shed up the woods, lest some Mexican musketeer
should lie hidden there.

Nobody slept any more that night. Ned, Will and the Panther kept a sharp
watch upon the bed of the creek, the moon and stars fortunately aiding
them. But the Mexicans did not venture again by that perilous road,
although toward morning they opened a scattering fire from the plain,
many of their bullets whistling at random among the trees and thickets.
Some of the Texans, crawling to the edge of the wood, replied, but they
seemed to have little chance for a good shot, as the Mexicans lay behind
a swell. The besiegers grew tired after a while and silence came again.

Three of the Texans had suffered slight wounds, but the Panther and
Fields bound them up skillfully. It was still light enough for these
tasks. Fields was particularly jubilant over their success, as he had a
right to be. The day before he could look forward only to his own
execution. Now he was free and victorious. Exultantly he hummed:

You've heard, I s'pose, of New Orleans,
It's famed for youth and beauty;
There are girls of every hue, it seems,
From snowy white to sooty.
Now Packenham has made his brags,
If he that day was lucky,
He'd have the girls and cotton bags
In spite of Old Kentucky.

But Jackson, he was wide awake,
And was not scared at trifles,
For well he knew Kentucky's boys,
With their death-dealing rifles.
He led them down to cypress swamp,
The ground was low and mucky;
There stood John Bull in martial pomp,
And here stood old Kentucky.

"Pretty good song, that of yours," said the Panther approvingly. "Where
did you get it?"

"From my father," replied Fields. "He's a Kentuckian, an' he fit at New
Orleans. He was always hummin' that song, an' it come back to me after
we drove off the Mexicans. Struck me that it was right timely."

Ned and Will, on their own initiative, had been drawing all the fallen
logs that they could find and move to the edge of the wood, and having
finished the task they came back to the bed of the creek. Roylston, the
rifle across his knees, was sitting with his eyes closed, but he opened
them as they approached. They were uncommonly large and bright eyes, and
they expressed pleasure.

"It gratifies me to see that neither of you is hurt," he said. "This has
been a strange night for two who are as young as you are. And it is a
strange night for me, too. I