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Ned was really grateful, and he tried to say so, but all he could think of just then was: "General Zuroaga, I do hope you'll get through all right. I hope I shall see you again safe and sound." "You never will," said Zuroaga, as he wheeled his horse, "unless I get out of this Cordoba road. It is a kind of military highway, and I might meet my enemies at any minute too many of them."
"He may be of more importance than I had any idea of," said Ned to himself, "and I wish I knew what was coming next." He was not to find out immediately, for Zuroaga motioned him to go on into the house, while he himself and Tassara remained to talk with Pablo and the other machete-bearers.
Ned's only really hearty greeting came from Señor Zuroaga, who seemed to him, under the circumstances, like an old friend. "Carfora, my dear fellow," he said, "you and the colonel must come in to your supper " "Why, señor," expostulated Ned, "I'm wet through, and so is he." "I declare!" exclaimed Zuroaga. "What's in my head that I should overlook that? You must change your rig.
"I'm all ready now!" exclaimed Ned, as he sprang away, but he went with a curious question rising in his mind: "What if a cable were more'n half cut through? Wouldn't it be likely to break and let go of an anchor, if it were pulled at too hard by a gale of wind? I don't really know anything about it, but Señor Zuroaga thinks that Captain Kemp is a curious man to deal with.
"Pablo!" he exclaimed, just as a second Mexican sprang toward him with a long knife in his hand. "Señor Carfora!" loudly responded Pablo. "Hold back your knife, Manuelo! It is one of our own men. O Santos! My lance! I have no other weapon. I told them it was of the soft wood. How are you here, señor?" "To see Señora Paez and General Zuroaga," said Ned. "Is he in the city?" "Hush!
Zuroaga went below, and Ned followed him, for there was nothing more that he could do on deck just then. "Señor," he asked, as soon as they were in the cabin, "how can I send a letter home? I don't know exactly what to say, either." "Say anything you please," replied the señor.
Señor Zuroaga himself sat curled up under his waterproof well aft, and now and then he appeared to be chuckling, as if he knew something which amused him. Half an hour later, when all the lights of the Goshhawk suddenly went out, he actually broke into a ringing laugh. Her course was changed to almost due north at that very moment.
After that I shall have a tour to make on political affairs, through several States, and you will have a chance to see two thirds of the republic before winter." "That is just what my father would wish me to do," said Ned, and he proceeded to tell the general the contents of his letters and all the news he had heard from Captain Kemp. "Very good!" said Zuroaga, at last.
We are informed that, beyond a doubt, the traitor Zuroaga intends to return from Europe shortly. As sure as he does, he will be engaged in dangerous intrigues against the existing order of things, and the good of the country requires that he shall be brought to justice before he can put any of his nefarious plans in operation.
"On the other hand," responded the colonel, "it would be well for him to be careful just now. He will need all the strength he can obtain." "Humph!" exclaimed Zuroaga. "He will try to leave no living, or, at least, no unimprisoned enemies behind him when he marches for the border."
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