"
Leslie Branch, whose temper had not improved with the long night
ride, inquired, caustically: "Do you expect us to buy the
groceries? Well, I'm broke, and so is O'Reilly."
"Have you no money?" asked the colonel, vastly surprised.
"I haven't tipped my hat to a dollar since I quit newspaper work.
What's more, I want to do a little shopping for myself."
O'Reilly agreed: "If you don't give us some change, Colonel, we'll
have to open a charge account in your name."
"Carmaba!" muttered Lopez. "I intended to borrow from you
gentlemen. Well, never mind--we'll commandeer what we wish in the
name of the Republic."
Lopez's attack proved a complete surprise, both to the citizens
and to the garrison of the town. The rebel bugle gave the first
warning of what was afoot, and before the Castilian troops who
were loitering off duty could regain their quarters, before the
citizens could take cover or the shopkeepers close and bar their
heavy wooden shutters, two hundred ragged horsemen were yelling
down the streets.
There followed a typical Cuban engagement--ten shouts to one shot.
There was a mad charge on the heels of the scurrying populace, a
scattering pop-pop of rifles, cheers, cries, shrieks of defiance
and far-flung insults directed at the fortinas.
Bugles blew on the hilltops; the defenders armed themselves and
began to fire into the village.
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