The storm was still blowing when he reached the far edge of the plain, and came into extremely rough country, with patches of low, thorny forest.  Here he found a dilapidated bark hut, evidently used at times by Mexican herdsmen, and, thankful for such shelter, he crept into it and fell asleep.  When he awoke he felt very weak.  He had eaten the last of his food seven or eight hours before.

Driven by desperate need, Ned ate wild fruits, and, for a while, was refreshed, but that night he fell ill, suffering greatly from internal pains.  He was afraid at first that he had poisoned himself, and he knew that he had eaten something not used for food, but by morning the pains were gone, although he was much weaker than before.

Now he felt for the first time the pangs of despair.  It was a full two hundred miles yet to Vera Cruz, and he was in the heart of a hostile country.  He did not have the strength of a child left, and the chance that he could deliver his message of warning to the Texans seemed to have gone.  He rambled about all that day, light-headed at times, and, toward evening, he fell into a stupor.  Unable to go any further, he sank down beside a rock, and lapsed wholly into unconsciousness.

CHAPTER VI

THE MARCH WITH COS

When Ned came to himself he was surrounded by men, and at first he thought he was back among his Texans.  He was in a vague and dreamy state that was not unpleasant, although he was conscious of a great weakness.  He knew that he was lying on the ground upon his own serape, and that another serape was spread over him.  In a little while mind and vision grew more definite and he saw that the soldiers were Mexicans.  After his long endurance and ingenuity on the pyramid he had practically walked into their hands.  But such was his apathy of mind and body that it roused no great emotion in him.  He closed his eyes for a little while, and then fresh strength poured into his veins.  When he opened his eyes again his interest in life and his situation was of normal keenness.

They were in a little valley and the soldiers, lancers, seemed to number about two hundred.  Their horses were tethered near them, and their lances were stacked in glittering pyramids.  It was early morning.  Several men were cooking breakfast for the whole troop at large fires.  The far edge of the little valley was very rocky and Ned inferred that he had fallen there by a big outcropping of stone, and that the soldiers, looking around for firewood, had found him.  But they had not treated him badly, as the serape spread over his body indicated.