"Crawford," said Captain Lee, "take that despatch to Captain Schuyler
Hamilton, or whoever else is on duty at General Scott's headquarters. In
my opinion, this Zuroaga road will do, after we shall have made it, and
we can climb around into the rear of the Mexican army. If so, all their
batteries in the old road are but so many cannon thrown away."

Ned's heart gave a great thump of pride as he took that carefully folded
and sealed up paper. To carry it was a tremendous honor, and he was not
half sure that it did not make him, for the time being, a regular member
of General Scott's corps of military engineers. He hastened back to the
Jalapa highway, and the first advanced post that he came to furnished
him with a pony. Then he galloped on to the camps and to the general's
headquarters, as if he had been undergoing no fatigue whatever. He
seemed to himself, however, to have seen hardly anything or anybody
until he stood before Captain Hamilton, and held out that vitally
important despatch. Even then he did not quite understand that it was
almost as important as had been the surrender of Vera Cruz. But for that
surrender, the American expedition would have been stopped at the
seashore. But for this feat of the engineers, it would have been
disastrously halted at the foot of the Cerro Gordo pass. One minute
later, Ned's heart jumped again, for he heard the deep voice of the
general himself commanding:

"Hamilton, bring Crawford in. He seems to know something."

Whether he did or not, he could answer questions quite bravely, and he
could tell a great many things which had not been set forth in the brief
report of the engineers. Probably they had not felt ready to say or
assert too much until they had done and learned more, but Ned was under
no such restriction, and he thoroughly believed in what he still
regarded as General Zuroaga's road. That is, if somebody like Cortes,
for instance, could and would afford the necessary amount of gunpowder
to blast away the rocks which he had seen were in the way.

"That will do," said the general, at last. "You may go, Crawford.
Captain Hamilton, we have beaten Santa Anna!"

There may have been a slightly arrogant sound in that confident
assertion, but it was altogether in accord with the positive and
self-reliant character of General Winfield Scott. He had unbounded faith
in his own mental resources, and, at the same time, he had perfect
confidence in the men and officers of his arm