ns, who has escaped in some manner from his prison at Goliad."

"It's what we all think," said the Panther, "an' now we'll beat up these
thickets till we find him. He's sure to keep movin' away from Goliad,
an' he's got sense to stay in the cover of the timber."

The forest here ran back from the river three or four hundred yards, and
the five, separating and moving up the stream, searched thoroughly. The
hunt presently brought the Panther and Obed White together again, and
they expressed their disappointment at finding nothing. Then they heard
a cry from Will Allen, who came galloping through the thickets, his face
white and his eyes starting.

"I've found Ned Fulton!" he cried. "He's lying here dead in the bushes!"

The Panther and Obed stared in amazement.

"Will," exclaimed the Panther, "have you gone plum' crazy? Ned was
killed at the Alamo!"

"I tell you he is here!" cried the boy, who was shaking with excitement.
"I have just seen him! He was lying on his back in the bushes, and he
did not move!"

"Lead on! Let's see what you have seen!" said Obed, who began to share
in the boy's excitement.

The Panther whistled, and Smith and Karnes joined them. Then, led by
Will Allen, they rode swiftly through the bushes, coming, forty or fifty
yards away, into a tiny grassy glade. It was either Ned Fulton or his
ghost, and the Panther, remembering the Alamo, took it for the latter.
He uttered a cry of astonishment and reined in his horse. But Obed White
leaped to the ground, and ran to the prostrate figure.

"A miracle!" he exclaimed. "It's Ned Fulton! And he's alive!"

The others also sprang from their horses, and crowded around their
youthful comrade, whom they had considered among the fallen of the
Alamo. Ned was unconscious, his face was hot with fever, and his
breathing was hard and irregular.

"How he escaped from the Alamo and how he came here we don't know," said
Obed White solemnly, "but there are lots of strange things in heaven and
earth, as old Shakespeare said, and this is one of the strangest of them
all."

"However, it's happened we're glad to get him back," said the Panther.
"And now we must go to work. You can tell by lookin' at him that he's
been through all kinds of trouble, an' a powerful lot of it."

These skilled borderers knew that Ned was suffering from exhaustion.
They forced open his mouth, poured a drink down his throat from a flask
that Karnes carried, and rubbed his hands vigorousl