Gone to Texas by Don Worcester Page A

replied, “but only thirty-six have guns.”
    â€œNo matter. If all goes right we shouldn’t have to fire a shot.” Ellis explained his plan. Then he and his two companions led the way across the shallow creek and through the grass to the hill where the sentry waited by the five cannon. Avila quietly ordered some of his men to swing the guns around and aim them at the sleeping royalist soldiers, while Ellis lit a small fire with flint and steel. When he had five sticks burning, he handed four of them to others, then held the last one above the touchhole of a cannon. The others stood with their matches poised over the remaining artillery pieces.
    â€œOrder them to surrender,” Ellis told Avila.
    When the royalist soldiers heard Avila’s demand to surrender and saw the five men ready to fire the cannon, they leaped to their feet and held up their hands. The militia, camped at a distance, fled; most, Ellis was sure, would join the patriots the next day. In his underwear, Captain Paris quietly untied his horse, leaped to its back, and dashed away.
    â€œGet their weapons,” Avila ordered his men. When they had collected all of the muskets and sabers they could find, Avila armed his men and placed a heavy guard around the camp. The royalist soldiers lay down again.
    In the morning, Ellis and Avila counted the captured weapons. In addition to the five artillery pieces were six hundred muskets, nearly as many sabers, and a large supply of gunpowder. Avila was elated. “Wait till Morelos sees this!” he exulted.
    Morelos soon arrived, and he smiled broadly when he saw the captured arsenal. “Elias,” he said, “I thank you for my first victory.” The usually undemonstrative leader embraced Ellis and gripped his hand. “Hidalgo ordered me to raise an army and seize Acapulco,” he continued. “With these weapons we can do it, but I still need your help.” He looked at Ellis expectantly.
    Ellis tugged at his earlobe as he thought about it. If the rebels took the castle, it would mean capturing or killing Carreño. That prospect made his pulse quicken. “You can count on me,” he replied, “at least until you take Acapulco. I’ve got some scores to settle there.”
    â€œGood. Your rank is captain of Engineers.”
    The rebel army immediately set out through the mountains on the way to Acapulco. As he looked down on the Castle of San Diego, Ellis thought of his years in the tiny cell, and wondered if Bill was still there. “If it wasn’t for my pet lizard, I’d blow it up with my own hands,” he said.
    â€œWe need to have it in our possession,” Morelos countered. “With it we can control the whole southern coast. We must take it, not destroy it.”
    â€œBut how can we possibly do that?” Avila asked. “It looks impregnable.”
    â€œPerhaps not,” Morelos said knowingly. “Call the officers here.”
    When they were assembled, Morelos took a letter from his pocket and read it to them. It was from Major Pepe Gago, commander of artillery at the castle. “There is a conspiracy to surrender the castle to the insurgents,” Gago had written. “On the night of February 7, we will raise a lantern to the top of the flagstaff. Form all of your men in the space before the drawbridge so they will be ready to rush in the moment we lower it and open the gate. We will fill the touchholes with tallow so the cannon cannot be fired.”
    â€œWhat do you think of that?” the smiling Morelos asked, folding the letter and pocketing it. Most were delighted at the prospect of gaining such a valuable prize without battle or siege.
    â€œIt sounds too good to be true,” Avila remarked.
    â€˜It is too good to be true,” Ellis interjected. “It’s a trap. If we go where he says, they’ll have a bunch of cannon trained on the spot and slaughter us.”
    â€œOh, no,”