The Boy Aviators in Nicaragua; or, In League with the Insurgents

LEAGUED WITH INSURGENTS

Some six hours after the work of debarkation had commenced it – in spite of the obstacles – was finished and the task of setting up camp was begun. By nightfall General Ruiz had installed his forces on an upland about half-a-mile back from the seacoast as the night-air among the coast-hugging mangrove swamps is very poisonous and a great breeder of fevers. He had, the boys found, quite a respectable equipment, consisting – besides his actual force, all of whom were armed with rifles of more or less use and modern type – of two doctors, both of whom held commissions as captains; a field telegraph outfit and four telegraphers; two machine-firing guns and three mule guns, besides some heavier field-guns of a less up-to-date pattern. Altogether, except for the dilapidated state of his men, General Ruiz was fairly well provided with the implements of modern warfare.

Ruiz himself, and his staff officers, had their tents pitched apart from the main camp and one of the latter insisted on giving up his sleeping quarters to the boys, much against their wills; but he was so insistent that they seemed more likely to offend him by refusal than by accepting his offer, so that night found them snugly ensconced in a comfortable tent equipped with two neat cots, covered with gray army-blankets, and hung with mosquito netting to keep out the myriad insect pests of the tropics.

Long after the supper had been despatched in the general’s tent and good-nights said, the boys talked over the situation. It was a novel one. Through the open flap of their tent they could see the ragged sentries pacing up and down, and, further out in the bush, came the cry of the outposts as from time to time they hailed one another. The men all slept huddled up together under ragged blankets and sacking on the ground at the opposite side of the camp, as the boys could see by their camp-fire glow, round which some of the men were still sitting up and talking.

“We should strike out for La Merced at once;” decided Frank, after the subject of their present situation had been talked over for an hour.

“I agree with you,” replied Harry, “but how are we going to do it? For all we know we might run plump into Rogero’s forces and then we should be in a peck of trouble. No, my advice is to stay with the army a few days, they are marching in our direction anyhow, and then strike off for La Merced when we get within a reasonable distance of it.”

“And poor Billy and Ben Stubbs, what will they think has become of us?” went on Frank.

“They will stay at Plateau Camp for a day or two anyhow,” rejoined Harry, “and at the end of that time they will have to come down into the valley, for their provisions will have given out.”

“That will be pretty nearly as safe for them as walking into a lion’s mouth,” objected Frank. “The country below there must be alive with government troops and they are sure to encounter them.”

“There is nothing we can do till we get back to La Merced, that is certain,” rejoined the philosophical Harry. “It’s no use crossing bridges till we come to them. If the army marches to-morrow we should be at home by the morning of the day after at the latest.”

With this reflection the boys turned in and slept like tops for two hours or so. Their awakening was a startling one. The whole air seemed filled with shouts and yells and there was a scattering sound of shots coming from somewhere in the interior of the jungle.

“It’s a night attack!” shouted Frank, springing up and hastily throwing on his clothes. “Come on, Harry!”

Both boys rushed out of their tent just as General Ruiz came to the door.

“We have been attacked,” he said, “it looks like treachery somewhere. I don’t know how many of them there are; but, so far, we have them in hand.”

“You mean we have beaten them off?” asked Frank.

Ruiz shook his head.

“I am too old a soldier to believe that Rogero would attack me with a handful,” he said. “No, boys, this attack was made by an advance guard to draw our fire and ascertain just how large a force we really have. The real attack will come in a few minutes.”

He was buckling on his sword as he spoke and thrusting his navy revolver into a holster. This completed he held out his hand.

“I must say good-bye, now,” he said briskly, “but only for a short time I hope. It is poor hospitality to rush you into the troubles of the revolutionists, but it cannot be helped.”

With a stiff salute he turned and began issuing rapid orders to his staff, who rushed over as they got them to where the demoralized troops were struggling confusedly for their banked rifles. In a short time something like order had been restored and a corps of men sent out with machetes to clear paths into the high ground where the guns were to be planted.

“He means to plant some guns above there,” pointed Frank, “so as to command the valley when the real attack comes.”

At this moment one of the officers hurried up.

“You had better get to shelter, young gentlemen,” he said, “the trouble will begin in a few minutes and I expect it will be a hot engagement when it starts.”

Frank and Harry shook their heads. To the two high-spirited boys, facing their first taste of real warfare, to be ordered into shelter did not appeal at all.

“Can’t we do something to make ourselves useful?” asked Frank, as a company of men at a silent “double-quick” swung by into the jungle, where the scattering fire that had awakened them had died out.

“If the señors really mean that, I will see the general;” courteously replied the officer, hurrying off.

“We have never smelled powder before,” exclaimed Harry, “and we don’t mean to be sent back to the commissariat when we have a chance to see some real fighting; eh, Frank?”

“Not much,” replied Frank, “of course, I suppose, as American citizens and neutral parties, etc., we ought to sit back with our hands folded; but when I think of the threats Rogero made to father I’d like to get a crack at some of those fellows myself.”

“I’m with you, Frank, old fellow,” cried Harry warmly. “Come on, let’s get on our revolvers and see if the general has anything for two peaceful non-combatants who want to fight.”

As they came out of the tent with their revolvers strapped on and also a rifle each – which they took the liberty of selecting from a rack of arms left in the tent by the officer who had vacated it for them – they felt that they were on the eve of a really exciting experience.

They had walked only a few steps when a figure, that they soon made out to be General Ruiz himself, stepped up to them.

“Captain Alvarez tells me,” he said, “that you young men are pining for action and do not care to sit on the idlers’ bench while we are fighting. Now I have a mission for you.”

“Yes,” chorused Frank and Harry delighted.

“But it is a dangerous one and will require a lot of skill and care to bring it to a successful conclusion.”

The boys begged him to tell them what it was. They assured him that they would not fail in anything he might entrust to them.

“Simply this;” replied General Ruiz, looking them straight in the eyes, “there is a lot of ammunition aboard the ship that I meant to bring ashore to-morrow morning, but it is now imperative, with the turn affairs have taken, that we have it here before many hours. I have not a man in the ranks I dare trust on such a mission and I cannot spare any of my officers. Will you do it?”

Of course the boys said they would. To tell the truth they were rather disappointed. Bringing ammunition ashore was rather more prosaic work than they had bargained for; but still, having promised to be of what aid they could, they could not go back on their words.

“You take one of the boats on the beach,” went on the General – and the boys noticed that he was now the officer addressing his subordinates and not the courteous friend – “and row off to the gunboat. Captain Scheffel will give you the keys to the magazine and you are to bring off as much at a time as you think wise. I wish to remind you, however, that we need the extra ammunition in a hurry.”

“Now,” he continued, in a less official tone, “I shall be answerable to your father for you and I don’t want you to run any unnecessary risks.”

“I don’t see what risks we can run, except from sharks, rowing powder and ammunition ashore in a ship’s lifeboat,” Frank could not forbear saying.

General Ruiz was quick to catch his tone.

“A good soldier’s first duty is to obey,” he said, “no matter how much he may dislike the duty he is assigned to.”

The boys felt the reproof and remained silent.

“And don’t despise this errand because you don’t happen to think there’s any glory in it,” the general went on, “there is danger in it, – a good deal more danger than I feel that I have a right to ask you to run, – but, after all,” he concluded, “you are just as safe there as in the camp.”

The next minute he had gone and the boys started down the trail cut by the machete men, by which the army had advanced from the beach. They knew where the boats were drawn up, under the roots of a giant mangrove, but in the darkness they had some difficulty in finding the exact spot. At last, however, they discovered one of the small craft and Harry leaned over to untie the painter. It was pitchy dark and the man who had knotted the boat’s painter was not a scientific tier of knots.

“Bother it;” exclaimed Harry, fumbling with the knot, “we shan’t get away till daylight at this rate.”

“Here, have some light on the subject,” struck in Frank lighting a match. With the aid of the illumination. It didn’t take Harry long to cast loose and tumble into the boat. Frank, who had been leaning over him as he fumbled with the rope, straightened up and prepared to follow him. The stump of the match was still in his fingers and shed a yellow glow about them. Suddenly, Frank uttered a sharp exclamation. The next minute the match burned his fingers and died out.

“That was funny;” he exclaimed as he took his seat in the boat and both boys gave way with the oars.

“What was funny?” demanded Harry.

“Oh, nothing;” replied Frank, almost shamefacedly, “I suppose it was fancy – must have been in fact. But as that match died out I am almost certain I saw a face part the creepers and peer at me out of the mangroves.”