ed, and the "extras" had choice tit-bits of sensation for
that afternoon. The mysterious threat of an impending raid was enlarged
upon, too, and to calm the public, as well as impress "the other side of
the river," it was decided to have a great parade of troops through the
town. A day was settled upon to be called "Army Day"; but meanwhile,
precautions were taken to guard against any "surprise coup," such as had
been carried out across the Rio Grande at Juarez by a few
Constitutionalists against Federals, one night some months before.

The crowds who had been out to stare at the concentration camp, peopled
with dark-faced thousands of men, women, and children, trailed in
procession as near as they were allowed to approach the field guns
placed on a bare, brown eminence whence their long noses pointed grimly
across the river. There were six of these guns the day I saw them, all
guns of Captain March's battery; but owing to their alignment, and the
position of El Paso's few skyscrapers between this hill and the river,
only four of the guns would threaten destruction to any buildings in the
town, in case the artillery had to be brought into action.

The other two could be fired in the unlikely event of a disturbance, it
was believed, without danger to American property. I heard this, with
lots of other exciting details of the preparations going on, from Tony
Dalziel, who thought--whether rightly or wrongly--that he could chat to
me on the one great subject of interest without indiscretion. He told me
among other things, that if fire had to be opened on Juarez, just across
the river, he understood from talk he heard that these two comparatively
innocuous guns would alone be used at first. If the damage they did on
the opposite side were enough to force the enemy to capitulate in haste,
the other four guns would remain silent, and El Paso intact. But, said
Tony (and his fellow officers said the same), in spite of the persistent
rumour of a raid, it was almost certain now that there would be no
trouble. It was whispered that because Americans had given sanctuary to
Federal troops in flight, and for other reasons not so widely known,
General Carranza had wanted to organize an attack on the United States
frontier across the Rio Grande, temptingly shrunken by a long drought;
but it was reported at the same time that General Villa had forcibly
opposed the suggestion, and it was very improbable that any serious
attempt would be m