he Alamo. Thus he arrived at the result,
which indicated comparatively little risk for himself.

The shrewdest calculations are often wrong. As he passed through the
convent yard he met Crockett, and the two walked on together. But before
they had gone half a dozen steps a bomb hissed through the air, fell and
rolled to their feet. It was still hissing and smoking, but Ned, driven
by some unknown impulse, seized it and with a mighty effort hurled it
over the wall, where it burst. Then he stood licking his burned fingers
and looking rather confusedly at Crockett. He felt a certain shyness
over what he had done.

The veteran frontiersman had already formed a great affection for the
boy. He knew that Ned's impulse had come from a brave heart and a quick
mind, and that he had probably saved both their lives. He took a great
resolution that this boy, the youngest of all the defenders, should be
saved.

"That was done well, Ned," he said quietly. "I'm glad, boy, that I've
known you. I'd be proud if you were a son of mine. We can talk plainly
here with death all around us. You've got a lot in that head of yours.
You ought to make a great man, a great man for Texas. Won't you do what
I say and slip out of the Alamo while there's still a chance?"

Ned was much moved, but he kept his resolution as he had kept it before.
He shook his head.

"You are all very good to me here," he said. "Mr. Bowie, too, has asked
me to go, but if I should do so and the rest of you were to fall I'd be
ashamed of myself all the rest of my life. I'm a Texan now, and I'm
going to see it through with the rest of you."

"All right," said Crockett lightly. "I've heard that you can lead a
horse to the water, but you can't make him drink, an' if a boy don't
want to go you can't make him go. So we'll just go into this little
improvised armory of ours, an' you an' I will put in our time moldin'
bullets."

They entered one of the adobe buildings. A fire had been built on the
hearth, and a half dozen Texans were already busy there. But they
quickly made room for Crockett and Ned. Crockett did not tell Ned that
their supplies of powder and lead were running low, and that they must
reduce their fire from the walls in order that they might have
sufficient to meet an attack in force.

But it was a cheerful little party that occupied itself with molding
bullets. Ned put a bar of lead into a ladle, and held it over the fire
until the bar became molten. Then