up La Viga to the city. They did not suggest that Ned go with them. He
remained working in the field, and trying to think of some way in which
he could obtain money for a journey. The wind was good, the bergantin
traveled fast, and Benito and his boy returned speedily. Benito greeted
Ned with a grave salute, but said nothing until an hour later, when they
sat by a fire outside the hut, eating the tortillas and frijoles which
Juana had cooked for them.

"What is the news in the capital?" asked Ned.

Benito pondered his reply.

"The President, the protector of us all, the great General Santa Anna,
grows more angry at the Texans, the wild Americans who have come into
the wilderness of the far North," he replied. "They talk of an army
going soon against them, and they talk, too, of a daring escape."

He paused and contemplatively lit a cigarrito.

"What was the escape?" asked Ned, the pulse in his wrist beginning to
beat hard.

"One of the Texans, whom the great Santa Anna holds, but a boy they say
he was, though fierce, slipped between the bars of his window and is
gone. They wish to get him back; they are anxious to take him again for
reasons that are too much for Benito."

"Do you think they will find him?"

"How do I know? But they say he is yet in the capital, and there is a