swiftly, for Otomie was agile and
strong as an ocelot, and mounting the stool I made shift to follow her
as well as my hurts would allow. In the end I was able to throw myself
upon the sill of the window, and there I was stretched out like a dead
cat till she drew me across it, and I fell with her to the ground on the
further side, and lay groaning. She lifted me to my feet, or rather to
my foot, for I could use but one of them, and we stared round us. No one
was to be seen, and the sound of revelry had died away, for the crest of
Popo was already red with the sunlight and the dawn grew in the valley.

'Where to?' I said.

Now Otomie had been allowed to walk in the camp with her sister, the
wife of Guatemoc, and other Aztec ladies, and she had this gift in
common with most Indians, that where she had once passed there she could
pass again, even in the darkest night.

'To the south gate,' she whispered; 'perhaps it is unguarded now that
the war is done, at the least I know the road thither.'

So we started, I leaning on her shoulder and hopping on my right foot,
and thus very painfully we traversed some three hundred yards meeting
nobody. But now our good luck failed us, for passing round the corner
of some buildings, we came face to face with three soldiers returning to
their huts from a midnight revel, and with them some native servants.

'Whom have we here?' said the first of these. 'Your name, comrade?'

'Good-night, brother, good-night,' I answered in Spanish, speaking with
the thick voice of drunkenness.

'Good morning, you mean,' he said, for the dawn was breaking. 'Your
name. I don't know your face, though it seems that you have been in the
wars,' and he laughed.

'You mustn't ask a comrade his name,' I said solemnly and swinging to
and fro. 'The captain might send for me and he's a temperate man. Your
arm, girl; it is time to go to sleep, the sun sets.'

They laughed, but one of them addressed Otomie, saying:

'Leave the sot, my pretty, and come and walk with us,' and he caught her
by the arm. But she turned on him with so fierce a look that he let
her go again astonished, and we staggered on till the corner of another
house hid us from their view. Here I sank to the ground overcome with
pain, for while the soldiers were in sight, I was obliged to use my
wounded foot lest they should suspect. But Otomie pulled me up, saying:

'Alas! beloved, we must pass on or perish.'

I rose groaning, and by what