They mounted horses held by orderlies, and cantered away, probably for headquarters where General Scott’s large tent stood, back of the First Division camp. Jerry and Hannibal climbed to the crest of the sand hill. The evening had fallen; the west was pink, and the tops of the sand hills and the towers of the city glowed, but the dusk was gathering on the plain and over the gulf. Down in the plain the mortars were firing slowly, as before, one after another, as if timed by a clock; and the city and the castle were replying in same fashion. As the dusk deepened the bombs could be seen. They rose high, sailed on, leaving a streak of red from their burning fuses, and dropped swiftly――and all the city was lighted luridly by the burst of flame. The Mexican shells crossed their tracks with other streaks of red; and they, also, burst with great lurid explosions, illuminating the sand hills and the dark lines of trenches below. Sometimes there were four and five bombs in the air at the same time, going and coming. It was a grand sight, from the outside. Jerry was glad that he was not in Vera Cruz; and he was glad that he was not one of the soldiers in those little detachments that now and again hustled silently through the hills, to enter the trenches, and do outpost duty and repair the works, under fire. “Guess to-morrow the army heavies will be helping the navy thirty-twos and sixty-eights,” Hannibal remarked. “Then we’ll have the walls breached, and we’ll all go in and capture the whole shebang. General Scott won’t sit around here, waiting. He’ll storm the walls and have the business over with before the yellow fever starts up. We’ve got to get away from this low country.” “What are we fighting about, anyway, Hannibal?” “Fighting about, boy! To whip Mexico, of course. Got to fetch her to time, haven’t we? ‘Conquer a peace’――that’s what General Scott says. The Republic of Texas has come into the United States, and as long as Mexico says she sha’n’t, and keeps pestering Americans and won’t pay for damages, the only way to get a peace is to conquer it. Besides, Mexico fired first, at the Rio Grande――killed some of the dragoons and captured Lieutenant Thornton and a lot more. Guess we had to fight, after that, didn’t we?” “Mexico says we invaded her.” “Aw, shucks!” Hannibal scoffed. “So do some of the home papers. That’s politics. When once the army gets to shooting then talk isn’t much use till one side or the other is licked. They all ought to have arranged matters before the fighting started.” Until long after dark they two crouched here, together with other soldiers, watching the bombs. The night was clear and still, except for the smoke and the guns. And when the castle spoke with a thirteen-incher, and that landed, then――_Boom!_ “Well, I’ve got to go for tattoo,” said Hannibal, with a yawn. “You’d better skip, too, or you won’t be let in if you don’t have the countersign. After tattoo everybody’s supposed to be bunked for the night.”