s drive the Mexican force out of this
very city."

"When it comes to that I shall be no laggard."

But he was deathly pale, for he was suffering as men suffer who feel the
sweet bonds of wife and children and home, and dread the rending of
them apart. In a moment, however, the soul behind his white face made
it visibly luminous. "Houston," he said, "whenever the cause of freedom
needs me, I am ready. I shall want no second call. But is it not
possible, that even yet--"

"It is impossible to avert what is already here. Within a few days,
perhaps to-morrow, you will hear the publication of an edict from Santa
Anna, ordering every American to give up his arms."

"What! Give up our arms! No, no, by Heaven! I will die fighting for
mine, rather."

"Exactly. That is how every white man in Texas feels about it. And if
such a wonder as a coward existed among them, he understands that he
may as well die fighting Mexicans, as die of hunger or be scalped by
Indians. A large proportion of the colonists depend on their rifles for
their daily food. All of them know that they must defend their own
homes from the Comanche, or see them perish. Now, do you imagine that
Americans will obey any such order? By all the great men of seventeen
seventy-five, if they did, I would go over to the Mexicans and help them
to wipe the degenerate cowards out of existence!"

He rose as he spoke; he looked like a flame, and his words cut like a
sword. Worth caught fire at his vehemence and passion. He clasped his
hands in sympathy as he walked with him to the door. They stood silently
together for a moment on the threshold, gazing into the night. Over the
glorious land the full moon hung, enamoured. Into the sweet, warm air
mockingbirds were pouring low, broken songs of ineffable melody. The
white city in the mystical light looked like an enchanted city. It was
so still that the very houses looked asleep.

"It is a beautiful land," said the doctor.

"It is worthy of freedom," answered Houston. Then he went with long,
swinging steps down the garden, and into the shadows beyond, and Worth
turned in and closed the door.

He had been watching for this very hour for twenty years; and yet he
found himself wholly unprepared for it. Like one led by confused and
uncertain thoughts, he went about the room mechanically locking up his
papers, and the surgical instruments he valued so highly. As he did so
he perceived the book he had been reading when Houst