the Texans came. Ned called to his
friends.

"Why shouldn't we use it!" he said, "even if it is cold?"

"Why shouldn't we?" said Obed. "Even though we fight we must live."

They took the food and coffee, cold as it was, to the men, and they ate
and drank eagerly. Then they searched everywhere and found large
supplies of provisions in the house, so much, in fact, that the Ring
Tailed Panther growled very pleasantly between his teeth.

"There's enough here," he said, "to last two or three days, an' it's
well when you're in a fort, ready to stand a siege, to have something to
eat."

Some of the men now left the windows and loopholes to get a rest and Ned
found a place at one of them. Peeping out he saw the bare street, torn
by shot and shell. He saw the flash of the Texan rifles from the De La
Garcia house and he saw the blaze of the Mexican cannon in the plaza.
Mexican men, women and children on the flat roofs, out of range, were
eagerly watching the battle. Clouds of smoke drifted over the city.

While Ned was at the window, a second cannon ball smashed through the
wall of the Veramendi house, and caused the debris to fall in masses.
The Colonel grew uneasy. The cannon gave the Mexicans an immense
advantage, and they were now using it to the utmost. The house would be
battered down over the heads of the Texans, and they could not live in
the streets, which the Mexicans, from their dominating position, could
sweep with cannon and a thousand rifles and muskets. A third ball
crashed through the wall and demolished the willow sofa on which the
three had been sitting. Plaster rained down upon the Texans. They looked
at one another. They could not stay in the house nor could they go out.
A boy suddenly solved the difficulty.

"Let's dig a trench across the street to the De La Garcia house!" cried
Ned, "and join our comrades there!"

"That's the thing!" they shouted. They had not neglected to bring
intrenching tools with them, and they found spades and shovels about the
house. But in order to secure the greatest protection for their work
they decided to wait until night, confident that they could hold their
present position throughout the day.

It was many hours until the darkness, and the fire rose and fell at
intervals. More shattered plaster fell upon them, but they were still
holding the wreck of a house, when the welcome twilight deepened and
darkened into the night. Then they began work just inside the doorway,