Santa Anna stood in a dramatic position, his finger still pointing.  There was scarcely a day that Ned did not feel the majesty of this valley of Tenochtitlan, but Santa Anna deepened the spell.  Could the world hold another place its equal?  Might not the Texans indeed have a glorious future in the land of which this city was the capital?  Poetry and romance appealed powerfully to the boy’s thoughtful mind, and he felt that here in Mexico he was at their very heart.  Nothing else had ever moved him so much.

“You are pleased!  It impresses you!” said Santa Anna to Austin.  “I can see it on your face.  You are with us.  You are one of us.  Ah, my friend, how noble it is to have a great heart.”

“Do I go with your message to the Texans?” asked Austin.

“I must leave now, but I shall come again soon, and I will tell you all.  You shall carry words that will satisfy every one of them.”

He threw his arms about Austin’s shoulders, gave Ned a quick salute, and then left the room, taking young de Zavala with him, Ned heard the heavy bar fall in place on the outside of the door, and he knew that they were shut in as tightly as ever.  But Mr. Austin was in a glow.

“What a wonderful, flexible mind!” he said, more to himself than to the boy.  “I could have preferred a sort of independence for Texas, but since we’re to be ruled from the City of Mexico, Santa Anna will do the best he can for us.  As soon as he sweeps away the revolutionary troubles he will repair all our injuries.”

Ned was silent.  He knew that the generous Austin was still under Santa Anna’s magnetic spell, but after his departure the whole room was changed to the boy.  He saw clearly again.  There were no mists and clouds about his mind.  Moreover, the wonderful half curve before the window was changing.  Vapors were rolling up from the south and the two great peaks faded from view.  Trees and water in the valley changed to gray.  The skies which had been so bright now became somber and menacing.

The boy felt a deep fear at his heart, but Mr. Austin seemed to be yet under the influence of Santa Anna, and talked cheerfully of their speedy return to Texas.  Ned listened in silence and unbelief, while the gloom outside deepened, and night presently came over Anahuac.  But he had formed his resolution.  He owed much to Mr. Austin.  He had come a vast distance to be at his side, and to serve him in prison, but he felt now that he could be of more use elsewhere.  Moreover, he must carry a message, a warning to those who needed it sorely.  One of the windows opened upon the north, and he looked intently through it trying to pierce, with the mind’s eye at least, the thousand miles that lay between him and those whom he would reach with the word.

Mr. Austin had lighted a candle.  Noticing the boy’s gloomy face, he patted him on the head with a benignant hand and said: 

“Don’t be down of heart, Edward, my lad.  We’ll soon be on our way to Texas.”