rtes, the Conquistador, from the day when he
and his brave adventurers cut their way into the Tehuantepec valley.

CHAPTER VII.

THE LAND OF THE MONTEZUMAS

"Father Crawford, do read that newspaper! The war has begun! They are
fighting great battles on the Rio Grande! Oh, how I wish you hadn't sent
Ned to Mexico! He may get killed!"

She was a woman of middle age, tall, fine-looking, and she was evidently
much excited. She was standing at one end of a well-set breakfast table,
and was holding out a printed sheet to a gentleman who had been looking
down at his plate, as if he were asking serious questions of it.

"My dear," he said, as he took the paper, "I knew it was coming, but I
didn't think it would come so soon as this. I don't really see that Ned
is in any danger. Captain Kemp will take care of him."

"But," she said, "the _Goshhawk_ may be captured."

"No," replied Mr. Crawford, confidently. "She hasn't sailed across
prairie to the Rio Grande. There won't be any fighting at Vera Cruz for
ever so long. There can't be any on the sea, for Mexico has no navy. The
_Goshhawk_ is entirely safe, and so is Ned. It'll be a grand experience
for him."

"I don't want him to have so much experience at his age," she said,
anxiously. "I'd rather he'd be at home,--if there's going to be a war."

"I've often wished that I could see a war," replied her husband, as he
glanced over the black-typed headings of the newspaper columns. "I've
travelled a good deal in Mexico, and I wanted Ned to learn all he could
of that country. He will hardly have any chance to do so now."

"He might see too much of it if he were taken prisoner," she exclaimed.
"I can't bear to think of it! Oh, how I wish he were at home!"

Mr. Crawford was silent, and again he appeared to be thinking deeply. He
was not a pale-faced man at any time, but now his color was visibly
increasing. His face was also changing its expression, and it wore a
strong reminder of the look which had come into his son Ned's
countenance when the fever of Mexican exploration took hold of him.
People say "like father, like son," and it may be that Ned's readiness
for a trip into the interior belonged to something which had descended
to him from a father who had been willing to educate his son for the
southern trade by sending him to sea with Captain Kemp. The United
States has had a great many commercial men of that stamp, and there was
a time when almost all the navy the