"Now, _keep_ your distance," warned the Army boy, coolly returning his sword to its scabbard.

"Surely we can draw some steel of our own, friends," muttered one of the Mexicans. "If this soldier boy resists us again, or places his hand to his sword, let every man among us draw his own steel and rush in over his body!"

Hal heard and comprehended, perfectly, but his orders had been not to let the Mexicans see that he understood their talk. So he stood there, smiling coolly.

"Peace, friends, for a moment," broke in another Mexican, speaking in Spanish. "Then, if this young _soldado_ does not yield, it will be time to rush over him. If we finish him, no one can afterwards swear whose knife did the deed. After that the same thrust for his captain."

Again Hal Overton comprehended, but he glanced, in cool inquiry, at the speaker as that fellow stepped forward.

"See here, soldier," began the Mexican, speaking fluently in English, "Don Pedro has invited us into this barn. You have no lawful right to stop us."

"I won't argue that with you," the young lieutenant answered steadily.

"But you will have to let us pa.s.s. We are going inside. So why should you take a lot of blows that you need not receive? And my countrymen are excitable, some of them. I do not know that one or two of them could be restrained from using a knife on you."

"They'll know more afterward, if they try it," laughed Hal, as though the situation amused him. "But I would advise your friends not to try it. You and they are going to move back, now, and thereafter any man who gets within ten feet of me I am going to run through with my sword."

Hal tapped the hilt of his weapon lightly, then started to push the rabble back. There were many mutterings. Lieutenant Overton did not know at what instant he might feel the sharp p.r.i.c.k of steel. If he felt any fear of such a fate nothing in his cool smile betrayed him. The crowd fell back, though there was no a.s.surance that their smouldering wrath might not flame up at any moment. Hal's life still hung on a thread. A breath, and these sullen, excitable men would hurl themselves upon him.

In the meantime, Guarez, realizing that his friends might not come immediately to his a.s.sistance, had scowlingly followed Captain Foster to the haymow. That officer picked up a pitchfork and began to prod the hay.

"I forbid this!" cried Guarez, in a deep, dramatic voice. Captain Foster paid no heed. Soon the captain drove his implement through the hay, and against something that gave back a resistance like that of soft pine.

With a skill that he had acquired as a boy on a farm the captain began to pitch the hay.

"Stop! You have no right!" thundered the Mexican. But Captain Foster had uncovered two packing cases and continued energetically with his work.

"Will you stop?" howled the Mexican, advancing upon the man in uniform.

"No," returned Foster briefly. "I'm here on business."

"Come in, my friends!" howled Pedro Guarez. "Never mind the young tailor's model at the door."

The Mexicans outside heard, and the appeal frenzied them. Four or five started toward the barn-door, the rest closing in behind them.

Swish! Lieutenant Hal's sword was again in the air.

"Who wants to come first?" demanded the Army boy dryly.

The rabble paused, then crowded back slowly. There was something in Hal Overton's cold, steady, masterful eyes that awed them more than any fears of their own.

Captain Foster tossed and threw hay with a will until he had uncovered a compact pile of small packing cases.

"Sixty," he announced, after a quick estimation. "And each case, Guarez, contains ten rifles. Six hundred in all--enough with which to equip quite a respectable _insurrecto_ regiment on the other side of the Rio Grande."

"There are no rifles there, nothing with which to make war," snarled the fellow.

"I accept your statement, with reservations," replied Foster dryly.

"Even though they were rifles, the United States law does not forbid one to buy or sell guns," insisted the Mexican.

"No; but it does forbid your shipping them over the border," rejoined the captain.

"But I have not attempted to ship anything over the border."

"Nor will you, Guarez. I might continue my search, and unearth other rifles, or perhaps cartridges. But I know enough for my purpose, and I am through here."

Captain Foster turned and left the mow, followed by the owner of the place.

"Come, Mr. Overton," ordered the company commander, stepping to the side of his junior officer. The a.s.sembled Mexicans followed them with flashing eyes.

Out in the street Captain Foster espied an American cowboy in the near distance. Shouting, the captain attracted the attention of the man, who galloped up.

"Do you know where my men are encamped?" inquired Foster.

"Sure," nodded the cowboy.

"Will you do me the very great favor of taking a note to the officer in command at the camp?"

"Sure," nodded the cowboy, with the same brevity.

Captain Foster hastily wrote the note, handing it to the man in saddle.

"This talk-talk paper will be at your camp in less'n five minutes,"

volunteered the horseman. "You going to remain here. Captain, for a little while?"

"Yes."

"Then look out, or some of the Greasers will play jack-knife with you.

They're just aching for trouble, Cap."

The cowboy was gone in a cloud of dust. Captain Foster and his lieutenant did not again attempt to enter Guarez's yard, but the older officer whispered something that made the younger officer smile.

Some twenty minutes later Sergeant Raney, of Hal's platoon, turned the nearest corner and marched down the street at the head of a file of twelve soldiers.

"Sergeant," announced Captain Foster, "there are at least six hundred rifles in that barn. I have no legal right to seize the guns while they lie there. You will camp here and mount guard."

"If any attempt is made to move the cases you will send men with them to make sure that they do not go to the river. If any attempt be made to send the cases away in small lots, so as to split your detachment, you will then signal the camp with the rockets that you have brought with you."

"Very good, sir."

"Pitch camp at once, and maintain watch over that barn day and night."

"Very good, sir."

An ominous growl ascended from the Mexicans, who had overheard. But, with a quiet smile at his lieutenant, Captain Foster walked away, remarking:

"They have guns enough there, Mr. Overton, but we've spiked 'em."

"But I suppose, sir, that the Mexicans may have other rifles at other points not so far from here."