. An archer with Columbus;. Therewas a strange humming sound in the airaround them. Whats that ? cried Diego, startled. Ha, ha! laughed Tortosa grimly, Ihave heard that sound before. Ride, boys,ride as fast as you can. Looking across the ravine, they saw thewhole party of smugglers in swift pursuit,headed by Vascona and the chief, who hadjust fired his arquebuse. Tortosa and the boys urged their muleson, but the Superiors animals were unusedto long and severe journeys, and they werealready tired out. It was plain that theywould be overtaken very quickly. They had now entered the vast and pre-c
. An archer with Columbus;. Therewas a strange humming sound in the airaround them. Whats that ? cried Diego, startled. Ha, ha! laughed Tortosa grimly, Ihave heard that sound before. Ride, boys,ride as fast as you can. Looking across the ravine, they saw thewhole party of smugglers in swift pursuit,headed by Vascona and the chief, who hadjust fired his arquebuse. Tortosa and the boys urged their muleson, but the Superiors animals were unusedto long and severe journeys, and they werealready tired out. It was plain that theywould be overtaken very quickly. They had now entered the vast and pre-cipitous gorge, and, looking back as theywound around the gigantic cliffs, they sawthe smugglers riding fast and gaining onthem at every step. Suddenly Felix pulled up, and jumpedfrom his mule. Diego, who was in a great 104 AX ARCHER WITH COLUMBUS. panic, rode on at full speed, but Tortosa,with soldierly instinct, halted to see whatwas the matter. They will catch us at this rate, Tortosa,shouted Felix. lam going to blockade. the road; but you ride on with Diego andguard the charts. Tortosa hesitated. He did not like theplan. Ride on! ride on!- yelled Felix, whohad sprung upon the steep bank and wasfuriously rolling huge rocks down into theroad. You cant do any good Diego and the charts ! THE PURSUIT. 105 Tortosa was accustomed to obey rode on, and left the courageous boy athis task. Having rolled down all the availablerocks, Felix took a small axe that hung athis saddle-bow, and chopped two or threeyoung pines so that they fell down acrossthe road, thoughstill hanging to thestumps. He now heard theclatter of the smug-glers horses near athand. His barrier,if not defended,could be quickly re-moved. He led hismule behind a pro-jecting point of rock which would partially protect him fromshots. Then he seized his crossbow andplaced an arrow on the string, just asthe pursuers appeared around the nearestturn, and rode down upon his rude barri-cade.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectcolumbuschristopher
