Feeling so much better he sat up.  The odor of the cooking made him realize again that he was fiercely hungry.  A Mexican brought him a large tin plate filled with beans and meat chopped small.  He ate slowly although only an effort of the will kept him from devouring the food like a famished wild animal.  The Mexican who had brought him the plate stood by and watched him, not without a certain sympathy on his face.  Several more Mexicans approached and looked at him with keen curiosity, but they did not say or do anything that would offend the young Gringo.  Knowing that it was now useless, Ned no longer made any attempt to conceal his nationality which was evident to all.  He finished the plate and handed it back to the Mexican.

“Many thanks,” he said in the native tongue.

“More?” said the soldier, looking at him with understanding.

“I could, without hurting myself,” replied Ned with a smile.

A second plate and a cup of water were brought to him.  He ate and drank in leisurely fashion, and began to feel a certain relief.  He imagined that he would be returned to imprisonment in the City of Mexico with Mr. Austin.  At any rate, he had made a good attempt and another chance might come.

An officer dressed in a very neat and handsome uniform approached and the other Mexicans fell back respectfully.  This man was young, not more than thirty-two or three, rather tall, fairer than most of his race, and with a singularly open and attractive face.  His dress was that of a colonel, and the boy knew at once that he was commander of the troop.  He smiled down at Ned, and Ned, despite himself, smiled back.

“I know you,” said he, speaking perfect English.  “You are Edward Fulton, the lad who was held in the prison with Stephen Austin, the Texan, the lad who starved himself that he might slip between the bars of his window.  There was much talk at the capital about it, and you were not without admirers.  You showed so much courage and resource that you deserved to escape, but we could not let you go.”

“I got lost and I was without food.”

“Rather serious obstacles.  They have held many a boy and man.  But since I know so much about you and you know nothing about me I will tell you who I am.  My name is Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, and I am a colonel in the service of Mexico and of our great Santa Anna.  I was educated in that United States of yours, Texan, though you call yourself.  That is why I speak the English that you hear.  I have friends, too, among your people.”

“Well, Colonel Almonte,” said Ned, “since I had to be recaptured, I’m glad I fell into your hands.”

“I wish I could keep you in them,” he said, “but I am under the command of General Cos, and I have to rejoin the main force which he leads.”

Ned understood.  Cos was a man of another type.  But he resolved not to anticipate trouble.  Almonte again looked at him curiously, and then leaning forward said confidentially: