her would
have killed."

Dave nodded his head in assent, adding:

"Leave him. Our work is to keep the point moving."

When they had gone a quarter of a mile further, a sound of firing
attracted the attention of the American detachment.

"Lieutenant Trent's compliments, sir," panted a breathless messenger,
saluting, "and you will turn down the next corner, Ensign, and
march toward the firing."

After a few minutes Dave sighted a large building ahead. He did
not know the building, then, but learned afterwards that it was
the Hotel Diligencia.

Almost as soon as Darrin perceived the building, snipers on its
roof espied the Navy men.

Cr-r-rack! The brisk fire that rang out from the roof of the
hotel was almost as regular as a volley of shots would have been.

Darrin ordered his men to keep close to the buildings on either
side of the street, and to return the fire as rapidly as good
shooting permitted.

"Drive 'em from that roof," was Darrin's order.

Lieutenant Trent arrived on the double-quick with the rest of
the detachment.

"Give it to 'em, hot and heavy!" ordered Trent, and instantly
sixty rifles were in action.

Suddenly a window, a some distance down the street from the Americans
opened, and a man thrust a rifle out, taking aim. That rifle never
barked, for Dave, with a single shot from his revolver, sent the
would-be marksman reeling back.

"Watch that window, Riley, and fire if a head appears there," Dave
directed. "There may be others in that room."

Cat-like in his watchfulness, Riley kept the muzzle of his weapon
trained on that window.

"Look out overhead!" called Danny Grin, suddenly.

From the roofs of three houses overlooking the naval detachment
fire opened instantly after the warning. Two of the "_Long Island's_"
men dropped, one of them badly wounded.

Then the sailormen returned the fire. Two Mexicans dropped to
the street, one shot through the head; the other wounded in the
chest. Other Mexicans had been seen to stagger, and were probably
hit. Thereafter a dozen seamen constantly watched the roofs close
at hand, occasionally "getting" a Mexican.

"I know what I would do, if I had authority," Darrin muttered
to his superior. "I'd send back for dynamite, and, whenever we
were fired on from a house I'd bring it down in ruins."

It was a terrible suggestion, but being fired upon from overhead
in a city makes fighting men savage.

Evidently the Mexicans on the hotel r