He bowed, and smiled pleasantly to the doctor as he passed him, and then in a few moments the word of command and the shouting of men and the clatter of hoofs invaded the enchanted atmosphere like an insult.
But the tumult scarcely jarred with the thoughts of his mind.

They had been altogether of war and rumors of war.

Every hour that subtile consciousness of coming events, which makes whole communities at times prescient, was becoming stronger.

"If the powers of the air have anything to do with the destinies of men," he muttered, "there must be unseen battalions around me.

The air I am breathing is charged with the feeling of battle." After leaving the city there were only a few Mexican huts on the shady road leading to his own house.