"I wish to talk with you, Señor, on a matter of great importance to us
both. Let me in."
"Who are you?" again came in inquiry, though the father knew well that
this was the man who had caused him so much heartache that day.
"I am General Fernando Gonzales, and if you do not admit me without
further talk I will shoot you," and a long-barreled revolver was shoved
ominously through the opening into the face of the consul, who fell back
into the dimly lighted hall. In a moment the General and six followers
rushed in, well pleased over the success of their operations thus far.
Was it a sudden draft of wind which closed the door so softly behind
them? Gonzales never had time nor thought to inquire, for suddenly the
large room became a blaze of light, and he found himself staring into
the leveled muzzles of six gun barrels in the hands of Dorlan’s men.
"Hands up, ye spalpeens!" called out the voice of the Corporal, and
though not a man there understood his words they did understand the
menace in the voice, and in a twinkling there were fourteen dirty brown
and black hands held tremblingly aloft.
[Illustration: "HANDS UP!"]
"Take them guns and knives, and throw them in the corner, me lad," now
ordered Dorlan, and Henry began to disarm the rebels. It was then that
the leader Gonzales, knowing what would be his fate if he were turned
over to the government troops, made a break for liberty.
Although he put up his hands with the rest he still held in his right
hand the revolver he had carried on entering. Now with a wild yell the
negro half-breed fired one shot into the air, another in the general
direction of the Consul, and as he dashed for a window near by he fired
the remaining four shots at the marines lined up across the hall. On
reaching the window he unhesitatingly jumped through the flimsy lattice
work which guarded it, and was running across the lawn before the house.
The sudden attack of the negro so surprised most of the marines, who
were not looking for any active resistance after the men had thrown up
their hands, that there was an appreciable moment of inactivity which
held back their fire. But not so with Henry, for with the first shot of
the rebel chief, the trumpeter had pulled his automatic from the
holster, and as Gonzales jumped through the window he fired two shots.
One of those bullets found a resting place in the fleshy part of the
native’s leg. The impetus of Gonzales’ rush carried him on, but now he
stumbled and called upon his followers hidden in the bushes to come to
his assistance. Again he stumbled, this time falling headlong into a
flower bed. As he attempted to rise, a figure in khaki rose in front of
him; there was the flash of a clubbed rifle, then the weapon descended
with crushing force on the general’s skull, and he sank to the ground.
The days of General Fernando Gonzales as a rebel chief were ended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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