They climbed upon the wall, and Major Morris and Captain Martin
went toward Travis, Bowie and Crockett, who stood together waiting. Ned
paused a little distance away. He saw them talking together earnestly,
but he could not hear what they said. Far away he saw the three Mexicans
riding slowly toward San Antonio.

Ned's eyes came back to the wall. He saw Bowie detach himself from the
other two and advance toward the cannon. A moment later a flash came
from its muzzle, a heavy report rolled over the plain, and then came
back in faint echoes.

The Alamo had sent its answer. A deep cheer came from the Texans. Ned's
heart thrilled. He had his wish.

The boy looked back toward San Antonio and his eyes were caught by
something red on the tower of the Church of San Fernando. It rose,
expanded swiftly, and then burst out in great folds. It was a blood-red
flag, flying now in the wind, the flag of no quarter. No Texan would be
spared, and Ned knew it. Nevertheless his heart thrilled again.

CHAPTER IX

THE FLAG OF NO QUARTER

Ned gazed long at the great red flag as its folds waved in the wind. A
chill ran down his spine, a strange, throbbing sensation, but not of
fear. They were a tiny islet there amid a Mexican sea which threatened
to roll over them. But the signal of the flag, he realized, merely told
him that which he had expected all the time. He knew Santa Anna. He
would show no quarter to those who had humbled Cos and his forces at San
Antonio.

The boy was not assigned to the watch that night, but he could not sleep
for a long time. Among these borderers there was discipline, but it was
discipline of their own kind, not that of the military martinet. Ned was
free to go about as he chose, and he went to the great plaza into which
they had driven the cattle. Some supplies of hay had been gathered for
them, and having eaten they were now all at rest in a herd, packed close
against the western side of the wall.

Ned passed near them, but they paid no attention to him, and going on he
climbed upon the portion of the wall which ran close to the river. Some
distance to his right and an equal distance to his left were sentinels.
But there was nothing to keep him from leaping down from the wall or the
outside and disappearing. The Mexican investment was not yet complete.
Yet no such thought ever entered Ned's head. His best friends, Will
Allen, the Panther and Obed White, were out there somewhere, if they
were sti