None occurred. The
lancers were always about him, and even if there were an opening his
burro, sure of foot though he might be, could not escape their strong
horses. So he bided his time, for the present, and shared in the gayety
of the men who rode through the crisp and brilliant southern air. All
the time they ascended, and Ned saw far below him valley after valley,
much the same, at the distance, as they were when Cortez and his men
first gazed upon them more than three hundred years before. Yet the look
of the land was always different from that to which he was used north of
the Rio Grande. Here as in the great valley of Tenochtitlan it seemed
ancient, old, old beyond all computation. Here and there, were ruins of
which the Mexican peons knew nothing. Sometimes these ruins stood out on
a bare slope, and again they were almost hidden by vegetation. In the
valleys Ned saw peons at work with a crooked stick as a plow, and once
or twice they passed swarthy Aztec women cooking tortillas and frijoles
in the open air.
The troop could not advance very rapidly owing to the roughness of the
way, and Ned learned from the talk about him that they would not
overtake Cos until the evening of the following day. About twilight they
encamped in a slight depression in the mountain side.
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