at once. But you two need something better than talk."

He broke off suddenly, because Ned had sat down on one of the logs,
looking white and ill. The collapse had come after so many terrible
trials and privations, and not even his will could hold him.

"Here, you take a drink of this water, it's good and cold," said "Deaf"
Smith kindly as he held out a canteen. "I reckon that no boy has ever
passed through more than you have, and if there's any hero you are one."

"Good words," said Bowie.

Ned smiled. These words were healing balm to his pride. To be praised
thus by these famous Texans was ample reward. Besides, he had great and
vital news to all, and he knew that Obed would wait for him to tell it.

"I think," said Bowie, "that we'd better camp for the night in the clump
of trees that served you two so well, and, before it's dark, we'll look
around and see what spoil is to be had."

They found three rifles that had been dropped by slain or wounded
Lipans, and they were well pleased to get them, as rifles were about to
become the most valuable of all articles in Texas. They also recovered
Ned and Obed's horses, which the Indians had left in the valley,
evidently expecting to take them away, when they secured the scalps of
the two fugitives.

Ned, after the cold water and a little rest, fully recovered his
strength and poise, but the men would not let him do any work, telling
him that he had already done his share. So he sat on his log and watched
them as they prepared camp and supper. Besides being the Texans and his
own people, to whom he had come after the long journey of perils, they
made a wonderful appeal. These were the bold riders, the dauntless, the
fearless. He would not find here the pliancy, the cunning, the craft and
the dark genius of Santa Anna, but he would find men who talked
straight, who shot straight, and who feared nobody.

They were sixteen in number, and all were clad wholly in buckskin, with
fur caps upon their heads. They were heavily armed, every man carrying
at least a rifle, a pistol, and a formidable knife, invented by Bowie.
All were powerful physically, and every face had been darkened by the
sun. Ned felt that such a group as this was a match for a hundred
Mexicans or Lipans.

They worked dextrously and rapidly, unsaddling their horses and
tethering them where they could graze in the open, drawing up the dead
wood until it made a heap which was quickly lighted, and then cooking