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"Captain Kemp," he said to his companion, "will you be good enough to tell me why we are in the Nicholas Channel?" "No, Señor Zuroaga," growled the large-framed, roughly rigged and grim-looking sailor. "I'm cap'n o' this ship, and I don't give explanations. We've had gales on gales since we left port. One course is as good as another, if you're not losing distance.
He tried not to think about that, and went below to get his breakfast, while Captain Kemp ordered his sailors to send up another sail, remarking to Señor Zuroaga: "We must make the most we can of this wind. Every hour counts now. I'll take the Goshawk to Vera Cruz, or I'll run her under water." "Have you any idea where we are just now?" asked the señor.
He is one of our enemies." "No, I'm not!" stammered Ned. "But did you know that our ship was wrecked in the norther? If you had been on board of her when she went ashore, you would have been drowned. The men in the life-boat had a hard time in getting ashore. I'm glad you were at home." "There, dear," said her mother. "That is polite. You heard what Señor Zuroaga said about the wrecks.
Up jumped Ned, and he and the señorita followed Señora Paez eagerly. Half a minute later, he felt as if he had never been so astonished before in all his life, for his hand was heartily grasped, and the voice of General Zuroaga said to him: "Here I am, Señor Carfora. How are you?" "Oh, but I'm glad to see you!" exclaimed Ned. "I'm all right, but isn't it awfully dangerous for you to be here?"
"As the affair stands now, they would surely regard you as a spy. You would be shot without a trial. All is confusion. I fear that even General Zuroaga is safe from arrest only among his own men. The army is the government. This nation needs a change." "General Tassara," said Ned, "isn't our army bringing one?" "The war is promising a great deal," replied Tassara, gloomily.
At the present time, it was commanded by an officer whom President Paredes believed that he could trust or he would have shot him. This, of course, was the main reason for the dark doubts of Señor Zuroaga.
Toward nightfall, however, that boat came again, as she did before, not running in among the barges, but seeming to avoid them. There were five men in her, and one of them stood up to say to a sailor at the rail: "I wish to see young Señor Carfora. Is he on board?" "Hullo!" thought Ned. "That's the Spanish name Señor Zuroaga told me I was to go by."
I was captured when Vera Cruz surrendered. I was with General Morales. I got in to-night, and I have a great deal to say to the general and Señora Paez and the Tassaras." "Zuroaga is here now," said a low, cautiously speaking voice behind him. "Put up your sword, Carfora, and come along with me. I want to see you more than you do me. I must know the latest news from General Scott's army.
The dining-room was entered first, and it was utterly empty. Not so much as a chair was left, although its owners had certainly not taken any furniture away with them in their hasty escape by night, with Ned and Zuroaga. It looked a little queer, to say the least, and, as he went on from room to room, he found precisely such a state of things everywhere else. "I declare!" said Ned.
As for yourself, you must push on." "I think," said Zuroaga, "that I shall be almost safe after I am a few miles beyond Teotitlan. I may have a fight or two on the way. Carfora must not be killed in any skirmish of that kind. You will not see me again, dead or alive, until a week or two after the Americans have taken the city of Mexico, as in my opinion they surely will.
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