"Just ignore the army," he told them. "Head right for that tent. The only person we need to talk to is the jefe."

The young Rangers did as instructed, passing between the lines of infantry and the massed cavalry. Both of them looked straight ahead, trying to ignore the fact that hundreds of men around them were all primed to kill them.On the ridge behind them, Matilda Roberts gave way to a fit of crying.

"They're lost-they're just boys," she said. "They're lost-they'll kill them for sure."

"Now, Matty-it's just a parley," Bigfoot said, but Matilda would riot be comforted. Her worries overcame her. She put her face in her hands and sobbed.

Gus was disconcerted, as they approached the General's tent, to see Captain Salazar standing amid the Mexican officers.

"I was hoping the bear got him," Gus said.

"Well, the bear didn't," Call said.

Seven officers stood around the General, a heavy man with much gold braid on his uniform. He had a curling mustache and held a silver flask in his hand, from which he drank occasionally. Several of the officers surrounding him had sabres strapped to their legs- they looked at the young Rangers sternly, as they continued toward the tent. The only one, in fact, who seemed well disposed toward them was Captain Salazar himself. He stepped forward to greet them, and actually saluted.

"Congratulations, gentlemen," he said. "You escaped the bear. Ordinarily, of course, I would shoot you for escaping, but no one could be blamed for running from a grizzly bear. That bear killed my horse and my cook. I have another horse, but I miss the cook."

"I guess you soldiers are acquainted," Caleb said. He dismounted and handed his reins to a Mexican orderly, who took them with a look of surprise.

"Yes, we traveled together, Colonel," Captain Salazar said. "Unfortunately our travels were interrupted, as you may have heard."

"Oh, the bear, yes," Caleb said. "You're Captain Salazar?"

"At your service," the Captain said, saluting again. "Allow me to introduce you to General Dimasio."

The large General did not salute-he nodded casually, and gestured toward his tent.

"We hope you will join us for coffee," Salazar said, to Caleb. "It is fortunate that we found one another so quickly. General Dimasio does not like to travel on the llano. The fact that you came to greet us will save him much trouble."

"Why, that's lucky, then," Caleb said. Without a word to Gus or Call, he bent and went into the tent.As soon as Caleb Cobb disappeared into the General's tent, the two Mexican soldiers closed the flaps and stood in front of it, muskets held across their chests. Call and Gus were alone amid hundreds of enemy soldiers, most of whom clearly registered hostility. No guns were pointed at them, and no sabres drawn, but the moment was awkward. Across the plain, on the neighboring ridge, the little knot of Rangers stood watching. To Call's mind, they looked forlorn. The Mexicans mostly wore clean uniforms; cooking pots simmered on many campfires. The army they were in the midst of was well equipped and well trained, a far cry from the frightened village militia they had encountered in Anton Chico.

"Well, here we are," Gus said. He found the silence uncomfortable.

"Yes, for now," Captain Salazar said. He was the only Mexican whose manner was friendly.

"Would you like breakfast?" he asked. "As you can see, we have plenty to eat. We even have eggs."

Gus was about to accept, happily-he felt he could eat thirty or forty eggs, if he were offered that many-but Call immediately rejected Salazar's offer.

"No sir, much obliged," Call said. "We've et."

"In that case, at least let me offer you coffee," Salazar said.

"I'll have some coffee, thanks," Gus said at once, fearing that his friend would decline even that.

Salazar motioned to an orderly, who soon brought each of them coffee in small cups.

"Why did you say we et?-you know we ain't et since we killed those prairie chickens," Gus said. "You could have let them feed us -they've got plenty."

"Our men ain't got plenty," Call reminded him, glancing toward the little group on the distant ridge. "I won't sit down and stuff myself with these enemies when our men are about ready to eat their belts."

"It ain't our fault they didn't get to be escorts," Gus said. "Escorting's hard work-here we are with a thousand men ready to kill us. Maybe they will kill us. If I have to die I'd just as soon do it with something in my stomach."

"No," Call said. "Just shut up and wait. Maybe Colonel Cobb will buy food for the troop and then we can all eat."Caleb Cobb was in the General's tent for over an hour. Not a sound came through the canvas. Gus and Call had nothing to do but wait. Captain Salazar soon went off to attend to some duty, leaving the two of them standing there amid their foes. The cups of coffee had been tiny; no one else offered them anything.

While they stood and waited, though, the Mexican cavalry divided itself into two groups, and moved out. One wing went south of the group of Rangers; the other wing flanked the Rangers to the north.

Then the massed infantry began the same maneuver. Several hundred men marched north of the Rangers-another several hundred marched south. The Rangers stood as they were, watching these developments helplessly.

"I wish our boys would take cover-only where's the cover to take?" Gus asked. "Pretty soon they'll be surrounded."

"You're right about the cover," Call said. "There ain't none to take."

"I wish the Colonel would come out-I'd like to know he's still alive," Gus said. The fact that no sound had come from the General's tent had begun to worry him.

"I expect he's alive-we'd have heard it if they shot him," Call said.

"Well, they might have cut his throat," Gus said. "Mexicans are handy with knives."

He had scarcely said it before the flaps of the tent opened and Caleb Cobb stepped out, wearing the same pleasant expression he had worn when he went in.

"Corporal McCrae, did they feed you?" he asked.

"They offered," Gus said. "Corporal Call declined."

"Oh, why's that? I had an excellent breakfast myself. The eggs were real tasty."

"I won't eat with skunks when my friends are starving," Call said.

"I see-that's the noble point of view," Caleb said. "I'm better at the selfish point of view, myself. You'll seldom see me neglect my own belly. My friends' bellies are their lookout."

"I'd just as soon leave," Call said. "I've been stared at long enough by people I'd just as soon shoot."

"That's brash, under the circumstances," Caleb said. "You can't go, though."

"Why not?" Call asked.

"Because I just surrendered," Caleb said. "I've a promise that if we lay down our arms not a man will be killed. I've done laid down mine-handed them to the General's orderly."

Gus was startled, Call angry. It was infuriating to have their own leader simply walk into a fancy tent with a fat general and surrender, without giving any of his men a chance to have their say.

"I expect to keep my weapons, unless I'm killed," Call said, in a tight voice.

"You can't keep them, Corporal-you have to give them up," Caleb said, with a menacing glance. "When I give an order I expect to have it obeyed. You're a young man. I won't have you dying over this foolishness."

"I'd rather die right now, fighting, than to be put in irons again," Call said. "I won't be put in irons."

"Why, no-there'll be no fetters this time," Caleb said. "This is a peaceable surrender the General and I have worked out. Nobody on either side needs to get hurt. As soon as the boys over there on the ridge have given up their weapons, we can all sit down and have breakfast like friends."