“Tell me, was it you who knocked our soldier down on the side of the pyramid and took his lantern?  If it is true, it can’t do you any harm to acknowledge it now.”

“Yes,” replied Ned with some pride, “it was I. I came upon him suddenly and I was as much surprised as he.  I hit out on the impulse of the moment, and the blow landed in exactly the right place.  I hope he was not much hurt.”

“He wasn’t,” replied Almonte, laughing with deep unction.  “He was pretty well covered with bruises and scratches, but he forgot them in the awful fright you gave him.  He took you to be some demon, some mysterious Aztec god out of a far and dim past, who had smitten him with lightning, because he presumed to climb upon a sacred pyramid.  But some of us who were not so credulous, perhaps because we did not have his bruises and scratches, searched all the sides and the top of the pyramid.  We failed to find you and we knew that you could not get through our lines.  Now, will you tell me where you were?”

His tone was so intent and eager that Ned could not keep from laughing.  Besides, the boy had a certain pride in the skill, daring and resource with which he had eluded the men of Cos.

“Did you look inside the pyramid?” he asked.

“Inside it?”

“Yes, inside.  There’s an opening sixty or seventy feet above the ground.  I took your man’s lantern when he dropped it and entered.  There’s a stairway, leading down to a deep, square well, and there’s something beyond the well, although I don’t know what.  I stayed in there until your army went away.  Before that I had been for two or three days on top of the pyramid, where a little water palm gave up its life to save me.”

Almonte regarded him with wonder.

“I am not superstitious myself—­that is, not unnecessarily so,” he said, “but yours must be a lucky star.  After all that, you should have escaped, and your present capture must be a mere delay.  You will slip from us again.”

“I shall certainly try,” said Ned hopefully.

“It is bound to come true,” said Almonte.  “All the omens point that way.”

Ned smiled.  Almonte, young, brilliant and generous, had made him almost feel as if he were a guest and not a prisoner.  He did not discern in him that underlying strain of Spanish cruelty, which passion might bring to the surface at any moment.  It might be due to his youth, or it might be due to his American education.

“We march in an hour,” said Almonte.  “We are to rejoin General Cos on the Vera Cruz road, but that will not occur for two or three days.  Meanwhile, as the way is rough and you are pretty weak, you can ride on a burro.  Sorry I can’t get you a horse, but our lancers have none to spare.  Still, you’ll find a burro surer of foot and more comfortable over the basalt and lava.”