CHAPTER VIII.
DISOBEDIENCE OF ORDERS Outnumbered, the Americans did not falter.
Save for Hicks, the guide, and the wounded man, the sailors threw themselves automatically to one knee, bringing their rifles to "ready." For a moment Ensign Darrin felt sick at heart.

He was under orders not to fire, to employ no armed force in a way that might be construed as an act of war in the country of another nation.
Yet here were his men being fired upon, one already wounded, and American women and children in danger of losing their lives.
Perhaps it was against orders, as given, but the real military commander is sometimes justified in disregarding orders.
At the first sound of shots all of the sailors, except Hicks, came running back, crouching close to earth.

As soon as they reached the thin little line the men knelt and waited breathlessly.
Dave's resolution was instantly taken.

Though he might hang for his disobedience of orders, he would not tamely submit to seeing his men shot down ruthlessly.
Still less would he permit American women and children to be endangered.
Orders, or no orders--- "Ready, men!" he shouted, above the sharp reports of the Cosetta rifle fire.

"Aim low at the hedge! Fire at will!" Cr-r-r-rack! rang out the American Navy rifles.
Filled with the fighting enthusiasm of the moment, Darrin drew his automatic revolver, firing ten shots swiftly at different points along the hedge.
From behind that screen came cries of pain, for the Mexican is an excitable individual, who does not take his wounds with the calmness evinced by an American.
Another American sailor had dropped.