But Ned felt melancholy. It seemed to him that somebody whom he liked
had died.

"I saw him talking to you and Obed," he said. "What was he saying?"

The Ring Tailed Panther frowned and Ned heard his teeth grit upon one
another.

"He was sayin' a lot of things," he replied. "He was talkin' low down,
hittin' at men who couldn't hit back, abusin' prisoners, which the same
was Obed an' me. He was doin' what I guess you would call tauntin',
tellin' of all the things we would have to suffer. He said that they'd
get you, too, before mornin' an' that we'd all be hanged as rebels an'
traitors to Mexico. He laughed at the way he fooled us. He said that
spat he had with Sandoval was only make-believe. He said that we'd never
get San Antonio; that he'd kept Cos informed about all our movements an'
that Santa Anna was comin' with a great army. He said that most of us
would be chawed right up, an' that them that wasn't chawed up would wish
they had been before Santa Anna got through with 'em."

"Many a threatened man who runs away lives to fight another day," said
Obed cheerfully.

"That's so," said the Ring Tailed Panther, "an' I say it among us three
that if we don't take San Antonio we'll have a mighty good try at it,
an' if it comes to hangin' an' all that sort of business there's Texan
as well as Mexican ropes."

They reached another belt of forest about 3 o'clock in the morning, and
they concluded to rest there and get some sleep. They felt no fear of
the Mexicans who, they were sure, were now riding southward. They slept
here four or five hours, and late the next afternoon reached the first
settlement on the Brazos.

Ned and his companions spent a week on the river and when they rode
south again they took with them nearly a hundred volunteers for the
attack on San Antonio, the last draft that the little settlements could
furnish. Very few, save the women and children, were left behind.

On their return journey they passed through the very forest in which Ned
had made his singular rescue of Obed and the Ring Tailed Panther. They
saw the camp and they saw the swath made by the fire, a narrow belt,
five or six miles in length, ending as the Ring Tailed Panther had
predicted at a curve of the creek. The Mexicans, as they now knew
definitely, were gone days ago from that region.

"Perhaps we'll meet Urrea when we attack San Antonio," said Ned.

"Maybe," said Obed.

They rode to the camp on the Salado without interr