g
of guns. I felt that I was being strangled.

A bright object glistened before my eyes. I felt myself seized by a
strong, rough hand, and swung into the air and rudely shaken, as if in
the grasp of some giant's arm.

Something twitched me sharply over the cheeks. I heard the rustling of
trees. Branches snapped and crackled, and leaves swept across my face.
Then came the flash--flash, and the crack--crack--crack of a dozen
rifles, and under their blazing light I was dashed a second time with
violence to the earth.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. Troop of guerillas, who in Spanish are properly _guerilleros_.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

THE RESCUE.

"Rough handlin', Cap'n. Yer must excuse haste."

It was the voice of Lincoln.

"Ha! in the timber? Safe, then!" ejaculated I in return.

"Two or three wounded--not bad neither. Chane has got a stab in the
hip--he gin the feller goss for it. Let me louze the darned thing off
o' your neck. It kum mighty near chokin' yer, Cap'n."

Bob proceeded to unwind the noose end of a lazo that, with some six feet
of a raw hide thong, was still tightly fastened around my neck.

"But who cut the rope?" demanded I.

"I did, with this hyur toothpick. Yer see, Cap'n, it warn't yer time to
be hung just yet."

I could not help smiling as I thanked the hunter for my safety.

"But where are the guerilleros?" asked I, looking around, my brain still
somewhat confused.

"Yander they are, keepin' safe out o' range o' this long gun. Just
listen to 'em!--what a hillerballoo!"

The Mexican horsemen were galloping out on the prairie, their arms
glistening under the clear moonlight.

"Take to the trees, men!" cried I, seeing that the enemy had again
unlimbered, and were preparing to discharge their howitzer.

In a moment the iron shower came whizzing through the branches without
doing any injury, as each of the men had covered his body with a tree.
Several of the mules that stood tied and trembling were killed by the
discharge.

Another shower hurtled through the bushes, with a similar effect.

I was thinking of retreating farther into the timber, and was walking
back to reconnoitre the ground, when my eye fell upon an object that
arrested my attention. It was the body of a very large man lying flat
upon his face, his head buried among the roots of a good-sized tree.
The arms were stiffly pressed against his side, and hi