We knew that some twenty-five miles southward, at La Mula Pass, five
hundred rebel volunteers guarded the only road from Ojinaga through the
mountains. One day a courier sneaked through the Federal lines and
across the river with important news. He said that the military band of
the Federal army had been marching around the country practicing their
music, and had been captured by the Constitutionalists, who stood them
up in the market-place with rifles pointed at their heads, and made them
play twelve hours at a stretch. "Thus," continued the message, "the
hardships of life in the desert have been somewhat alleviated." We
could never discover just how it was that the band happened to be
practicing all alone twenty-two miles from Ojinaga in the desert.