Part 16 (1/2)
”Beyond a doubt!” declared the lieutenant, with emphasis. ”It would serve him right, too. This is no time for trifling with orders.”
A hearty dinner by a blazing log fire made the despatch-bearer feel a great deal better, but at the end of it no mercy was shown him. His fresh pony was ready, and he was ordered to mount and ride. He did so without offering any objections, and he carried with him the lieutenant's written pa.s.s, for possible use further down the mountain.
It was a good thing to have, but he was called upon to present it only twice, receiving in each instance positive instructions to push onward if it killed him and his new pony.
”I can't stand this much longer!” he exclaimed, as the sun was setting.
”I'm almost beyond the snow-line. I think I'll disobey the guards a little, but I'll keep on obeying Senora Paez. She told me on no account to try to sleep in a large town or village. They are all military posts, and too many questions might be asked. I'll try a hacienda, just as I did on the other side of the mountains. Everybody wants to hear the news.”
Everybody in that region was also genuinely hospitable, and it was barely dusk when Ned rode in at the gate of a substantial farmhouse, to be welcomed with the utmost cordiality. Men, women, and children crowded eagerly around him, to hear all he could tell them of the great battle and victory of Angostura, and of the current doings in the capital city.
A warm bed was given him, and after a long sleep he awoke somewhat better fitted for whatever else might be before him. Once more he pushed on, but before noon of that day all signs of winter were far behind him.
He had pa.s.sed through more than one considerable village, but so had other travellers, coming or going, who bore about them no appearance of being worth the attention of the military authorities. Another and another night in wayside farmhouses compelled him to admire more than ever the simple ways and the sincere patriotism of the Mexican farmers.
All the while, however, his anxieties concerning the result of his perilous errand were growing upon him, and he was obediently using up his army pony. It was the forenoon of the third day before he was aroused from his other thoughts into anything like enthusiasm for the exceeding beauty of the luxuriant vegetation on either side of the road.
”Leaves! flowers! gra.s.s!” he exclaimed. ”Oh, how beautiful they all are!
Summer here, and winter only a few miles away. Hurrah for the _tierra caliente_! It's a bully place at this time o' year.”
At all events, it was a pleasanter place to be in than any icy pa.s.s among the Mexican sierras, and his thoughts were at liberty to come back to his present situation. He was not now upon the Cordoba road, by which he had left the gulf coast ever so long ago. This was the highway from the city of Jalapa. He was cantering along only a short distance from the seash.o.r.e, and he was within a few miles of the gates of Vera Cruz.
”I remember them,” he was thinking. ”I never had a good chance for a look at the walls, but I suppose I shall have one pretty soon. I wonder if they are thick enough to stop a cannon-ball. Captain Kemp told me they were built all around the city, but he didn't say how high they are.”
Walls there were, indeed, but their masonry was not the next thing that was to be of especial interest to Ned. There is no kind of stonework which can compare, under certain circ.u.mstances, with the point of a lance or the edge of a machete, and the bearers of a number of such weapons were to be seen coming toward him at a gallop.
”It looks like a whole company of lancers!” exclaimed the anxious despatch-carrier. ”Now I'm in for it! Everybody I met on the way was civil enough, but these may be a different kind of fellows.”
Whether they were or not, the whole force under General Morales was in a state of unusual excitement that day, for the report was going around that the American army brought by Commodore Connor's fleet was rapidly coming ash.o.r.e near Sacrificios Island, only three miles south of Vera Cruz. If Ned himself had been aware of it, he might have changed his plans and ridden right in among his own friends. As it was, however, in less than three minutes he had cantered in among a swarm of angry Mexicans and glittering spear-points. Their state of discipline was witnessed to by the fact that the captain in nominal command of them had some difficulty in obtaining from them permission to ask his own questions of this newcomer. When at last he succeeded in doing so, without first having his captive run through by a lance, it shortly looked as if Ned had been learning diplomacy, if not strategy also, during his varied and wonderful Mexican experiences.
”Senor Captain,” he said, quite coolly, pulling out his official envelope, ”I am ordered to deliver this to General Morales in person. I am commanded to answer no questions. Any man daring to hinder the delivery of my despatches will be shot. They are important.”
”Where are you from?” came savagely back.
Ned only pointed at the envelope and shut his mouth hard.
”What is your errand to General Morales?”
Ned's brain was working with tremendous rapidity just then, and one of his swift thoughts got away from him.
”Captain,” he said, ”you had better ask that question of his Excellency, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.”
The officer's swarthy face turned pale for a moment, and all the men who had heard Ned's reply broke out into loud vivas for their great commander-in-chief, the ill.u.s.trious victor of the b.l.o.o.d.y field of Angostura. The entire company became at once the zealous guardians of that sacred envelope, which so few of them could have read, and the captain was forced to restrain his curiosity, and allow Ned to continue, keeping his mouth closed. For all that, however, the despatch-bearer was still a prisoner, and was to be conducted as such to the presence of General Morales. The lancers turned their horses toward the city, and the gates were reached as quickly as Ned's tired pony could carry him.
At this barrier, of course, there were other guards and officers of higher rank, and there might have been further delay, or even danger, if Ned had not promptly exhibited the magical envelope, while the captain himself repeated his own words for him, and curtly added:
”His Excellency, General Bravo! Viva Morales! Viva Santa Anna!”
That last word sealed the matter. The envelope was returned to its bearer, and he was conducted onward under the care of two colonels, several other officials, and a half-dozen of watchful lancers.
Ned shortly understood that General Morales had returned from the Castle of San Juan de Ulua to go out for a telescopic inspection of the American landing, and was now at his headquarters in the city.
”I guess I shall feel better after I get to him,” thought Ned, as he and his excited party halted before the headquarters building. ”I may get stuck with a machete yet, if I have to wait long out here.”