From one block-house to another ran an earthen parapet with a ditch, and on each parapet were mounted three guns.
"Well, what think you of San Felipe, and our chances of taking it ?" asked Carmen, after a while.
"I don't think its defences are very formidable.

A single mortar on that height to the east would make the place untenable in an hour; set it on fire in a dozen places.

It is all wood.

But to attempt its capture with a force of infantry numerically inferior to the garrison will be a very hazardous enterprise indeed, and barring miraculously good luck on the one side or miraculously ill luck on the other cannot possibly succeed, I should say.

No, Carmen, I don't think we shall be in San Felipe to-morrow night, or any night, just yet." "But how if a part of the garrison be absent?
Hist! Did not you hear something ?" "Only the crackling of a branch.