On one occasion he saw a small body of soldiers, deep in dust, marching toward the port.

All except the officers were peons and they did not seem to Ned to show much martial ardor.

But the officers on horseback sternly bade them hasten.

Ned, as usual, had much sympathy for the poor peasants, but none for the officers who drove them on.
About sunset he came to a little river, the Teotihuacan he learned afterward, and he still saw before him the low mountain, the name of which was Cerro Gordo.

But his attention was drawn from the mountain by two elevations rising almost at the bank of the river.