by the
blade itself. Speaking through the same, he said--

"Cris! we've got to run a gate where there's a guard of soldiers--maybe
a dozen or so. You're to drive gently up, and, if you see it open, pass
through--then lay on the whip. Should it be shut, approach more
briskly, and pull up impatient-like. But do nothing of yourself--wait
till I give you the word."

"Trust me, Cap; ye kin do that, I kilk'late."

"I can, Cris. Take this knife, and if you hear pistols cracking behind,
you'll then know what to do with it."

"I gie a guess, anyhow," rejoined the Texan, taking hold of the knife,
in a hand passed behind him. Then bringing it forward and under his
eyes, he added, "'Taint sech a bad sort o' blade eyther, tho' I weesh
'twas my ole bowie they took from me at Mier. Wal, Cap; ye kin count on
me makin' use o't, ef 'casion calls, an' more'n one yaller-belly gittin'
it inter his guts; notwithstandin' this durnation clog that's swinging
at my legs. By the jumping Geehosophat, if I ked only git shet o' that
I'd--"

What he would do or intended saying, had to stay unsaid. Rivas
interrupted him, pulling Kearney back, and telling him to be ready with
the pistols. For they were nearing the place of danger.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

AN UNLOOKED-FOR SALUTE.

In a strict military sense the capital of Mexico cannot be called a
fortified city. Still, it has defences, one being an _enceinte_ wall,
which envelops it all round, leaving no straggled suburb, scarce so much
as a house, outside. Compact and close stand the dwellings of the
modern city as those of ancient Tenochtitlan, whose site it occupies,
though the waves of Tezcuco and Xochimilco no longer lap up to its
walls.

The _enceinte_ spoken of is a mere structure of "adobes," large
sun-baked blocks of mud and straw--in short, the bricks of the
Egyptians, whose making so vexed Moses and the Israelites. Here and
there may be seen a little redoubt, with a battery of guns in it; but
only on revolutionary occasions--the wall, so far as defence goes, more
concerning the smuggler than the soldier; and less contraband from
abroad than infringement of certain regulations of home commerce--chief
of them the tax called "alcabala," corresponding to the _octroi_ of
France, and the _corvee_ of some other European countries.

The tax is collected at the "garitas," of which there is one on every
road leading out of the city, or rather into it; for it is the man who