Almost at once the burly French sailors appeared, but Fra Diavolo's
little demons closed in behind them and around them and so kept them
from reaching Ney. Thus both sides circled about and moved cautiously,
waiting for the trouble to begin in earnest. Michel only panted, until
at last he bethought himself that there was such a thing as strategy.

"One of you out there," he shouted in French, "quick, go to the fort.
Bring the soldiers!"

The Mexicans did not understand, and before they could prevent, a sailor
had taken to his heels.

Then Fra Diavolo comprehended. "You idiots!" he bellowed. "You--Pedro!
Catch him! Faster!--Catch him, I say!"

A little demon darted away in pursuit of the sailor. Obviously, the
situation hung on the swifter in the race.

CHAPTER IV

LA LUZ, BLOCKADE RUNNER

"For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring."
--_Romeo and Juliet._

"Meson" is Spanish for hostelry. In the ancient caravansaries, like the
one at Bethlehem sacred to the Christ child, the same accommodations
were meted out to man and beast alike. More recently there are "hotels,"
which distinguish a man from his beast, usually; though sometimes
undeservedly. And so the word "meson" got left behind along with its
primitive meaning. But in Mexico word and meaning still go together to
this day, and both described pretty well the four walls in Tampico where
Anastasio Murguia tarried. Excepting the porter's lodge at the entrance,
the establishment's only roof formed an open corridor against one of the
walls, in which species of cloister the human guests were privileged to
spread their blankets in case of rain or an icy norther. Otherwise they
slept in the sky-vaulted court among the four-footed transients, for
what men on the torrid Gulf coast would allow his beast more fresh air
than himself?

Don Anastasio's caravan filled the meson with an unflurried, hay-chewing
promise of bustle-to-be at some future date. Except for the camels and
costume lacking, the Mexican trader might have been a sheik in an oasis
khan. His bales littered the patio's stone pavement. They were of cotton
mostly, which he had bought in the Confederate States, in exchange for
necessities of warfare and life. Complacent burros and horses were
juggling into their mouths some final grains from the sacks over their
noses. Peon servants stolidly busied themselves around charcoal
braziers.

An American