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 beard. His manhood seemed to descend on him and revive him, like a cool wind.

"As long as the men know nothing of this thing, they'll make a good fight," Henderson said. "Roberto can't bring more than twenty men against us; you and I alone can hold that many off. We'll tell the men we're saving the cannon for a bigger force, and tonight we'll get the tube open."

"We might do it if we had time," Felipe agreed. "Then we could give it to them—let a hundred come if they can!"

"Call Simon; order up all the idle men and put them to work with mattocks and shovels entrenching to flank the cannon. I'm going to commandeer all the guns and ammunition I can find—I know there must be a dozen good shotguns among the paid men on this ranch."

"Yes, there are shotguns," Felipe said. "I didn't have them bring the shotguns because I didn't consider the use of them in war exactly ethical."

"This isn't a matter of ethics—it's one of saving our necks."

"Since the cannon is useless, we are driven to them," Felipe said, as if he excused their extremity to somebody who had questioned the act.

Felipe was hitnself again. He ordered Simon to him with loud and commanding voice, startling the others under arms out of their close talk in the shade of the warehouse wall, where they speculated in low tones on the result of the parley with