The boy acted promptly.  He added two more silver dollars to the amount that he had proffered, put the whole in the old Indian’s palm, took down the serape, folded it over his arm, and with a “gracias, senor,” backed swiftly out of the shop.  The old Indian was too much astonished to move for at least a half minute.  Then tightly clutching the silver in his hand he ran into the street.  But the tall young senor, with the serape already wrapped around his shoulders, was disappearing in the darkness.  The Indian opened his palm and looked at the silver.  A smile passed over his face.  After all, it was two good Spanish dollars more than he had expected, and he returned contentedly to his shop.  If such generous young gentlemen came along every night his fortune would soon be made.

Ned soon left the shop far behind.  It was a fine serape, very large, thick and warm, and he draped himself in it in true Mexican fashion.  It kept him warm, and, wrapped in its folds, he looked much more like a genuine Mexican.  He had but little money left, but among the more primitive people beyond the capital one might work his way.  If suspected he could claim to be English, and Mexico was not at war with England.

He bought a sombrero at another shop with almost the last of his money, and then started toward La Viga, the canal that leads from the lower part of the city toward the fresh water lakes, Chalco and Xochimilco.  He hoped to find at the canal one of the bergantins, or flat-bottomed boats, in which vegetables, fruit and flowers were brought to the city for sale.  They were good-natured people, those of the bergantins, and they would not scorn the offer of a stout lad to help with sail and oar.

Hidden in his serape and sombrero, and, secure in his knowledge of Spanish and Mexican, he now advanced boldly through the more populous and better lighted parts of the city.  He even lingered a little while in front of a cafe, where men were playing guitar and mandolin, and girls were dancing with castanets.  The sight of light and life pleased the boy who had been so long in prison.  These people were diverting themselves and they smiled and laughed.  They seemed to have kindly feelings for everybody, but he remembered that cruel Spanish strain, often dormant, but always there, and he hastened on.

Three officers, their swords swinging at their thighs, came down the narrow street abreast.  At another time Ned would not have given way, and even now it hurt him to do so, but prudence made him step from the sidewalk.  One of them laughed and applied an insulting epithet to the “peon,” but Ned bore it and continued, his sombrero pulled well down over his eyes.

His course now led him by the great palace of Yturbide, where he saw many windows blazing with light.  Several officers were entering and chief among them he recognized General Martin Perfecto de Cos, the brother-in-law of Santa Anna, whom Ned believed to be a treacherous and cruel man.  He hastened away from such an unhealthy proximity, and came to La Viga.