The pair in the fort were holding their fire, sending, however, an occasional well-placed bullet. From where I was, I could see the dust rise up near one of the crawling figures.
I carried a small pocket telescope with me, one that had a small field but a great deal of power. I used it occasionally to trace formations with. Bill Ordway had evidently figured a telescope wouldn’t do very much harm. He hadn’t bothered to take it. I got it out, and in the dying light focused it on the field of battle.
What I saw didn’t give me any additional information. I could see that Sally Ehlers was taking care of the east end of the fort, George Ringley of the west end. As I looked through the telescope, I could see an occasional flick of dust where a bullet struck, or see powder fly from one of the rocks in the fort.
Looking over Big Bill Ordway’s gang, I figured he must have six or seven in all, which was more than I’d figured him for. Some of the gang must have kept out of sight when he picked me up.
I could see that Bill Ordway was getting his men placed in strategic positions. Under cover of darkness, they could work in to the fort, but there’d only be about half an hour of darkness after the sun went down, and before the moon came up. They’d have to work quickly.
On the other hand, it was certain that Ringley and Sally Ehlers weren’t getting anywhere. They were simply holding themselves in a state of siege. But, of course, Bill Ordway didn’t know how long they could hold out.
While I was watching the battle, I saw a figure wave his hand two or three times, then two other figures started over toward him. I shifted the little telescope and saw that the man who had given the signal was Big Bill Ordway. The pair came over to him, and they had a short conference. Then the two started walking back toward the north, slipping from cover to cover at first, until they were pretty much out of range of the pair in the fort, and then coming out into the open, walking rapidly.
I couldn’t figure that for a minute, and then all at once, the explanation struck me.
Ordway was afraid that I was going to get back to Blythe, pick up some men who would stand back of me, and come back into the desert. If they hadn’t jumped the claims by the time I returned, the men would find themselves out of luck. Therefore, Ordway had sent these two men to follow on my trail and ambush me at the first opportunity.
I sensed then that Sally Ehlers had decided that she was going to make enough racket with the firearms to bring me to the ground, knowing that when I heard the shooting, I would realize that she had, for some reason, violated the instructions I had given her.
I couldn’t figure just what the reason for that violation was, but I had enough confidence in her and her judgment to know that she was doing what was right.
Having brought me to the scene of the conflict, she was continuing to shoot from time to time in order to keep the others at their distance, and to let me see exactly what the situation was. Obviously, therefore, she expected me to do just what Bill Ordway expected me to do — go as rapidly as possible to some of the towns in the Palo Verde Valley, notify the authorities and bring them back with me.
But could they hold out until that time?
I doubted it.
The moon would be rising some forty-five minutes later every night. After two nights, the interval of darkness would be amply sufficient to enable Bill Ordway to get his gang together and to rush the defenders. I couldn’t possibly make it to Blythe and back in time to keep that from happening.
I decided, therefore, that before I took any definite steps, I’d find out something about what was going on, so I started looking around, using the telescope and shifting my position from time to time. Before it got dark, I had discovered several things. One of them was that the men had dumped all of their provisions by their burros, and that their burros were located in a little wash down by the foot of a butte. There was no one guarding their base of supplies.
I started working against approaching darkness, moving around toward the place where they maintained their base of supplies. The gang were fully occupied with the business in hand. I got to within about a hundred and twenty-five yards of the place without being detected. I nestled behind a rock, got my rifle pressed against my cheek. It was pretty hard to see with the leaf sights, but I put up the peep sight and got a good bead on the pile of canteens.
The canteens jumped and jiggled as the bullets crashed into them. Six shots and the water supply of Bill Ordway’s gang was pretty much ruined.
The peculiar thing was that no one paid any attention to what was happening. Rifles were banging all around in a brisk fusillade, and apparently every one of the gang took it for granted that the shots were being fired by some other member of the gang.
I reloaded the rifle, slipped back from behind my rock, worked down a slope and started circling so that I could get into a position where I could help Sally Ehlers and George Ringley if it became necessary.
Darkness settled rapidly, and I knew that Ordway would try a rush if he could do it before the moon came up.
I managed to get a good place of concealment down behind a little bunch of rocks. And I flattened out so that I was as close to the ground as possible.
VI
Night Tactics
It gets dark rapidly in the desert. The stars began to appear. The western heavens showed a glow of light, but darkness was settling on the desert like a thick blanket.
I lay looking up at the bright patch of sky, and suddenly saw something move. A moment later I saw the form of a man crouched low, moving along the little ridge which communicated with the slope on which the defenders had made their fort.
Back of the first figure came another and then another.
I nestled my gun against my shoulder, didn’t try to use the sights, but shot entirely by the feel of the weapon.
I pulled the trigger. The big gun jarred into recoil, and, spitting orange flame, shot lead into the night.
That first shot came as a surprise. I flung two more at the attackers before they suddenly realized that they had been outflanked. I doubt, at the time, if they thought I had doubled back to assist the defenders, but they figured that Sally Ehlers or George Ringley had left the little fortress, under cover of darkness, and had moved out to intercept them.
There was a sudden fusillade of shots, little pinpricking bursts of flame which showed red and angry in the darkness. Bullets whizzed overhead, spatted against the rocks or zoomed off into space with long whining screams.
I heard the sound of footsteps pounding along the ground as the men charged.
I didn’t lose my head as a novice at night fighting might have done, and return the fire. Nor did I arise to meet the charge. I simply pressed myself flat against the desert and lay there.
The men had been almost a hundred and fifty yards off when I fired my shots. Charging a hundred and fifty yards through darkness isn’t a thing that’s easily done, particularly when one is not certain that one’s enemy will remain in any certain place.
Before the men had come fifty yards I heard the jarring impact of one of them falling to the earth as he stubbed his toe on a rock. Another crashed into a patch of cacti, and as the needles pierced his legs he let out a yell of pain. The others were swinging to one side, their charge stopped of sheer inertia before they had reached the place where I lay concealed. I heard them muttering cautious comments, then huddling together for a conference. It was possible for me to hear every word they said.