lf. The mere title is nothing, for the people do not know the
difference between one and another. Now, Captain Kemp, one sure thing is
that the Yankees have taken Texas and mean to keep it. They will fight
for it. One other sure thing is that General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
will come back if he can, to carry on that war and supersede Paredes.
If he does so, there is danger ahead for some men. He will settle with
all his old enemies, and he loves bloodshed for its own sake. When he
cannot be killing men, he will sit in a cockpit all day, just for the
pleasure of seeing the birds slaughtering one another. I believe he had
my own father shot quite as much for love of murder as for the
opportunity it gave him for confiscating our family estates in Oaxaca."

"You seem to have enough to hate him for, anyhow, and I don't blame
you," replied the captain, as he turned away to give some orders to the
sailors, and all the while the boy who stood near them had been
listening.

"Well, Ned Crawford," he muttered to himself, "that's it, is it? Father
didn't seem to believe there would be any war. He said there would be
plenty of time, anyhow, for this old _Goshawk_ bark to make the round
trip to New York by way of Vera Cruz."

A great lurch of the ship nearly swung him off his feet just then, and
he was holding on very firmly to his rope when he added:

"He said I'd learn a great deal all the way, and I shouldn't wonder if
I'm learning something new just now. What do they mean by that
dangerous cargo in the hold, and our being captured by American ships of
war? That's a thing father didn't know anything about. I guess I can see
how it is, though. Captain Kemp isn't an American, and he'd do almost
anything to make money. Anything honest, I mean. How it does blow! Well,
let her blow! Father said he was putting me into a first-rate commercial
school, and here I am right in the middle of it."

Ned was indeed at school, and he seemed likely to have unexpected
teachers, but so is every other wide-awake young fellow, just like
Ulysses Grant and his crowd of young associates in their hot weather war
school over there on the Texas border.

Senor Zuroaga also had now walked away, and Ned was left to hold by his
rope, looking out upon the tossing sea and wondering more and more what
sort of adventures he and the _Goshawk_ might be so swiftly racing on
into.

CHAPTER II.

THE RACE OF THE GOSHAWK

A long day had passed and a