y cry.

Never had Old Jack made a more magnificent response. Ned felt the mighty
mass of bone and muscle gather in a bunch beneath him. Then, ready to
expand again with violent energy, it was released as if by the touch of
a spring. The horse sprang from the high bank far out into the deep
river.

Ned felt his serape fly from him and his rifle dropped from his hand.
Then the yellow waters closed over both him and Old Jack. They came up
again, Ned still on the horse's back, but with an icy chill through all
his veins. He could not see for a moment or two, as the water was in his
eyes, but he heard dimly the shouts of the Mexicans and several shots.
Two or three bullets splashed the water around him and another struck
his sombrero, which was floating away on the surface of the stream.

The horse, turning somewhat, swam powerfully in a diagonal course across
the stream. Ned, dazed for the moment by the shock of the plunge from a
height into the water, clung tightly to his back. He sat erect at first,
and then remembering that he must evade the bullets leaned forward with
the horse's neck between him and the Mexicans.

More shots were fired, but again he was untouched, and then the horse
was feeling with his forefeet in the muddy bank for a hold. The next
instant, with a powerful effort, he pulled himself upon the shore. The
violent shock nearly threw Ned from his back, but the boy seized his
mane and hung on.

The Mexicans shouted and fired anew, but Ned, now sitting erect, raced
for San Antonio, only a mile away.

CHAPTER VIII

IN THE ALAMO

Most of the people in San Antonio were asleep when the dripping figure
of a half unconscious boy on a great horse galloped toward them in that
momentous dawn. He was without hat or serape. He was bareheaded and his
rifle was gone. He was shouting "Up! Up! Santa Anna and the Mexican army
are at hand!" But his voice was so choked and hoarse that he could not
be heard a hundred feet away.

Davy Crockett, James Bowie and a third man were standing in the Main
Plaza. The third man, like the other two, was of commanding proportions.
He was a full six feet in height, very erect and muscular, and with full
face and red hair. He was younger than the others, not more than
twenty-eight, but he was Colonel William Barrett Travis, a North
Carolina lawyer, who was now in command of the few Texans in San
Antonio.

The three men were talking very anxiously. Crockett had brought wo