e earlier part of the next the weather
continued fairly good, and the unloading went steadily on. In the many
intervals of his duties, Ned tried hard to drive his mental fever away,
and amused himself as best he might. The city itself was worth looking
at, with its tiers of streets rising one above another from the shore.
He saw several churches, and some of them were large, with massive
towers and steeples.

"The Mexicans must have been richer than they are now," he said to
himself, "when those things were built. They cost piles of money."

He had no idea how rich a country it is, or how much richer it might be,
if its wonderful natural resources were to be made the most of. As for
the city, he had heard that Vera Cruz contained about seven or eight
thousand people, besides its military garrison, its foreigners, and a
continually varying mob of transient visitors from the interior. Zuroaga
had told him, moreover, that it was from the latter that any gringo like
himself would be in danger of violence. They were a vindictive,
bloodthirsty class of men, most of them, for they retained undiminished
the peculiar characteristics of their Indian ancestors.

"I don't care to run against any of them," thought Ned. "I don't like
this _tierra caliente_ country, anyhow. It's too hot to live in."

Then he thought a great deal of the wonderful land of forests and
mountains which lay beyond the fever-haunted lowlands, and he longed
more and more for a good look at the empire which Hernando Cortes won
from the old Montezumas and their bloody war-god, Huitzilopochtli.

In the afternoon of the second day the sky was manifestly putting on a
threatening aspect. The wind began to rise and the sea began to roughen.
The men discharging the cargo hastened their work, and it was evident
that the last of the lighter barges would soon be setting out for the
shore. Ned was staring at them and recalling all the yarns he had heard
concerning the destructive power of a gulf "norther," when Captain Kemp
came walking slowly toward him, with a face which appeared to express no
sort of unusual concern for anything in the world. Nevertheless, he
said:

"Get ready now, Ned, as sharp as you can. There comes your boat. I shall
send some papers by the colonel. Senor Zuroaga's luggage all went on
shore yesterday. I think some other men will have to be looking out for
themselves before long. If the _Goshhawk_ should drag her anchors and go
ashore, I hope