from Diamond
X.

There was nothing very spectacular about this fight. Little of it
could have been seen by an observer, if you except the spurts of smoke
from unseen guns and the echoes caused by the shots. For each man, on
both sides, was firing from cover. The Yaquis had the advantage that
their cover--a big wall of rock--sheltered many of them in an almost
straight line, and they could fire in volleys on signal, while the
soldiers and cowboys had to fire individually and at odd times, as they
made their way from one sheltering stone to another.

Thus the Yaquis could concentrate their fire on one man if they had a
glimpse of some incautiously exposed arm or leg, while no one soldier
could hope to inflict much damage on a crowd of Indians behind a thick
stone wall.

But the fight was not so unequal as seemed at first sight. For while
the Yaquis were strongly entrenched, they were outnumbered--of that
there was little doubt. And they were fighting picked men, who had
been in many dangerous skirmishes and fights, whereas the Indians were
at best but a sort of brigand bushwhackers.

Each side was desperate, perhaps the Indians more so, for they must
have realized that they would be given short shrift if any harm now
came to Rosemary and Floyd. The soldiers and cowboys would not
hesitate to take swift and sure vengeance. So the Indians must fight
to the bitter end, selling their lives as dearly as possible.

"I just wonder if Rosemary and Floyd are up in that nest of beggars?"
mused Bud, as he and his cousins were at last allowed to proceed up the
defile, toward where the Yaquis were making their last stand. Bud had
begged so hard to be allowed to go to the front, to at least help his
cousins load their weapons if nothing else, that permission had been
granted.

The boy ranchers were close together now, each sheltered behind a rock,
and almost in line with the foremost of the attackers who were under
the shadow of the natural fort, behind the wall of which the Yaquis
were making their last stand.

"I hope they are up there," said Nort, answering Bud's question. "If
they brought them this far they probably wouldn't do away with them
now. They must be up there!"

"I wish we had them down here," said Dick. "It's going to be hard work
to get the imps out of their den!"

"You supplied two good earfuls that time, kid!" said Rolling Stone.
"Ah, you will, will you!" he added quickly, and he fired at an exp