
retrospect. Escort wagon and ambulance stood empty and foolish on the
road, and there lay the ingenious stone all by itself, and the carbines
all by themselves foolish in the wagon, where the innocent soldiers had
left them on getting out to move the stone. Smoke loitered thin and blue
over this now exceedingly quiet scene, and I smelt it where I sat. How
secure the robbers had felt themselves, and how reckless of
identification! Mid-day, a public road within hearing of a ranch, an
escort of a dozen regulars, no masks, and the stroke perpetrated at the
top of a descent, contrary to all laws of road agency. They swarmed into
sight from their ramparts. I cannot tell what number, but several I had
never seen before and never saw again; and Mr. Adams and yellow and
black curly looked so natural that I wondered if Jenks and the Bishop
would come climbing down too. But no more old friends turned up that
day. Some went to the ambulance swift and silent, while others most
needlessly stood guard. Nothing was in sight but my seated inoffensive
form, and the only sound was, somewhere among the rocks, the voice of
the incessant negress speeding through h