wolves! Felicia, my dear, you will see that
Senor Carfora is properly attended to."

The saucy senorita was standing a little behind her mother, and she now
beckoned to Ned, as if she had no hostility for him whatever.

"Come right along in," she said, peremptorily. "I must eat my luncheon,
too. I want to hear where you have been, and what you have been doing.
Is there any more news from the war? Have your gringo generals been
beaten again? Tell me all you know!"

She was evidently in the habit of being obeyed by those around her, and
Ned felt decidedly obedient, but this was his first intimation that it
was fully noon. Time had passed more rapidly than he had been aware of,
for his mind had been too busy to take note of it. He was hungrily ready
to obey, however, especially concerning the luncheon, and his first bit
of news appeared to please his little hostess exceedingly.

"Not another ship is in," he told her, "and I don't believe there is
going to be any war, anyhow, but I saw some of your soldiers. They were
guarding the American consulate from the mob. They were splendid-looking
fellows. Is your father's regiment of that kind of men?"

"Father's regiment?" she said, angrily. "That's just the difficulty now.
He hasn't any soldiers. Those that he had were taken away from him. So
he must go and gather some more, or President Paredes will say that he
is not patriotic. They took his old regiment away from him after he had
made it a real good one. Tell me about your gringo soldiers. Are there a
great many of them? Do they know how to fight? I don't believe they do."

She was all on fire about the war and her father's enemies, and Ned was
ready to tell her all he knew of the American army, if not a little
more. At least, he described to her the elegant uniforms which were
worn on parade occasions by the New York City militia regiments,
feathers, flags, brass bands, and all, rather than the external
appearance of any martial array that General Taylor was likely to take
with him when he invaded Mexico. Felicia was especially interested in
those magnificent brass bands and wished that she could have some of
them taken prisoners to come and play in front of her house, but all the
while they were talking he was glancing furtively around the room. This
had undergone a remarkable change during his brief absence. The trophies
of arms were all gone, and the wonderful Seville coffee-urn had
disappeared. Perhaps it had walked