at the summit
of a low sand-hill, and there before them, only two miles away, the
boats of the ships of war and the transport ships were coming and going
through the surf with loads of American soldiers. With them, and on all
the vessels in the offing, Ned saw something which had never before
seemed to shine so splendidly, and it brought the hot blood fiercely
from his heart to his cheeks, because he could not just then break out
into a hurrah for the Stars and Stripes. The hurrah did get up into his
throat, but there it had to stop, and it almost choked him. His prudence
got the better of it, somehow, and his next thought was:

"Oh, but won't they have a tough time getting their cannon ashore!"

He was not so far wrong, for that was a problem which was troubling
General Scott and his engineers, but there was one thing more which Ned
did not so much as dream of. In one of those boats a tall man, who was
not in uniform, was leaning forward and gazing earnestly at the shore.

"Mexico!" he muttered. "Ned is in there somewhere. I must have a hunt
for him as soon as I can. I wonder if I did right to ever let him go.
Even after we take Vera Cruz, there will be a long campaign and any
amount of hard fighting. O Ned, my son, where are you?"

Ned was there, indeed, very near and yet very far, and he was wondering,
as were many American officers and soldiers, why the Mexicans did not
cannonade the invading army while it was coming ashore. They might have
done so effectively, and in a day or two they did put a few guns in
position to send an occasional shot, but all the harm they did was to
kill one man.

The patrol party had now performed its duty, and it marched back again,
but in that morning adventure Ned had discovered that he was really free
to come and go. Perhaps the Mexican commander had forgotten him in the
pressure of his other affairs. Even when Ned went to the headquarters
for his pony and baggage, he was treated by everybody as a young fellow
of no importance whatever, and at dinnertime he was able to tell Anita
all about the terrible ships and the swarms of invading gringos on the
shore.

That night the lonely room in the Tassara house was almost too lonely.
Ned lay awake in his hammock through long hours, and was glad that he
had two armies to think of, so that he might keep from listening for
possible footsteps outside of his little chamber, or for an attempt by
some marauder to force open his door. He had b