BORDER SEARCH 23

eppi had returned from the far reaches of the elias rancho. he had fiften good , hardened vaqueros with him. as they approached the hacienda he ran right into the revolutionst patrol. eppi seeing he was vastly out numbered decided discretion the better part of valor and made a run for the border. a running gun battle insued. but as he drew near to the border he then met the balance of the army. he was trapped. he and his men dismounted and killed their horses makeing a fort to fight from. by then there was only twelve left in his group. the revolutionists stopped just out of rifle range . they knew they could over run the vaqueros but at what cost. at the hacienda elias had watched the whole battle, he saw the hand writting on the wall and began putting gold and silver coin in a bag. then followed it with clothes and other valuables. he watched out side for any one watching. when he saw no one he slipped to the stable and saddled a horse. still no one had appeared. he tied his bag to the back of his saddle. makeing one more cursory look and seeing no one he led his horse out from the stable and mounted. knowing the way to ruby was closed he turned toward sasabe. keeping to a soft walk so as not to stir up any dust he moved off. behind his fort of horseflesh eppi lay watching the army. the vaqueros wernt for staying and fighting. they thought if they surrendered and joind the army they would be spared. eppi argued that they wouldnt be accepted. but finall they threw thier rifles out and raising thier hands started walking toward the army. eppi called for them to come back, but as the twelve men approached the army a fusilade of rifle fire leveled the men. dureing that altercation eppi had slipped out the back side of the ring of dead horses and was running through the brush. he figgured he was a quarter mile from the border. he could run that easily.the mesquite and catclaw tore at him as he ran he droppedhis rifle as it was getting caught in the brush as he ran. out of breath he ran across the border while behind him he could hear horses comming at a dead run. he ran on knowing the border wouldnt stop the men chaseing him, thier blood was hot with killing. he ran into a clearing and there before him a mine shaft opened up. he fell into it and crawled as far back into as he could. the horse men thundered by. eppi realized he was holding his breath and let it out with a whoosh. men chaseing eppi arrived at the outskirts of ruby. they found them selves looking down the barrels of many rifles, pistols and shotguns. one scrawny mexican wasnt worth the cost they would pay. they turned and retreated to mexico. as they neared the border in the distance they could see a coloum of smoke riseing from the elias hacienda. the rest of the army was makeing a clean sweep of elias s holdings.