a clump of
chaparral. Wait a moment and I will rejoin you."

He came back, riding a fine horse, and he was as well equipped as the
Texans. Then the four rode on toward San Antonio de Bexar. They found
that Urrea knew much. Cos himself would probably be in San Antonio
within a week, and heavy reinforcements would arrive later. The three
in return gave him a description of the fight at the mound, and they
told how the Texans afterward had scattered for different points on the
border.

They were not the only riders that night. Men were carrying along the
whole frontier the news that the war had begun, that the death struggle
was now on between Mexico and Texas, the giant on one side and the pigmy
on the other.

But the ride of the four in the trail of Castenada's flying troop was
peaceful enough. About three hours after midnight they stopped under the
shelter of some cottonwoods. The Ring Tailed Panther took the watch
while the other three slept. Ned lay awake for a little while between
his blankets, but he saw that Urrea, who was not ten feet away, had gone
sound asleep almost instantly. His olive face lighted dimly by the
moon's rays was smooth and peaceful, and Ned was quite sure that he
would be a good comrade. Then he, too, entered the land of slumber.

The Ring Tailed Panther stalked up and down, his broad powerful figure
becoming gigantic in the moonlight. Belligerent by nature and the born
frontiersman, he was very serious now.

He knew that they were riding toward great danger and he glanced at the
face of the sleeping boy. The Ring Tailed Panther had a heart within
him, and the temptation to make Ned go back, if he could, was very
strong. But he quickly dismissed it as useless. The boy would not go.
Besides, he was skillful, strong and daring.

The Ring Tailed Panther tramped on. Coyotes howled on the prairie, and
the deeper note of a timber wolf came from the right, where there was a
thick fringe of trees along a creek. But he paid no attention to them.
All the while he watched the circle of the horizon, narrow by night, for
horsemen. If they came he believed that his warning must be quick,
because they were likely to be either Mexicans or Indians. He saw no
riders but toward daylight he saw horses in the west. They were without
riders and he walked to the nearest swell to look at them.

He looked down upon a herd of wild horses, many of them clean and fine
of build. At their head was a great black stall