as to be in a kind of animal condition of spirit, knowing just enough to
submit at once to the impulse of an imperious voice. The riderless horse,
equally frightened and equally subordinate, was hurried to the rear of the
leading wagon and handed over to a muleteer.

By the time this work was done the foremost riders of the assailants were
within two hundred yards of the head of the train, letting drive their
arrows at the flying Mexican vedettes and uttering yells fit to raise the
dead, while their comrades behind, whooping also, stormed along under a
trembling and flickering of lances. The little, lean, wiry horses were
going at full speed, regardless of smooth faces of rock and beds of loose
stones. The blackguards were over a hundred in number, all lancers and
archers of the first quality.

The vedettes never pulled up until they were in rear of the hindermost
wagon, while their countrymen on the flanks and rear made for the same
poor shelter. The drivers were crouching almost under their seats, and the
muleteers were hiding behind their animals. Thus it was evident that the
entire brunt of the opening struggle would fall upon Thurstane and his
people; that, if there was to be any resistance at all, these five men
must commence it, and, for a while at least, "go it alone."

The little squad of regulars, at this moment a few yards in front of the
foremost wagon, was drawn up in line and standing steady, precisely as if
it were a company or a regiment. Sergeant Meyer was on the right, veteran
Kelly on the left, the two recruits in the centre, the pieces at a
shoulder, the bayonets fixed. As Thurstane rode up to this diminutive line
of battle, Meyer was shouting forth his sharp and decisive orders. They
were just the right orders; excited as the young officer was, he
comprehended that there was nothing to change; moreover, he had already