nd over there is Contreras. Didn't
they fight us there! General Scott and his engineers laid out the
battles, but I was with the Seventh everywhere it went. I'll have loads
of yarns to spin when I get home, if I ever do."

Battle after battle had been fought, and the Americans had paid dearly
for the long delay in the arrival of their reinforcements. All that time
had been employed by the Mexican President, with really splendid energy,
in raising a new army and in fortifying the approaches to the city. It
was almost pitiful to see with what patriotism and self-sacrifice the
Mexican people rallied for their last hopeless struggle with superior
power. It was not, however, that they were to contend with superior
numbers, for the forces under Santa Anna were at least three times those
under General Scott. The difference was that the latter was a perfect
army led by a great general, while the former were not an army at all
and had very few capable officers.

Ned had apparently gazed long enough, and he now made his way down the
rugged slope. He did not halt until he reached the door of his own
tent, and there he was met by his friend and supervisor somewhat tartly.

"Well! You are back, at last, are you? I didn't know but what you'd run
away. You may come along with me to-night. You may try and see your
friends. The provision train I am to take in will get out again about
daylight. You may stay there one day, and come away with a train that
will run in to-morrow night, but you'd better wear your Mexican rig, if
you don't mean to have your throat cut."

"All right, sir," said Ned. "I'll run the risk."

"I might not let you," said Grant, "if you were an enlisted man, but you
may learn something of value to them and to us, too. Get ready!"

The fact was that Ned and his army, commanded for him by General Scott,
were in a somewhat peculiar position. An armistice had been declared
while the negotiations were going on, and while, at the same time, the
power of Santa Anna was crumbling to pieces under him. It had been
agreed, on both sides, that all military operations should temporarily
cease, and that American army-trains of wagons might come into the
city, with armed escorts, to obtain supplies. After some unpleasant
experiences with the angry mob of the city, it had been deemed best that
the trains should come and go in the night, when the unruly Mexican
soldiers were in their quarters, and the too patriotic citizens were