"Now it happened when this news came Colonel Weede was in Nogales
with his staff, an' the officer left in charge didn't know how to
proceed. Rojas's camp was across the line in Mexico, an' ridin'
over there was serious business. It meant a whole lot more than
just scatterin' one Greaser camp. It was what had been botherin'
more'n one colonel along the line. Thorne's feller soldiers was
anxious to get him out of a bad fix, but they had to wait for
orders.
"When Nell found out Thorne was bein' starved an' beat in a dobe
shack no more'n two mile across the line, she shore stirred up
that cavalry camp. Shore! She told them soldiers Rojas was
holdin' Thorne--torturin' him to make him tell where Mercedes was.
She told about Mercedes--how sweet an' beautiful she was--how
her father had been murdered by Rojas--how she had been hounded
by the bandit--how ill an' miserable she was, waitin' for her lover.
An' she begged the cavalrymen to rescue Thorne.
"From the way it was told to me I reckon them cavalrymen went up
in the air. Fine, fiery lot of young bloods, I thought, achin' for
a scrap. But the officer in charge, bein' in a ticklish place,
still held out for higher orders.
"Then Nell broke loose. You-all know Nell's tongue is sometimes
like a choya thorn. I'd have give somethin' to see her work up
that soldier outfit. Nell's never so pretty as when she's mad.
An' this last stunt of hers was no girly tantrum, as Beldin' calls
it.
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