gey hot wark soon. When it coomes, I'll no be the last up yon hill."
All seemed very peaceful in town and camp and upon Chapultepec rock. The flags floated languidly above roofs and tents and battlements. But danger brooded in the air. The armistice had been broken; everything indicated that. The engineers were reconnoitring, as they always did before a battle. The Mexican forces appeared somehow more alert. Now Jerry himself got up and started out. Pompey followed him.
"Where you gwine?"
"Oh, just taking a walk."
"You gwine to find Lieutenant Grant, huh? You gwine to pester him. Lookee hyar, white boy. Don't you say nuffin' 'bout me. If he or Marse Smith find out I been tellin' ahmy secrets, I get coht-martialed. Understan'? Mebbe I get hanged up, like dem desarters gwine to be."
"Are they to be hung?"
"Sartin. Dat's what. A coht-martial done try 'em, an' done say dey's to be hanged up, fo' desartin' in face ob the innimy an' shootin' deir own men."
"Whew!" Jerry whistled. He hastened on.
He did not find Lieutenant Grant; Corporal Finerty had learned little, Hannibal did not come back, and Sergeant Mulligan kept mum. But all the remainder of the afternoon the excitement in the camp increased; the old soldiers there "smelled powder." The reconnoitring group returned, and there was a council of general officers at commander-in-chief's headquarters. Furthermore, in the early evening General Cadwalader's brigade of the Voltigeurs and
