Page:Into Mexico with General Scott (1920).djvu/87

 "Out there with the sailors and the big guns. That's where I landed. But they sent me back."

"Oh, that's the navy battery. What'd you think of it?"

"They're the biggest guns I ever saw."

"Guess they are. Guess they'll fix those dons—blow their walls to pieces. They're sixty-eight-pounder shell guns and thirty-two-pounder solid shot fellows. You bet! The army's got some just as big, but they haven't come yet, so the navy's going to help us out. We've a battery of twenty-four-pounders out there, though. Only seven hundred yards from the walls. Wait till you hear the music."

"The walls haven't been hurt yet; or they hadn't been, when I left," said Jerry.

"That's because we weren't ready. We've had to use mortars; but throwing bombs into houses isn't what we're here for. Old Fuss and Feathers—he knows what he's about. That's why he called on the navy, when his own siege guns didn't arrive. He wants to finish things here and march on into the mountains before the yellow fever starts up. Say, it's been pretty hot in Vera Cruz, hasn't it, with all those bombs bursting?"

"It certainly has," Jerry answered soberly. "They've killed people who weren't fighting, and knocked down a lot of houses."

"Well, that's war. The Mexicans ought to have surrendered when they had a chance. They can surrender any time. All they need do is to hang out a white flag. Fuss and Feathers is going to take their city. He doesn't want their houses, though, and I guess he's sorry to hurt non-combatants. The civil