Boy's Cinema (1935-39)

18 fusillade^—the other three soldiers, the governor and Bowie's remaining com- patriots standing in front of the burn- ing residence and shooting at the rene- gades, who had issued exultantly from cover. Jim Bowie on his part was not con- tent to stand still anil trade lead with the outlaws across an intervening area that measured some forty or fifty yards. A wild light of battle had kindled in his eyes, vivid as the tongues of flamo that were threatening to raze Don Luis' quarters, and his teeth were bared so that they lent an expression of indes- cribable ferocity and mad courage to his features. Indeed, he might have been likened in that moment to some Viking of old—berserk in the deter- mination to slay before he himself was slain. Savagely he rushed towards the muster of gangsters, and, rifle held low, firing from the hip as he ran, he accounted for two of his enemies. Then suddenly realising the weapon in his grasp was empty, he clubbed it in mid-stride and charged on. It seemed miraculous that he had not already fallen dead, struck by an out- law bullet, for the crooks had not been slow to concentrate their gunplay on ■him when he had dashed forward. Yet perhaps because there was something unnerving in the spectacle of his frenzied figure hurtling to the attack, the aim of the renegades was singu- larly inaccurate, and he was within twenty paces of them before a bullet tumbled him to the ground. Even as ho fell, Zamora and his accomplices became aware of a com- motion outside the fort, and all at once the four gangsters who had been left on the watch beyond the gateway scuttled into the courtyard with loud cries of alarm. "Beat it, fellers! The Jamison crowd an' the garrison—they're high- tailin' it straight for the fort! They're comin' up at full stretch, and it looks like Clark Stuart is with 'em!" Such were the shouts raised by the men who had been posted outside the presidio, and Zamora and the other outlaws could scarcely believe their ears on hearing thern. Then panic seizing the rogues, a general rush was made for the gateway—a rush which Zamora made no attempt to stem. In- deed, the dago would have led that precipitate flight if ho had not been restrained for a moment by Macklin. "Wait!" the latter jerked. "We ain't got what we came for, but we'll take sornethin' away with us." He pointed to the figure of Jim Bowie. The veteran scout was struggling to his knees in a dazed fashion, and was fumbling vaguely for his rifle, which had slipped from his fingers and was lying a yard or so in front of him. There was blood in his hair, but the bullet that had dropped him had not injured him seriously— had merely creased him. "That hombre is Bowie," Macklin panted to Zamora, as he indicated the bemused frontiersman, "an' he's about as (lose to Stuart an' Jamison as a brother. We might find him a useful hostage if we took him along with us. Quick, let's pick him up!" Anxious as he was to escape from the presidio, Zamora blundered towards Jim Bowie with Macklin, and the pair of them laid hold of the veteran, who made an attempt to resist but who was lily struck senseless by a blow from the butt of Macklin's forty-five. ■ In another instant Bowie was being dragged towards the gateway, and though his captors were harried by a September 17th, 1988. BOY'S CINEMA burst of shooting from Don Luis and the other survivors of the party which had defended the governor's residence, the smoke that was swirling over the patio tended to spoil the aim of the unconscious scout's friends. Unharmed, Macklin and Zamora hauled their prisoner out of the fort. Meanwhile, their accomplices were making off at top speed, and the Jami- son crowd and the troopers ■who were riding stirrup to stirrup with the Americans from Independence were approaching the scene rapidly. But the newcomers were still some little dis- tance away when Zamora and Macklin flung Bowie over the hack of a spare mount which had belonged to one of the renegades killed in the attack on the presidio, the frontiersman's captors then springing astride their own broncs. Macklin seized the rein of the pony across which Jim Bowie had been thrown, and, Zamora by his side, struck off at full pelt in the direction which the rest of the gang were taking. As for the cavalcade headed by Jami- son, Clark and the captain of the Santa Fe gari-ison, they separated into two bodies, one giving chase to the bandits and pumping lead at the ruffians' flee- ing forms, the other pushing onward for the fortress. Clark and Jamison were among those who bore down on the presidio, neither of them having recognised the uncon- scious man who was in the hands of Zamora and Macklin. They had both been under the impression, in fact, that the figure which had been hoisted athwart, the spare bronc had been that of a wounded outlaw. Jamison's horse, carrying Clark as well as the wagon boss, was the first to enter the courtyard of the fort, and a few seconds afterwards the pair of them were confronting Don Luis Alvarez and the remnants of the little party which had held out against the renegades' onslaught. Dismounting, Clark and Jamison glanced at the huddled bodies of the men who had been shot down by the outlaws. Then the wagon boss addressed himself to tho Governor. "I reckon none of you would 've been left alive, Don Luis," he said, "if Clark Stuart here hadn't met up with us out in tho hills. We mighty soon found out from him we'd been tricked into leavin' Santa Fe, an' we turned back pronto. But where's Jim Bowie? I don't see him around." "Your friend Bowie was carried off by two of those renegades," the Governor answered sombrely, at which piece of news Jamison and Clark looked at each other in dismay. Then the U.S. Government agent found his voice. "And Kit Carson?" he rapped out. "Have those coyotes carried him off as well ?" At that one of the two surviving Americans in Don Luis' party gave vent to an exclamation. "Kit Carson!" he blurted. "Why, no, Clark, the outlaws didn't get him. He must still be inside the Governor's quarters—up in that room there." He indicated the windows of the apartment which the little group of defenders had been forced to evacuate a short time previously, and Clark waited to hear no more. With a hoarse cry on his lips he bounded to the veranda of the burning building, and. hurling himself across the threshold of the residence, ho fought his way through the dense clouds of smoke and ascended tho staircase leading to tho upper floor, where it did not take him long to find the room in which Kit lay. Every Tuesday- Stumbling upon the boy's prone body, Clark gathered the lad in his powerful arms and then retraced his steps dowa to the hallway and the front door, choking and retching as the fumes of the conflagration assailed his throat and lungs with ever-increasing effect. Indeed, ho was almost at tho last gasp by the time he gained the cotut yard, where Jamison and the Governor took charge of the rescued youngster and set themselves to the task of re- viving him. In the meantime the courtyard had become crowded with those men of the returned cavalcade who had followed Clark and the wagon boss to the presidio, and efforts were being made to quench the fire that had broken out in Don Luis' quarters. Nor were those efforts unsuccessful, although more than an hour elapsed before the flames were completely extinguished. By then young Kit Carson had been restored to his senses and was more or less himself again, and he was assur- ing Clark, Jamison and Governor Alvarez that he was none the worse of his experience when the men who had spurred in pursuit of the outlaws were seen cantering towards the fort. They brought with them the dis- appointing intelligence that the bandits had made a clean getaway, owing to the fact that their horses had been con- siderably fresher than the ponies ridden by the supporters of law and order. The crooks, it seemed, had turned east after entering the hill- country to the north, and although tho outdistanced pursuers had done their utmost to stick to the fugitives' trail, they had lost the scent utterly amid the barren mountains. On learning this Don Luis Alvarez looked at Clark Smart gloomily enough. "My friend," he said, "the events of this morning have compelled me to make up my mind on the question of your mission to Santa Fe. I know that we have not had a chance to discuss that mission thoroughly as yer. but under the circumstances it is impossible for me to negotiate any trade treaty with your government on behalf of the Mexican Republic while this province remains exposed to the depredations of these outlaws. "I understand there is a clause in that proposed treaty which refers to a guarantee of adequate protection for American wagon-trains," he said. "And, placed as I am, I cannot take it upon myself to guarantee any such protection in this territory until Dupray and his associates have been stamped out." Clark nodded gravely. "I appreciate all that, your Excellency," he rejoined. "On tlu other hand, it may not be long before the Dupray-Zamora outfit are brought to justice. You see, I know where their hide-out is situated now, and although it's liable to prove a difficult place to storm. I reckon our combined forces ought to be able to take it." The Governor bit his lip. "Our combined forces, eh?" he mur- mured. "Senor, I cannot afford to Bend my garrison into ihe hills again I cannot afford to take that chanct leaving the presidio open to furth.r attack by those outlaws—indeed, leav- ing the whole town at their mercy For you can be sure that if the rene- gades learned Santa Fe had been left practically undefended again they would circle round and repeat the onset they made to-day, and perhaps with more success. No, senor, from now on