ready to snipe us from there. Besides, probably a smaller party
has been sent from the flankers to lie in wait and get us as we
go through the lagoon. It's a bad trap, Mr. Carmody, and we must
move slowly, if we wish to get away with our lives."

While they stood watching, Riley's handful of men came running to
the spot.

At the same moment shots rang out from the roof of the sugar mill.

"There we are!" Darrin exclaimed. "And men on a roof are the
hardest to hit."

In a jiffy a yell rose from the flankers, who now rose and came
charging forward across some four hundred feet of intervening
space.

"Give 'em the Colt, Corporal!" Ensign Darrin roared.

There was a yell of rage from the Mexicans as the machine gun
barked forth. With the muzzle describing an arc of several degrees,
many of the flankers were hit. The others threw themselves flat
on the ground to escape its destructive fire.

From the mill another score of charging Mexicans had started,
yelling in Spanish:

"Death to the Gringos."

Leaping forward, Darrin felt a sudden sting of pain in his right