City and Juarez, and the
campaign kept growing more expensive every day.

It took Huerta from July until August to work his slow way from the
center of Chihuahua to Ciudad Juarez on the northern frontier. Before
he reached this goal, though, the rebels had split into many smaller
detachments, some of which cut his communications in the rear, while
others harried his flanks with guerrilla tactics and threatened to
carry the "war" into the neighboring State of Sonora. So far as the
trouble and expense to the Federal Government was concerned this
guerrilla warfare was far worse than the preceding slow but sure
railway campaign. General Huerta himself, who was threatened with the
loss of his eyesight from cataract, gave up trying to pursue the
fleeing rebel detachments in person, but kept close to his comfortable
headquarters in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City. This unsatisfactory
condition of affairs gave promise of enduring indefinitely, until
President Madero in Mexico City, whose Government had to bear the
financial brunt of it all, suddenly lost his patience and recalled
Huerta to the capital, leaving the command in General Rabago's hands.

For reasons that were never quite fathomed by Madero's Government,
Huerta took his time about obeying these orders. Thus, he lingered
first at Ciudad Juarez, then at Chihuahua City, then at Santa Rosalia,
next at Jimenez, and presently at Torreon, where he remained for over a
week, apparently sulking in his tent like Achilles. This gave rise to
grave suspicions, and rumors flew all over Mexico that Huerta was about
to make common cause with Orozco. President Madero himself, at this
time, told a friend of mine that he was afraid Huerta was going to turn
traitor. About the same time, at a diplomatic reception, President
Madero stated openly to Ambassador Wilson that he had reasons to
suspect Huerta's loyalty. At length, however, General Huerta appeared
at the capital, and after a somewhat chilly interview with the
President, obtained a suspension from duty so that he might have his
eyes treated by a specialist.

Thus it happened that Huerta, who was nearly blind then, escaped being
drawn into the sudden military movements that grew out of General Felix
Diaz's unexpected revolt and temporary capture of the port of Vera Cruz
last October.

General Huerta's part in Felix Diaz's second revolution, four months
later, is almost too recent to have been forgotten. He was the senior
ran