From the brush and sand hills a troop of Mexican lancers, in bright uniforms of red caps and red jackets and yellow capes, had cantered down to the open beach, their pennons flapping, their lance tips gleaming. They rode and waved defiantly, daring the Americans to come ashore. A row of little flags broke out from the mizzen mast of the _Raritan_. At once two gunboat steamers and five sloops of war left the squadron, they ploughed in, a puff of whitish smoke jetted from the bows of a gunboat, and as quick as a wink another puff burst close over the heads of the lancer troop. Boom-boom! The gay lancers, bending low in their saddles, scudded like mad back into the sand hills and the brush, with another shell peppering their heels. “Hurrah! Hurrah!” Jerry cheered, for it looked as though that beach was going to be kept clear. He got such a box on the ear that it knocked him sprawling and set his head to ringing. “You shut up!” old Manuel scolded. “You little American dog, you! Your Americans are cowards. They dare not land and fight. They think to stand off out at sea and fight. The miserable gringos from the north! That’s the Mexican name for them: gringos. You understand?” No, Jerry did not understand. “Gringo” was a new word――a contempt word recently invented by the Mexicans, when they spoke of the North Americans――his Americans. But he wasn’t caring, now; he was wild with the box on the ear, and the sight of the United States soldiers. Boxes on the ear never had angered him so, before. It was pretty hard to be cuffed, here in front of the Flag; cuffed by the enemies of the Flag. “That isn’t so,” he snarled hotly. “They aren’t cowards. You’ll see. They’ll land where they please. _And all your army and guns can’t keep them off._ Then they’ll walk right over your walls.” [Illustration: “AND ALL YOUR ARMY AND GUNS CAN’T KEEP THEM OFF”] “Shut up!” young Manuel bawled, and cuffed him on the other side of the head. “Of course they are cowards. They’ve been beaten many times by our brave men. Your General Taylor has been captured. He dressed like a woman and tried to hide. Now your gringos are so afraid that they think to land out of reach of our cannon. If they do land, what will they do? Nothing. The minute they come closer the guns of the castle will blow them to pieces.” “Yes; and soon the yellow fever will kill them. They will find themselves in a death-trap,” old Manuel added. “Bah! Our brave General Morales may let them land. He sees how foolish they are. All he needs do is to wait. Where can they go? Nowhere! They will fight mosquitoes. That is it: they are come to fight the mosquitoes!” Jerry saw that there was no use in arguing; not with two men whose hands were heavy, and who preferred to believe lies. They did not know American soldiers and sailors.