He heard a key turning in the lock and the door opening, but he did not look around. They usually came with his food at this hour, and the food was always the same. There was no cause for curiosity. But when he heard the steps of two men instead of one he did look around. There was the same soldier bringing his supper of frijoles and tortillas on a tin plate, and a cup of very bad coffee, but he was accompanied by the new governor of the castle, Captain Pedro de Armijo, whom John did not like at all. The soldier drew up the stool, put the food on it, and also a candle that he carried. John began to eat and drink, taking not the slightest notice of de Armijo. The man from the first had given him the impression of cold, malignant cruelty. John Bedford had often thought that his own spirit was crushed, but it was far from being so. Pride was strong within him, and he resolved that de Armijo should speak first. De Armijo stood in silence for some time, looking down at the prisoner. He was not in a good humor, he had seldom been so since that fatal day when the whole army of Santa Anna was hurled back by the little force from the North. He knew many things of which the prisoner did not dream, and he had no thought of giving him even the slightest hint of them. In him was the venomous disposition of the cat that likes to play with the rat it has caught. A curious piece of mockery, or perhaps it was not wholly mockery, had occurred to him. "Bedford," he said, speaking good English, "you have been a prisoner here a long time, and no one loves captivity." "I have not heard that any one does," replied John, taking another drink of the bad coffee. "You cannot escape. You see the impossibility of any such attempt." "It does not look probable, I admit. Still, few things are impossible." De Armijo smiled, showing even white teeth. He rather liked this game of playing with the rat in the trap. So much was in favor of the cat. "It is not a possibility with which one can reckon," he said, "and I should think that the desire to be free would be overpowering in one so young as you." "Have you come here to make sport of me?" said John, with ominous inflection. "Because if you have I shall not answer another question." "Not at all," said de Armijo. "I come on business. You have been here, as I said, a long time, and in that time many changes have occurred in the world." "What changes?" asked John sharply. "The most important of them is the growth in power of Mexico," said de Armijo smoothly. "We triumph over all our enemies." "Do you mean that you have really retaken Texas?" asked John, with a sudden falling of the heart. De Armijo smiled again, then lighted a cigarette and took a puff or two before he gave an answer which was really no answer at all, so far as the words themselves were concerned.