The floor of the marquee was spread with a thick velvet carpet. A table
loaded with silver dishes was between the generals, and a dozen lamps on
the walls shed a bright light over velvet carpet, silver dishes and the
faces of the two men who held the fortunes of Mexico in the hollows of
their hands. General Cos smiled the same cold and evil smile that Ned
had noticed at their first meeting, but Santa Anna spoke in a tone half
of surprise and half of pity.
"Ah, it is the young Fulton! And he is in evil plight! You would not
accept my continued hospitality at the capital, and behold what you have
suffered!"
Ned looked steadily at him. He could not fathom the thought that lay
behind the words of Santa Anna. The man was always appearing to him in
changing colors. So he merely waited.
"It was a pleasure to me," said Santa Anna, "to learn from General Cos
that you had been retaken. Great harm might have come to you wandering
through the mountains and deserts of the north. You could never have
reached the Texans alive, and since you could not do so it was better to
have come back to us, was it not?"
"I have not come willingly."
General Cos frowned, but Santa Anna laughed.
"That was frank," he said, "and we will be equally frank with you.
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