The Texan Star | Page 9

are certainly a sensitive boy," said Mr. Austin, looking at him in
some wonder. "I did not know that such a thing could influence your
feelings and your physical condition so much."
Ned made no reply, but that night he ate supper with a much better
appetite than he had shown in many days, bringing words of warm
approval and encouragement from Mr. Austin.

An hour or two later, when cheerful good-nights had been exchanged,
Ned withdrew to his own little room. He lay down upon his bed, but he
was fully clothed and he had no intention of sleep. Instead the boy was
transformed. For days he had been walking with a weak and lagging
gait. Fever was in his veins. Sometimes he became dizzy, and the walls
and floors of the prison swam before him. But now the spirit had taken
command of the thin body. Weakness and dizziness were gone. Every
vein was infused with strength. Hope was in command, and he no
longer doubted that he would succeed.
He rose from the bed and went to the window. The city was silent and
the night was dark. Floating clouds hid the moon and stars. The ranges
and the city roofs themselves had sunk into the dusk. It seemed to him
that all things favored the bold and persevering. And he had been
persevering. No one would ever know how he had suffered, what
terrific pangs had assailed him. He could not see now how he had done
it, and he was quite sure that he could never go through such an ordeal
again. The rack would be almost as welcome.
Ned did not know it, but a deep red flush had come into each pale
cheek. He removed most of his clothes, and put his head forward
between the iron bar and the window sill. The head went through and
the shoulders followed. He drew back, breathing a deep and mighty
breath of triumph. Yet he had known that it would be so. When he first
tried the space he had been only a shade too large for it. Now his head
and shoulders would go between, but with nothing to spare. A sheet of
paper could not have been slipped in on either side. Yet it was enough.
The triumph of self-denial was complete.
He had thought several times of telling Mr. Austin, but he finally
decided not to do so. He might seek to interfere. He would put a
thousand difficulties in the way, some real and some imaginary. It
would save the feelings of both for him to go quietly, and, when Mr.
Austin missed him, he would know why and how he had gone.
Ned stood at the window a little while longer, listening. He heard far
away the faint rattle of a saber, probably some officer of Santa Anna
who was going to a place outside a lattice, the sharp cry of a Mexican

upbraiding his lazy mule, and the distant note of a woman singing an
old Spanish song. It was as dark as ever, with the clouds rolling over
the great valley of Tenochtitlan, which had seen so much of human
passion and woe. Ned, brave and resolute as he was, shivered. He was
oppressed by the night and the place. It seemed to him, for the moment,
that the ghosts of stern Cortez, and of the Aztecs themselves were
walking out there.
Then he did a characteristic thing. Folding his arms in front of him he
grasped his own elbows and shook himself fiercely. The effort of will
and body banished the shapes and illusions, and he went to work with
firm hands.
He tore the coverings from his bed into strips, and knotted them
together stoutly, trying each knot by tying the strip to the bar, and
pulling on it with all his strength. He made his rope at least thirty feet
long and then gave it a final test, knot by knot. He judged that it was
now near midnight and the skies were still very dark. Inside of a half
hour he would be gone--to what? He was seized with an intense
yearning to wake up Mr. Austin and tell him good-by. The Texan
leader had been so good to him, he would worry so much about him
that it was almost heartless to slip away in this manner. But he checked
the impulse again, and went swiftly ahead with his work.
He kept on nothing but his underclothing and trousers. The rest he
made up into a small package which he tied upon his back. He was
sorry that he did not have any weapon. He had been deprived of even
his pocket-knife, but he did have a few dollars of Spanish coinage,
which he stowed