ing, and the clanking
of chains; and as we looked through the opening in the wall we saw the
grating that closed its farther end rise slowly until the way before us
was free. Two of our boats already were in the passage, so that no time
might be lost; and as these passed out into the lake, the others
followed after them rapidly. One boat remained to bring off the
attacking party, and we wondered a little because its coming was a good
while delayed. But we wondered still more when it joined us at last, and
we found that Tizoc and Young and Rayburn were not in it; indeed, at
that moment I saw the three of them standing together on top of the
wall. In answer to the shout that I gave, Rayburn leaned over the wall
and motioned to me to keep silence; and so I knew that they had not been
left behind through treachery, but were staying there because they had
some plan against the enemy that they thus could execute. And for
knowledge of what their plan was we did not have to wait long.

As we lay on our oars, off the outer end of the water-gate, we could see
through it into the basin that lay before the city, and in a very few
minutes the pursuing boats of the enemy came into view. As they neared
us, we saw standing in the bow of the leading boat the same officer who
had commanded the guard that had brought us as prisoners before the
Priest Captain; the man of whom I have spoken, for what his real title
was I do not know, as the barge-master.

He was calling to his men savagely to row faster; for our boats were so
scattered that he only could see the one in which we happened to be, and
he doubtless imagined that the others had gone forward, and that this
one waited to carry off some of our men who yet remained on the wall. He
evidently hoped to be able to cut us off from the rest of our party, and
his eagerness had so communicated itself to his oarsmen that his boat
led the others by nearly a hundred yards. So far as this one boat was
concerned, we felt no alarm, for the moment that it came out through the
wall our whole force was ready to dash upon it; yet we wondered why
Tizoc permitted even a single boat to come out to the attack, when, by
dropping the grating, they all could be penned in so effectually as to
give us the advantage of a long start.

As the boat neared the water-gate the barge-master went back from his
place in the bow to the middle part of it, and there crouched down; and
some soldiers who were standing crou