They were a tonic to body and mind, and he grew bolder as he came nearer to the ground.

At last he stepped upon the level earth, and stood for a little while black and motionless against the pyramid.
He was aware that the cordon of Cos' army completely enclosed the Pyramid of the Moon, the Pyramid of the Sun, the Calle de los Muertos and the other principal ruins, and he now heard the sentinels much more distinctly as they walked back and forth.

Straining his eyes he could see two of them, short, sallow men, musket on shoulder.

The beat of one lay directly across the path that he had chosen, reaching from the far edge of the Pyramid of the Moon to a point about twenty yards away.

He believed that when this sentinel marched to the other end of his beat he could slip by.