"Why, I'm sure I don't snore, Mr. Crockett," said Ned, red in the face.

"No, you don't snore, I'll take that back," said Davy Crockett, when the
laugh subsided, "but I never saw a young man sleep more beautifully an'
skillfully. Why, the risin' an' fallin' of your chest was as reg'lar as
the tickin' of a clock."

Ned joined them at the table. He did not mind the jests of those men, as
they did not mind the jests of one another. They were now like close
blood-kin. They were a band of brethren, bound together by the
unbreakable tie of mortal danger.

Ned spent two-thirds of the night on the church wall. The Mexicans let
the cannon rest in the darkness, and only a few rifle shots were fired.
But there were many lights in San Antonio, and on the outskirts two
great bonfires burned. Santa Anna and his generals, feeling that their
prey could not escape from the trap, and caring little for the peons who
had been slain, were making a festival. It is even said that Santa Anna
on this campaign, although he left a wife in the city of Mexico,
exercised the privileges of an Oriental ruler and married another amid
great rejoicings.

Ned slept soundly when his watch was finished, and he awoke again the
next day to the thunder of the cannonade, which continued almost without
cessation throughout the day, but in the afternoon Travis wrote a
letter, a noble appeal to the people of Texas for help. He stated that
they had been under a continual bombardment for more than twenty-four
hours, but not a man had yet been hurt. "I shall never surrender or
retreat," he said. "Then I call on you in the name of liberty, of
patriotism, and of everything dear to the American character, to come to
our aid with all dispatch." He closed with the three words, "Victory or
death," not written in any vainglory or with any melodramatic appeal,
but with the full consciousness of the desperate crisis, and a quiet
resolution to do as he said.

The heroic letter is now in the possession of the State of Texas. Most
of the men in the Alamo knew its contents, and they approved of it. When
it was fully dark Travis gave it to Albert Martin. Then he looked around
for another messenger.

"Two should go together in case of mishap," he said.

His eye fell upon Ned.

"If you wish to go I will send you," he said, "but I leave it to your
choice. If you prefer to stay, you stay."

Ned's first impulse was to go. He might find Obed White, Will Allen and
the Panthe