"'I did,' says I. 'At first I thought it was drums. But it wasn't; it
was snoring. Everybody in town's asleep.'
"O'Connor tears out his watch.
"'Fools!' says he. 'They've set the time right at the siesta hour when
everybody takes a nap. But the cannon will wake 'em up. Everything will
be all right, depend upon it.'
"Just at twelve o'clock we heard the sound of a cannon--BOOM!--shaking
the whole town.
"O'Connor loosens his sword in its scabbard and jumps for the door. I
went as far as the door and stood in it.
"People were sticking their heads out of doors and windows. But there
was one grand sight that made the landscape look tame.
"General Tumbalo, the comandante, was rolling down the steps of his
residential dugout, waving a five-foot sabre in his hand. He wore his
cocked and plumed hat and his dress-parade coat covered with gold braid
and buttons. Sky-blue pajamas, one rubber boot, and one red-plush
slipper completed his make-up.
"The general had heard the cannon, and he puffed down the sidewalk
toward the soldiers' barracks as fast as his rudely awakened two hundred
pounds could travel.
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