that the men with me thought the Gatlings had reopened on us, and ran
for cover.

That left me about fifty feet from the barricade, and as it seemed a
toss-up whichever way I went I kept going forward. I caught the
combing of the embrasure with my hands, stuck my toes between the
stones, and scrambled to the top. The scene inside was horrible. The
place looked like a slaughter-yard. Only three men were still on their
legs; the rest were heaped around the guns. I threatened the three men
with my revolver, but they shrieked for mercy and I did not fire. The
men in the belfries, however, were showing no mercy to me, so I
dropped inside the wall and crawled for shelter beneath a caisson.
But, I recognized on the instant that I could not remain there. It was
the fear of the Gatlings only which was holding back our men, and I
felt that before I was shot they must know that the guns were jammed.
So I again scrambled up to the barricade, and waved my hat to them to
come on. At the same moment a bullet passed through my shoulder, and
another burned my neck, and one of the men who had begged for mercy
beat me over the head with his sword. I went down like a bag of flour,
but before my eyes closed I saw our fellows pouring out of the houses
and sweeping toward me.

About an hour later, when Von Ritter had cleaned the hole in my
shoulder and plastered my skull, I sallied out again, and at sight of
me the men gave a shout, and picked me up, and, cheering, bore me
around the plaza. From that day we were the best of friends, and I
think in time they grew to like me.

Two days later we pitched camp outside of Tegucigalpa, the promised
city, the capital of the Republic.