“Softly, Cos, my brother,” he said.  “Bear in mind that he is only a boy.  I offered too much, and he does not understand.  He has put away a brilliant career, but, my good brother Cos, he has left to him your hospitality, and you will not be neglectful.”

Cos sank back in his chair and laughed.  Santa Anna laughed.  The two laughs were unlike, one heavy and angry, and the other light and gay, but their effect upon Ned was precisely the same.  He felt a cold shiver at the roots of his hair, but he was yet silent, and stood before them waiting.

“You can go,” said Santa Anna.  “You have missed your opportunity and it will not come again.”

Ned turned away without a word.  The Tlascalans were waiting at the door of the marquee, and he went with them.  Once more he slept under the stars.

CHAPTER VII

THE DUNGEON UNDER THE SEA

Ned, early the next morning, saw Santa Anna with his brilliant escort ride away toward the capital, while General Cos resumed his march to Vera Cruz.  Almonte did not reappear at all, and the boy surmised that he was under orders to join the dictator.

Ned continued on foot among the Tlascalans.  Cos offered him no kindness whatever, and his pride would not let him ask for it.  But when he looked at his sore and bleeding feet he always thought of the patient burro that he had lost.  They marched several more days, and the road dropped down into the lowlands, into the tierra caliente.  The air grew thick and hot and Ned, already worn, felt an almost overpowering languor.  The vegetation became that of the tropics.  Then, passing through marshes and sand dunes, they reached Vera Cruz, the chief port of Mexico, a small, unhealthy city, forming a semicircle about a mile in length about the bay.

Ned saw little of Vera Cruz, as they reached it at nightfall, but the approach through alternations of stagnant marsh and shifting sand affected him most unpleasantly.  Offensive odors assailed him and he remembered that this was a stronghold of cholera and yellow fever.  He ate rough food with the Tlascalans again, and then Cos sent for him.

“You have reached your home,” said the General.  “You will occupy the largest and most expensive house in the place, and my men will take you there at once.  Do you not thank me?”

“I do not,” replied Ned defiantly.  Yet he knew that he had much to dread.

“You are an ungrateful young dog of a Texan,” said Cos, laughing maliciously, “but I will confer my hospitality upon you, nevertheless.  You will go with these men and so I bid you farewell.”