"No—yesterday evening," he said, with a bitter smile.
"I do not at all understand you."
"Well, listen to me. What I am going to tell you is not long, but it is important, I promise you."
"I am listening."
"We form, as you are doubtless aware, the extreme rear guard of the Army of Liberation."
"Yes, I know that, and it helped me in finding your trail."
"Very good; hence hardly a day passes in which we do not exchange musket shots and sabre cuts with the Mexicans."
"Go on."
"Yesterday—you see it is not stale—we were suddenly charged by forty Mexican Horse; it was about three in the afternoon, when General Houston was crossing the river with the main body. We had orders to offer a desperate resistance, in order to protect the retreat. This order was needless; at the sight of the Mexicans we rushed madly upon them, and the action at once commenced. After a few minutes' fighting the Mexicans gave way, and finally fled, leaving three or four dead on the battlefield. Too weak to pursue the enemy, I had given my soldiers orders to return, and was myself preparing to do the same, when two flying Mexicans, instead of continuing their flight, stopped, and fastening their handkerchiefs to their sabre blades, made me a signal that they desired to parley. I approached the two men, who bore a greater likeness to bandits than to soldiers; and one of them, a man of tall stature and furious looks, said to me at once, when I asked them what they wanted—
"'To do you a service, if you are, as I suppose, the Jaguar.'