r was a
rude pallet of blankets spread upon grass. There was no window. The
place was hideous and lonely beyond the telling. He had not felt this
way in the pyramid.

Ned now had suffered more than any boy could stand. He threw himself
upon the blanket, and only pride kept him from shedding tears. But he
was nevertheless relaxed completely, and his body shook as if in a
chill. He lay there a long time. Now and then, he looked up at the walls
of his prison, but always their sodden gray looked more hideous than
ever. He listened but heard nothing. The stillness was absolute and
deadly. It oppressed him. He longed to hear anything that would break
it; anything that would bring him into touch with human life and that
would drive away the awful feeling of being shut up forever.

The air in the dungeon felt damp to Ned. He was glad of it, because damp
meant a touch of freshness, but by and by it became chilly, too. The bed
was of two blankets, and, lying on one and drawing the other over him,
he sought sleep. He fell after a while into a troubled slumber which was
half stupor, and from which he awakened at intervals. At the third
awakening he heard a noise. Although his other faculties were deadened
partially by mental and physical exhaustion, his hearing was uncommonly
acute, concentrating in itself the strength lost by the rest. The sound
was peculiar, half a swish and half a roll, and although not loud it
remained steady. Ned listened a long time, and then, all at once, he
recognized its cause.

He was under the sea, and it was the rolling of the waves over his head
that he heard. He was in one of the famous submarine dungeons of the
Castle of San Juan de Ulua. This was the hospitality of Cos and Santa
Anna, and it was a hospitality that would hold him fast. Never would he
take any word of warning to the Texans. Buried under the sea! He
shivered all over and a cold sweat broke out upon him.

He lay a long time until some of the terror passed. Then he sat up, and
looked at the round hole in the cement ceiling. It was about eight
inches in diameter and a considerable stream of fresh air entered there.
But the pipe or other channel through which it came must turn to one
side, as the sea was directly over his head. He could not reach the
hole, and even could he have reached it, he was too large to pass
through it. He had merely looked at it in a kind of vague curiosity.

Feeling that every attempt to solve anything would