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+Project Gutenberg's The Lost Gold of the Montezumas, by William O. Stoddard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Lost Gold of the Montezumas
+       A Story of the Alamo
+
+Author: William O. Stoddard
+
+Illustrator: Charles H. Stephens
+
+Release Date: January 17, 2012 [EBook #38603]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST GOLD OF THE MONTEZUMAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover art]
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "This is a terrible piece of work."  Page 185.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LOST GOLD OF
+
+THE MONTEZUMAS
+
+
+A STORY OF THE ALAMO
+
+
+BY
+
+WILLIAM O. STODDARD
+
+AUTHOR OF "CHUMLEY'S POST," "CROWDED OUT O' CROFIELD," "THE TALKING
+LEAVES," ETC.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+
+_CHARLES H. STEPHENS_
+
+
+
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+
+1898
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1897,
+
+BY
+
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The Gods of the Montezumas
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Alamo Fort
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The Dream of the New Empire
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The Race for the Chaparral
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Among the Bushes
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The Old Cash-Box
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+The Escape of the Rangers
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Camp at the Spring
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Skirmish in the Night
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A Baffled Pursuit
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The Charge of the Lancers
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The Horse-Thieves and the Stampede
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+The Last of Tetzcatl
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The Perilous Path
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The Return of the Gold Hunters
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Army of Santa Anna
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+The First Shot
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Crockett's Alarm Gun
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+The Reinforcement
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Nearing the End
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"This is a terrible piece of work" . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece._
+
+"Good!  Tetzcatl go to the Alamo"
+
+"Heap dollar," remarked Red Wolf
+
+"Ugh!" screeched the Comanche at the end of a terrific minute, and
+  he sank into the grass
+
+In rode the very airy captain of lancers
+
+A dark, stern, terrible shape half rose from a couch
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GODS OF THE MONTEZUMAS.
+
+It was a gloomy place.  It would have been dark but for a heap of
+blazing wood upon a rock at one side.  That is, it looked like a rock
+at first sight, but upon a closer inspection it proved to be a cube of
+well-fitted, although roughly finished, masonry.  It was about six feet
+square, and there were three stone steps leading up in front.
+
+Behind this altar-like structure a vast wall of the natural rock, a
+dark limestone, had been sculptured into the shape of a colossal and
+exceedingly ugly human face,--as if the head of a stone giant were half
+sunken in that side of what was evidently an immense cave.
+
+There were men in the cave, but no women were to be seen.  Several of
+the men were standing near the altar, and one of them was putting fuel
+upon the fire.  The only garment worn by any of them was a ragged
+blanket, the Mexican _serape_.  In the middle of the blanket was a
+hole, and when the wearer's head was thrust through this he was in full
+dress.
+
+There was no present need for carrying weapons, but arms of all
+sorts--lances, swords, bows and sheaves of arrows--were strewn in
+careless heaps along the base of the wall.  Besides these, and
+remarkable for their shapes and sizes, there were a number of curiously
+carved and ornamented clubs.  All the men visible were old and
+emaciated.  They were wrinkled, grimy, dark, with long, black-gray
+hair, and coal-black, beady eyes.  Withal, there was about them a
+listless, unoccupied, purposeless air, as if they were only half alive.
+
+They seemed to see well enough in that lurid half light, and they
+wandered hither and thither, now and then exchanging a few words in
+some harsh and guttural dialect that seemed to have no dividing pauses
+between its interminable words.
+
+Nevertheless, this was not the only tongue with which they were
+familiar, for one of the men at the altar turned to those who were near
+him and spoke to them in Spanish.
+
+"The gods have spoken loudly," he said.  "They have been long without
+service.  They are hungry.  Tetzcatl will go.  He will find if the
+Americans are strong enough to strike the Spaniards in Texas.  He will
+bring them to serve the gods in the valley of the old kings.  He will
+stir up the Comanches and the Lipans.  The Apaches in the west are
+already busy.  The gods will be quiet if he can arouse for them the
+enemies of Spain."
+
+For a moment the dark figures stood as still as so many statues, and
+then a sepulchral voice arose among them.
+
+"The men of the North will not come," it said.  "The Texans cannot
+defend their own towns from the locusts of Santa Anna.  The Comanches
+and the Lipans are scalping each other.  The Apaches have been beaten
+by Bravo's lancers.  All white men need to be hired or they will not
+fight.  We have nothing wherewith to hire them."
+
+A hoarse and mocking laugh burst from the lips of Tetzcatl.  "Hire
+them?  Pay them?" he said.  "No!  But hunters can bait wolves.  If the
+trap is rightly set, the wolves will never reach the bait.  They will
+but fall into the pit they are lured to.  Come!  Let us look at the
+fire that was kindled for Guatamoczin.  The Spaniards perished in the
+mountains when they came to hunt for the hidden treasures of the
+Montezumas."
+
+Slowly, as if their withered limbs almost refused to carry them, the
+weird, dingy, ghastly figures followed him deeper into the cave, and
+each took with him a blazing pine-knot for a torch.  Not one of them
+appeared to be aroused, as yet, to any especial interest, nor did they
+talk as they went.  Tetzcatl, however, led the way with a vigor of
+movement that was in startling contrast to the listlessness of his dark
+companions.
+
+There was no door to unlock, there were no bars to remove, at the end
+of their silent march.  The distance travelled may have been a hundred
+paces.  On either side, as they went, were stalagmites of glittering
+white, answering to the pointed stalactites which depended from the
+vaulted cave-roof above.  It was a scene the like of which can be found
+in many another limestone formation the world over.  There was nothing
+exceptional about it, only that the specimens presented were numerous
+and finely formed.
+
+The torches flared in the strong currents of air which ventilated the
+cavern, and their smoky light was reflected brilliantly from all the
+irregular, alabaster surfaces.
+
+The sculptured head of the great idol over the altar; the carefully
+maintained fire; the presence of the aged keepers, whether they were to
+be called priests of the shrine or only worshippers, were the
+distinguishing features of the place.
+
+On went Tetzcatl until he reached a spot where the side walls
+approached each other, with a space of about thirty feet between them.
+Here he paused and waited until the others, with several who had not
+before made their appearance, arrived and stood beside him.
+
+"There!" he said, loudly, pointing with outstretched hand.
+"Guatamoczin turned to ashes upon the coals of the Spanish furnace,
+because he refused to reveal this to their greed.  Know you not that
+even now, if the Spaniards did but suspect, there would shortly be an
+army among the mountain passes?  Aye!  If the Americans believed that
+this were here, their thousands would be pouring southward.  All Europe
+would come.  Here is the god that they worship, but the secret of its
+presence has been guarded from them by the old gods of Mexico."
+
+"What good?" asked a cracked voice near him.  "It cannot be used to buy
+Texans.  It must remain where it is until the gods come up."
+
+"Aye!  So!" shrieked Tetzcatl.  "We will keep their secret chamber
+until they come.  But the wolf does but need to smell the bait,--not to
+eat it.  He will come, if he has only the scent.  If the Texans were
+stirred to hunt for the gold they will never find, they would but
+gather offerings for the long hunger of those who dwell below."
+
+"Hark!" responded the other speaker.  "If they ask for it, it must go
+to them.  Much has been paid them already.  Hark!"
+
+Before them, in regularly arranged rows, were a number of stacks of
+what seemed to be bars of metal, showing here and there dull gleams of
+yellow.  The ingots were not large, but their aggregate weight and
+value would be enormous, if they were gold.
+
+Opposite, across the passage, were other and larger stacks of ingots,
+but these presented no yellow surfaces.  Black rather than white was
+the prevailing tint of what Tetzcatl had declared to be silver bullion.
+
+Not all of the gold had been smelted and cast, for there were small
+heaps of nuggets, such as come from rich placer washings.
+
+Tetzcatl had stepped forward, lifting his torch and peering into the
+gloom.  Only a step or two beyond him, the floor of the cave was cut
+off, sharply, by one of the breaks or "faults" common to all rock
+formations, the token of some old-time upheaval or depression.  The
+rugged level began again a few yards farther on, but there was no
+bridge across the yawning chasm which separated the corresponding
+edges.  Three or four heavy planks which lay near indicated a possible
+means of crossing, if need should be, but no hand was laid upon them
+now.
+
+The dismal-looking companions were all leaning forward in listening
+attitudes, intent upon a roaring, booming sound that came up from the
+chasm.
+
+"They are calling," said Tetzcatl.  "But we have none to give them.
+Well did I say that I must go."
+
+"It is too loud!" exclaimed the watcher, who had followed him most
+closely.  "They have called my name!"
+
+Tetzcatl turned quickly, but he addressed yet another of the old men by
+a long, many-syllabled, vibrating invocation, and added to it, in
+Spanish,--
+
+"Wilt thou go down to the gods, or shall he take thy place?"
+
+"He is gone!" was the quick but entirely unexcited rejoinder.
+
+Tetzcatl whirled again toward the gulf, but the rock-floor at his left
+was vacant.  The withered old devotee had not hesitated for a moment,
+but had plunged down headlong.
+
+During a number of slow seconds no word was uttered, and all the while
+the booming roar from below diminished in volume until it nearly died
+away.
+
+"The gods are satisfied," said Tetzcatl.
+
+So seemed to think and say his associates, and they turned away to walk
+slowly toward the altar, as if nothing noteworthy or unusual had
+occurred.
+
+It is not always easy to give satisfactory explanations of the sounds
+which are to be heard, more or less intermittently, among the chasms
+and recesses of great caves.  The flow of subterranean waters, the rush
+of air-currents, the effects of echoes, and many other agencies have
+been taken into account.  As for Tetzcatl and his friends, they had but
+formed and expressed an idea which was anciently universal.  This voice
+from the deep was but one of the oracles which have been so reverenced
+by the primitive heathenisms of many nations.
+
+As for the treasure, from whatever placers it had been gathered, its
+presence in such a place required no explanation.  The Aztec kings had
+but exhibited commonplace prudence in choosing for it so secure a
+hiding.
+
+The cave was not at all more mysterious than might be the underground
+vault of a great city bank or a United States Sub-Treasury.  It was as
+safe even from burglary, if the vault-entrance was well guarded.
+
+More than a score of the grisly, blanketed shapes were now gathered at
+the altar.  Its fire was blazing high, and shed its red, wavering
+radiance upon their faces, while Tetzcatl stood upon the lower of the
+steps and addressed them.  He spoke altogether in their own tongue, and
+they listened without reply or comment.
+
+When at last he ceased speaking, they all sat down upon the rock-floor,
+and not one of them turned his head while their exceptionally vigorous
+and active leader strode swiftly away in the direction opposite to the
+chasm and the treasure.
+
+It was an ascent, gradual at first and then more rapid, until his walk
+became a climb and there were broken ridges to surmount at intervals.
+Before long he reached a ragged wall of rock, where the great hall of
+the cave abruptly ended.  Farther progress would have been shut off but
+for a narrow cleft at the left, into which he turned.  This still led
+upward until it became little better than a burrow.  He was compelled
+to stoop first, and then to go, for several yards, on all-fours.  Then
+there was an increasing sunlight, and he stood erect amid a tangled
+copse of vines and bushes.
+
+Above him arose a craggy mountain-side.  Below him, a thousand feet,
+was a wooded valley through which a narrow river ran.  Along the
+mountain-side, not far below where he stood, there wound a plainly
+marked pathway.  With a quickness that was cat-like, he descended to
+this path, and, as he reached it, he looked back toward the now
+perfectly concealed burrow he had emerged from.
+
+"He has gone down to the gods!" he exclaimed, aloud.  "He must have
+Spaniards to follow him.  Tetzcatl will bring upon them the scalpers of
+the plains and the riflemen of the North.  He will lure the Texans with
+the gold they will never find.  Ha!  They will gather none of the
+treasures of the Montezumas, unless the gods come up to tell them of
+the sands in the secret watercourses beyond the mountains and toward
+the sunset.  Huitzilopochtli covered the gold gullies when the
+Spaniards came."
+
+He had a foundation of fact for his declaration.  Up to that hour no
+search had succeeded in accounting for the quantities of yellow metal
+captured by Cortez, or for the larger deposits declared to have been
+hidden from him by the obstinate chiefs whom he had slain for refusing
+to tell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ALAMO FORT.
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+Two paths came out within a few yards of each other from the tangled
+mazes of a vast, green sea of chaparral.  For miles and miles extended
+the bushy growth, with here and there a group of stunted trees sticking
+up from its dreary wilderness.  It was said that even Indians might
+lose themselves in such a web as that.  Not because it was pathless,
+but because it was threaded by too many paths, without way-marks or
+guide-boards.
+
+At the mouth of one of these narrow and winding avenues sat a boy upon
+a mustang pony.  At the mouth of the other path, upon a mule not larger
+than the pony, sat one of the strangest figures ever seen by that or
+any other boy.  He was short of stature, broad-shouldered, but thin.
+His head was covered by a broad-brimmed, straw _sombrero_.  Below that
+was a somewhat worn _serape_, now thrown back a little to show that he
+also wore a shirt, slashed trousers, and that in his belt were pistols
+and a knife, while from it depended, in its sheath, a _machete_, or
+Mexican sabre.  He carried no gun, but the saddle and other trappings
+of his mule were very good.  He wore top-boots, the toes thrust under
+the leather caps of his wooden stirrups, and from his heels projected
+enormous, silver-mounted spurs.  His hair was as white as snow, and so
+were the straggling bristles which answered him for beard and
+moustaches.
+
+He may have been grotesque, but he was not comical, for his face was to
+the last degree dark, threatening, cruel, in its expression, and his
+eyes glowed like fire under their projecting white eyebrows.  He had
+wheeled his mule, and he now sat staring at the boy, with a hand upon
+the hilt of the _machete_.  He did not draw the weapon, for the boy was
+only staring back curiously, not even lowering his long, bright-bladed
+lance.
+
+As for him, his clothing consisted of a breech-clout and fringed
+deerskin leggings.  His belt sustained a quiver of arrows, a bow, and a
+knife, but he seemed to have no fire-arms.  Neither did he wear any
+hat, and he rode his mustang with a piece of old blanket in place of a
+saddle.
+
+The most remarkable thing about him, upon a closer study, excepting,
+perhaps, his brave and decidedly handsome face, was his color.  Instead
+of the tawny darkness common to older Indians, he had retained the
+clear, deep red which is now and then to be seen among squaws and their
+very young children.  He was a splendid specimen, therefore, of a young
+red man, and he had now met an old fellow of a race which had never
+been red.  He seemed to know him, also, for he spoke to him at once.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Tetzcatl.  Mountain Panther.  Young chief, Lipan.
+Son of Castro.  Heap friend."
+
+The response was in Spanish, and the boy understood it, for he replied
+fairly well in the same tongue.
+
+"Good!  Tetzcatl go to the Alamo," he said.  "All chiefs there.  White
+chiefs.  Lipan.  Comanche.  Castro.  Mexican.  Heap fighting birds."
+
+[Illustration: "GOOD!  TETZCATL GO TO THE ALAMO"]
+
+At the last words the face of Tetzcatl lighted up, and he touched his
+mule with a spur.  It was time to push forward if there was to be a
+cock-fight at the fort, but he asked suspiciously how the young Lipan
+knew him.  Had he ever seen him before?
+
+"Ugh!  No!" said the boy.  "Heard tell.  No two Panther.  Heap white
+head.  No tribe.  Ride alone.  Bad medicine for Mexican.  Stay in
+mountains.  Heap kill."
+
+He had recognized, therefore, the original of some verbal picture in
+the Lipan gallery of famous men.
+
+"Si!" exclaimed the Panther, looking more like one.  "Tlascalan!
+People gone!  Tetzcatl one left.  Boy, Lipan, fight all Mexicans.  Kill
+all the Spaniards."
+
+From other remarks which followed, it appeared that the warriors of the
+plains could be expected to sympathize cordially with the remnants of
+the ancient clans of the south in the murderous feud which they had
+never remitted for a day since the landing of Cortez and his
+_conquistadores_.
+
+Moreover, no Indian of any tribe could fail to respect an old chief
+like Tetzcatl, who had won renown as a fighter, even if he had taken no
+scalps to show for his victories.
+
+The mustang had moved when the mule did, with a momentary offer to bite
+his long-eared companion, while the mule lashed out with his near hind
+hoof, narrowly missing the pony.  Not either of the riders, however,
+was at all disturbed by any antics of his beast.
+
+Tetzcatl, as they rode on, appeared to be deeply interested in the
+reported gathering at the Alamo.  He made many inquiries concerning the
+men who were supposed to be there, and about the cock-fight.  The boy,
+on the other hand, asked no questions except with his eyes, and these,
+from time to time, confessed how deep an impression the old
+Spaniard-hater had made upon him.
+
+"Mountain Panther kill a heap," he muttered to himself.  "Cut up
+lancer.  Cut off head.  Eat heart.  No take scalp."
+
+Beyond a doubt he had heard strange stories, and it was worth his while
+to meet and study the principal actor in some of the worst of them.
+
+One of the old man's questions was almost too personal for Indian
+manners.
+
+"Why go?" sharply responded the young Lipan.  "Son of Castro.  Great
+chief.  Go see warrior.  See great rifle chief.  See Big Knife!  Fort.
+Big gun.  Old Mountain Panther too much talk."
+
+That was an end of answers, and Tetzcatl failed to obtain any further
+information concerning an assembly which was evidently puzzling him.
+They were now nearing their destination, however.  They could see the
+fort, and both pairs of their very black eyes were glittering with
+expectation as they pushed forward more rapidly.
+
+The strongest military post in all Texas was an old, fortified mission,
+and it had been well planned by Spanish engineers to resist probable
+attacks from the fierce coast-tribes which had now disappeared.  An
+irregular quadrangle, one hundred and fifty-four yards long by
+fifty-four yards wide, was surrounded by walls eight feet high that
+were nowhere less than two and a half feet thick.  On the southeasterly
+corner, opening within and without, was a massive church, unfinished,
+roofless, but with walls of masonry twenty-two and a half feet high and
+four feet thick.  Along the south front of the main enclosure was a
+structure two stories high, intended for a convent, with a large walled
+enclosure attached.  This was the citadel.  Next to the church was a
+strong exterior stockade, with a massive gate.  There were many
+loop-holes and embrasures in the enclosing wall.  No less than fourteen
+cannon were actually in position, mostly four-pounders and six-pounders.
+
+It had been many a long year since a shot had been fired at any red
+enemy, for the remaining tribes, forced westward, were not fort-takers.
+Their incursions, rarely penetrating so deep into the nominally settled
+country, had reference to scalps, horses, cattle, and other plunder.
+
+As for other Texas Indians, the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and other
+"United States redskins," about eight thousand of whom were estimated
+to have crossed the northern border and taken up permanent abodes, none
+of their war-parties ever came as far south as the Guadalupe River and
+the Alamo.
+
+Of Comanches, Lipans, Apaches, and the like, the old Mexican State of
+Texas had been estimated to contain about twenty thousand, with
+numerous bands to hear from in the unknown regions of southern New
+Mexico, Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, and Arizona.  As yet, the strength
+of these tribes had not been broken.  They were independent nations,
+not recognizing Spain, Mexico, or any other power as entitled to govern
+them.  Added to the continual perplexities of whatever authority might
+at any time assume to control the lost empire of the Montezumas, were
+sundry remnants of the very fiercest of the old Mexicans clans.
+
+They were not understood to be numerous, but they held unpenetrated
+valleys and mountain ranges and forests.  The boldest priests had
+failed to establish missions among them.  It was said that no white man
+venturing too far had ever returned, and there were wild legends of the
+wonders of those undiscovered fastnesses.
+
+During several years prior to this winter of 1835, there had been an
+increasing immigration of Americans from the United States.  These
+settlers now numbered thirty thousand, or more than six times the
+Spanish-Mexican population, and they had brought with them five
+thousand negro slaves.  Almost as a matter of course, they had refused
+to become Mexicans.  They had set up for themselves, had declared their
+independence, and the new provisional republic of Texas, with Sam
+Houston for its leading spirit, was now at war with the not very old
+republic of Mexico, under the autocratic military presidency of General
+Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
+
+It was toward the middle of a warm and lazy day, more like a northern
+October than anything that should be called winter.  The sun was
+shining brightly upon the walls, the fort, the church, and upon the
+gray level of the enclosure.  It was getting almost too warm for active
+exercise, but there was nothing going on that called for hard work from
+human beings.
+
+About twenty yards from the church a long oval had been staked out, and
+a rope had been stretched around upon the stakes.  Outside of this rope
+a throng had gathered which was to the last degree motley.  It
+consisted, first, of nearly all the garrison.  There were a number of
+other Americans, of all sorts, and half as many Mexicans, besides a few
+Spanish-Mexicans of pure imported blood.  Not less noticeable, however,
+than any of the others were more than a dozen Indian warriors, in their
+best array, who stalked proudly hither and thither, pausing to speak
+only to white men of high degree.  That is, they would condescend to
+recognize none but those whom they were willing to accept as their own
+equals, for the red man is a born aristocrat.  At the same time they
+had watched as closely as had any others the exciting combats going on
+inside the roped amphitheatre.
+
+These, indeed, were now completed, for their proper time had been the
+cool hours of the morning.  It had been a grand cock-fight, almost the
+national pastime of the Mexicans, and decidedly popular among their red
+and white neighbors.  Partly, at least, it had been gotten up in honor
+of the Comanche and Lipan dignitaries who were present, but it had
+drawn to the fortress the leading citizens of the nearest town, San
+Antonio de Bexar.
+
+There were sentries at the open gate, of course, but there was no such
+severity of military discipline as would prevent any man from attending
+such an affair as that.
+
+The utmost courtesy prevailed.  In fact, the absolute good order was
+something remarkable.  The lower classes might be supposed to be in awe
+of their superiors and of the military, but there was something more
+belonging to the men and the time.
+
+Only the black men and some of the Mexican _peones_ seemed to be
+without arms.  Almost every white man wore a belt to which was secured
+a knife and at least one pair of pistols.  Half of them carried rifles,
+unless, for the moment, they had leaned the long barrels against a
+handy wall.  The bronzed and bearded faces expressed hospitality,
+civility, but every pair of eyes among them wore an expression of
+habitual watchfulness, for all these men were living in a state of
+daily, hourly readiness to stand for their lives.  Their laws, their
+rights, their liberties, and their very breath depended upon their
+personal pluck and prowess, for here were the pioneers of the
+Southwest, the heroes of the American border.
+
+Between the cockpit and the church stood a group toward which the rest
+now and then glanced with manifest respect.  Central among them were
+two who were conversing, face to face.
+
+The taller of this pair was a dark, scarred, powerful-looking savage,
+close behind whom stood another red man, every whit as dangerous
+looking but a head shorter.
+
+The other of the talkers was a white man nearly as tall as the dark
+chief.  He was blue-eyed, auburn-haired, handsome, and he had an almost
+unpleasant appearance of laughing whenever he spoke.  Even while he
+laughed, however, his sinewy hand was playing with the hilts of the
+pistols in his belt as if it loved them.
+
+"Travis," said the warrior, sternly, "Lipan fight Santa Anna,--now!
+What Texan do?  How many rifle come?"
+
+"Why, Castro, my old friend," replied Colonel Travis, "he is coming
+here.  We needn't go to Mexico after him.  We can clean him out of
+Texas when he comes in, but we won't go with you across the Rio Grande."
+
+Castro turned and said a few words in Spanish to the shorter chief
+behind him, and most of the white men present understood the fierce
+reply that was made in the same tongue.
+
+"Great Bear speaks for all the Comanches!" he exclaimed.  "Ugh!  We
+fight Santa Anna!  Fight Travis!  Fight Big Knife!  No friend!  Texans
+all cowards.  Coyotes.  Rabbits.  They are afraid to ride into
+Chihuahua."
+
+Just then, at his left, there glided near him a new-comer to whom all
+the rest turned, at once, as if his presence were a great surprise.
+
+"Tetzcatl speaks for the tribes of the mountains," he loudly declared,
+and his deep, guttural voice had in it a harsh and grating tone.  "We
+send for the Comanches.  We will be with them when they come.  We want
+the Lipans to come.  We ask the Texans to come.  They will strike the
+lancers of Santa Anna and save Texas.  The chiefs will take scalps,
+horses, cattle.  Travis, Tetzcatl will show him gold.  Plenty!  Texans
+want gold."
+
+"There isn't any gold to be found in Chihuahua," laughed Travis, "or
+the Mexicans would ha' scooped it in long ago.  I don't bite."
+
+"Colonel," broke in a bearded, powerful-looking man, stepping forward,
+"I know what he means, if you don't.  He said something to me about it,
+once.  The old tiger is full of that nonsense of the hidden treasure of
+the Montezumas.  It's the old Cortez humbug."
+
+"Humbug?  I guess it is!" laughed the colonel.  "I can't be caught by
+such a bait as that.  The Spaniards hunted for it, and the Mexicans,
+too.  No, I won't go, Bowie.  You won't, and Crockett won't.  We should
+only lose our scalps for nothing.  We'll stay and fight the Greasers on
+our own ground."
+
+"Tell you what, colonel," responded his friend, "let's have him talk it
+out.  You just hear what he's got to say."
+
+"Well, Bowie," he said, "I don't object to that, but we've all heard
+it, many a time.  I don't believe Cortez and his men left anything
+behind them.  If they found it, they just didn't report it to the king,
+that's all.  That's about what men of their kind would ha' done.
+Nothing but pirates, anyhow.  Talk with old Tetzcatl?  Oh, yes.  No
+harm in that."
+
+"I'd kind o' like a ride into Mexico," remarked Bowie, thoughtfully,
+"if it was only to know the country.  Somehow I feel half inclined to
+try it on, if we can take the right kind with us."
+
+A ringing, sarcastic laugh answered from behind him, and with it came
+the derisive voice of another speaker.
+
+"Not for Davy Crockett," he said.  "I'd ruther be in Congress any day
+than south o' the Rio Grande.  Why, colonel, that part o' Mexico isn't
+ours, and we don't keer to annex it.  What we want to do is to stretch
+out west-'ard.  But we're spread, now, like a hen a-settin' onto a
+hundred eggs, and some on 'em 'll spile."
+
+There was sharper derision in his face than in his words, aided greatly
+by his somewhat peaked nose and a satirical flash in his blue-gray
+eyes.  It was curious, indeed, that so much rough fun could find a
+place in a countenance so deeply marked by lines of iron determination.
+
+Very different was the still, set look upon the face of Colonel James
+Bowie.  The celebrated hand-to-hand fighter seemed to be a man who
+could not laugh, or even smile, very easily.
+
+Colonel Travis was in a position of official responsibility, and he was
+accustomed to dealing with the sensitive pride of Indians.  He now
+turned and held out a hand to the evidently angry Comanche.
+
+"Great Bear is a great chief," he said.  "He is wise.  He can count
+men.  Let him look around him and count.  How many rifles can his
+friend take away to go with the Comanches into Mexico?"
+
+"Ugh!" said Great Bear.  "Fort no good.  Heap stone corral.  Texan lie
+around.  No fight.  No hurt Mexican.  Sit and look at big gun.  Hide
+behind wall.  Rabbit in hole."
+
+He spoke scornfully enough, but the argument against him was a strong
+one.
+
+"Great Bear," said Crockett, "you're a good Indian.  When you come for
+my skelp, I'll be thar.  But you can't have any Texans, just now."
+
+The Comanche turned contemptuously away to speak to one of his own
+braves.
+
+"Castro," said Travis, "it's of no use to say any more now, but you and
+I have got to talk things over.  All of us are ready to strike at Santa
+Anna, but we must choose our own way.  When the time comes, we can wipe
+him out."
+
+"Wipe him out?" growled Bowie.  "Of course we can.  He and his
+ragamuffins 'll never get in as far as the Alamo."
+
+"Colonel," replied Travis, "take it easy.  It's a good thing for us if
+the tribes are out as our allies."
+
+"Hitting us, too, every chance they git," remarked Crockett.  "All
+except, it may be, Castro.  We can handle the Greasers ourselves."
+
+Other remarks were made by those around him, expressing liberal
+contempt for the Mexican general and his army.  They seemed to have
+forgotten the old military maxim that the sure road to disaster is to
+despise your adversary.
+
+Tetzcatl had heard all, but he had said no more.  His singular face had
+all the while grown darker and more tigerish.  The wild beast idea was
+yet more strongly suggested when he walked away with Great Bear.  All
+his movements were lithe, cat-like, very different from the dignified
+pacing of his companion and of other Comanche chiefs who followed them.
+
+In the outer edge of the group of notables there had been one listener
+who had hardly taken his eyes from the faces of the white leaders.  He
+had glanced from one to another of them with manifestly strong
+admiration.  It was the Lipan boy who had ridden to the post with
+Tetzcatl.
+
+At this moment, however, his face had put on an expression of the
+fiercest hatred.  He was looking at a man who wore the gaudy uniform of
+the Mexican cavalry.  He was evidently an officer of high rank, and he
+had now strolled slowly away from the completed cock-fight, as if to
+exchange ceremonious greetings with Colonel Travis and his friends.
+They stepped forward to meet him with every appearance of formal
+courtesy, and no introduction was needed.
+
+"Si, senor," he replied, to an inquiry from the fort commander.  "I
+have seen Senor Houston.  I return to Matamoras to-morrow.  Our Mexican
+birds have won this match.  We will bring more game-cocks to amuse you
+before long."
+
+His meaning was plain enough, however civilly it was spoken.
+
+"You might win another match," responded Travis, "if all the Mexican
+birds were as game as General Bravo."
+
+The Mexican bowed low and his face flushed with pride at receiving such
+a compliment from the daring leader of the Texan rangers.
+
+"Thanks, senor," he said, as he raised his head.  "I will show you some
+of them.  I shall hope to meet you at the head of my own lancers."
+
+"I know what they are," laughed Travis, "and you can handle them.  But
+they can't ride over those walls.  Likely as not Great Bear's Comanches
+'ll find you work enough at home.  I'm afraid Santa Anna will have to
+conquer Texas without you."
+
+General Bravo uttered a half-angry exclamation, but he added,--
+
+"That's what I'm afraid of.  They are our worst enemy.  There is more
+danger in them than in the Lipans.  Among them all, though, you must
+look out for your own scalp.  You might lose it."
+
+Travis laughed again in his not at all pleasant way, but he made no
+direct reply.  It was said of him that he always went into a fight with
+that peculiar smile, and that it boded no good to the opposite party.
+
+There seemed to be old acquaintance, if not personal friendship,
+between him and General Bravo, and neither of them said anything that
+was positively disagreeable.
+
+Nevertheless, they talked on with a cool reserve of manner that was
+natural to men who expected to meet in combat shortly.  The war for the
+independence of Texas had already been marked by ruthless
+blood-shedding.  General Bravo, it appeared, was even now on his return
+from bearing important despatches, final demands from the President of
+Mexico to the as yet unacknowledged commander-in-chief of the
+rebellious province of Texas.  He was therefore to be considered
+personally safe, of course, until he could recross the border into his
+own land.
+
+For all that, he might not have been sure of getting home if some of
+the men who were watching him could have had their own way, and when he
+mounted his horse a dozen Texan rangers, sent along by Houston himself,
+rode with him as an escort.
+
+"Bravo may come back," said Bowie, looking after him, "but all the
+lancers in Mexico can never take the Alamo."
+
+The iron-faced, iron-framed borderer turned away to take sudden note of
+a pair of very keen, black eyes which were staring, not so much at him
+as at something in his belt.
+
+"You young red wolf!" he exclaimed.  "What are you looking at?"
+
+"Ugh!  Heap boy Red Wolf!  Good!" loudly repeated the Lipan war-chief
+Castro, standing a few paces behind his son.
+
+Ugh!  Ugh!  Ugh! followed in quick succession, for every Indian who
+heard knew that the boy had then and there received from the great
+pale-face warrior the name by which he was thenceforth to be known,
+according to established Indian custom.
+
+"Big Knife," said the boy himself, still staring at the belt, but
+uttering the words by which the white hero was designated by the red
+men of many tribes, north and south.  "Red Wolf look at heap knife."
+
+"Oh," said the colonel.  "You want to see Bowie's old toothpick?  Well,
+I guess all sorts of redskins have made me pull it out."
+
+"Heap medicine knife," remarked Castro.  "Kill a heap.  Boy see."
+
+Bowie's own eyes wore a peculiar expression as he drew out the long,
+glittering blade and handed it to his young admirer.
+
+It was a terrible weapon, even to look at, and more so for its history.
+Originally, its metal had been only a large, broad, horse-shoer's file,
+sharpened at the point and on one edge.  After its owner had won renown
+with it, a skilful smith had taken it and had refinished it with a
+slight curve, putting on, also, a strong buck-horn haft.  It was now a
+long, keen-edged, brightly polished piece of steel-work, superior in
+all respects to the knives which had heretofore been common on the
+American frontier.
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf again, handling it respectfully.  "Heap knife."
+
+He passed it to his father, and it went from hand to hand among the
+warriors, treated by each in turn as if it were a special privilege to
+become acquainted with it, or as if it were a kind of enchanted weapon,
+capable of doing its own killing.
+
+"Bowie, knife!" said Castro, when he at last returned it to its owner,
+unintentionally using the very term that was thenceforward to be given
+to all blades of that pattern.
+
+"All right," said the colonel, but he turned to call out to his two
+friends,--
+
+"Travis?  Crockett?  Come along.  I want a full talk with Tetzcatl.
+There's more than you think in a scout across the Rio Grande.  Let's go
+on into the fort."
+
+"I'm willing," said Travis; and on they went toward the Alamo convent,
+the citadel, and they were followed by Castro and the white-headed
+Tlascalan.
+
+Red Wolf was not expected to join a council of great chiefs, but he
+looked after them earnestly, saying to himself,--
+
+"Ugh!  Heap war-path!  Red Wolf go!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE DREAM OF THE NEW EMPIRE.
+
+Neither of the two stories of the solid, ancient-looking convent was
+very high.  Both were cut up into rooms, large below and smaller above.
+The convent roof was nearly flat, with a parapet of stone, and it was
+one hundred and ninety-one feet long by eighteen wide.
+
+In one of the upper rooms, at the southerly corner of the building, sat
+a sort of frontier Committee of Ways and Means, having very important
+affairs of state and war under discussion.
+
+The session of the committee began with a general statement by
+ex-Congressman David Crockett of the condition of things both in Texas
+and in Mexico.
+
+"You see how it is," he said, in conclusion.  "The United States can't
+let us in without openin' a wide gate for a war with Mexico.  Some o'
+the folks want it.  More of 'em hold back.  The trouble with 'em is
+that sech a scrimmage would cost a pile of money.  I don't reckon that
+most o' the politicians keer much for the rights of it, nor for how
+many fellers might git knocked on the head."
+
+That was the longest speech yet made by anybody, but the next was short.
+
+"Ugh!" said Great Bear.
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro, also; but he added, "Heap far away.  No care much.
+Stay home.  Boil kettle.  No fight."
+
+The next speaker was the old Tlascalan.  He did not try to express any
+interest in either Texas or the United States, for he was a
+single-minded man.  He declared plainly that he had come to stir up
+recruits for his life-long war with Mexico, regarded by him only as a
+continuation of Spain, and with Santa Anna as a successor of Hernando
+Cortez.  The white rangers and the red warriors were all alike to him.
+Their value consisted in their known faculty for killing their enemies.
+
+"It's all very well," remarked Travis, at the end of the old man's
+talk, "but we've enough to care for at home.  We haven't a man to
+spare."
+
+The Big Knife had been stretching his tremendously muscular frame upon
+a low couch, and he now sat up with a half-dreamy look upon his face.
+
+"I'm kind o' lookin' beyond this fight," he said.  "We don't want any
+United States fingers in our affairs.  What we want is the old idea of
+Aaron Burr.  He knew what he was about.  He planned the republic of the
+South-west.  He wanted all the land that borders the Gulf of Mexico.
+We want it, too.  Then we want to strike right across the continent to
+the Pacific Ocean.  I've been to California and into the upper Mexican
+states on that side.  We'll take 'em all.  That 'll be a country worth
+while to fight for.  Texas is only a beginning."
+
+"Just you wait," said Crockett.  "It's no use to kill a herd of buffler
+when you can't tote the beef.  You're in too much of a hurry.  The time
+hasn't come."
+
+"I don't agree with you," said Travis, with energy.  "What we want is
+Uncle Sam and a hundred thousand settlers."
+
+"No! no!" interrupted Tetzcatl.  "Gold!  Show gold.  Talk gold.  Bring
+all the men from all lands beyond the salt sea."
+
+"About that thar spelter," replied Crockett, "I'll hear ye.  Tell the
+whole story.  I've only heard part of it.  Biggest yarn!  Spin it!"
+
+A great many other people had heard the old legend, or parts of it.  It
+was an historical record that Cortez had been accused before the King
+of Spain of having himself secreted part of the plunder, won during his
+campaigns against the Aztecs and other tribes.  It had brought him into
+a great deal of trouble, but, after all, the fact that he had seemed to
+prove his innocence did but tend to build up and afterwards to sustain
+quite another explanation of the absence of the reported gold and
+silver.  It had never been found, and therefore every ounce of it was
+now lying hidden somewhere, only waiting the arrival of a discoverer.
+
+Tetzcatl was not an eloquent man, and he spoke English imperfectly, but
+he was nevertheless a persuasive talker.  Somehow or other a pebble as
+large as a dollar had wandered into that room, and he put it down upon
+the floor, declaring it to be the City of Mexico.  He evidently
+expected them, after that, to imagine about a square yard around it to
+be a kind of map, with the Rio Grande at its northern edge and Texas
+beyond.  He proceeded then as if he had all the mountains and passes
+marked out, but he had not gone far before Crockett broke in.
+
+"Hullo," he said.  "I see.  Cortez didn't find the stuff in the city,
+because it wasn't thar.  It was up nearer whar it was placered out,
+hundreds of miles away."
+
+"I never thought of that," remarked Travis.  "There's sense in it."
+
+"Bully!" said Bowie.  "And all they had to do was to cart it farther."
+
+"No carts," said Crockett.  "No mules, either.  Not a pony among them."
+
+"That makes no difference," replied Bowie.  "Those Indian carriers can
+tote the biggest loads you ever saw.  One of 'em can back a man right
+up a mountain."
+
+"That's it," said Crockett.  "A thousand dollars' worth of gold weighs
+three pounds.  Sixty pounds is twenty thousand.  A hundred men could
+tote two millions.  That's what I want."
+
+"All right," laughed Travis, "but only part of it was gold.  Part of it
+was silver.  But, then, Guatamoczin could send a thousand carriers and
+keep 'em going till 'twas all loaded into his cave."
+
+Tetzcatl understood them, and he not only nodded assent, but went on to
+describe the process of transportation very much as if he had been
+there.  According to him, moreover, the largest deposit was within a
+few days' ride of what was now the Texan border.  A great deal of it,
+he said, had not come from the south at all, but from the north, from
+California, New Mexico, and Arizona.
+
+They could not dispute him, but at that day all the world was still in
+ignorance of the gold placers of the Pacific coast.  California was as
+yet nothing more than a fine country for fruit, game, and
+cattle-ranches.
+
+"I've heard enough," said Travis, at last.  "It's as good as a novel.
+But I guess I won't go."
+
+"I think I'll take a ride with Castro, anyhow," replied Bowie.  "If
+it's only for the fun of it.  Great Bear and his Comanches can have a
+hunt after Bravo's lancers.  But it's awfully hot in here.  I'm going
+to have a siesta."
+
+That meant a sleepy swing in a hammock slung in one of the lower rooms,
+and the other white men were willing to follow his example.
+
+It was pretty well understood that the proposed raid into Mexico was to
+be joined by several paleface warriors.  Castro wore a half-contented
+face, but the great war-chief of the Comanches stalked out of the
+building uttering words of bitter disappointment and anger.  He had
+hoped for hundreds of riflemen, with whose aid he could have swept on
+across a whole Mexican state, plundering, burning, scalping.
+
+The Lipans and Comanches were not at peace with each other.  They never
+had been, and nothing but a prospect of fighting their common enemy,
+the Mexicans, could have brought them together.
+
+During all this time, however, one Lipan, and a proud one, had been
+very busy.  Red Wolf, with a name of his own that any Indian boy might
+envy him, did not need a siesta.  He had a whole fort to roam around
+in, and there were all sorts of new things to arouse his curiosity.
+
+The walls themselves, particularly those of the fort and the church,
+were wonders.  So were the cannon, and he peered long and curiously
+into the gaping mouth of the solitary eighteen-pounder that stood in
+the middle of the enclosure, ready to be whirled away to its embrasure.
+It was a tremendous affair, and he remarked "heap gun" over it again
+and again.
+
+He was having a red-letter day.  At last, however, he was compelled to
+give up sightseeing, and he marched out through the sentried gate with
+his father toward the place where their ponies had been picketed.
+
+Great Bear and his chiefs also left the fort, but they went in an
+opposite direction.  If there had been any thought of a temporary
+alliance between them and their old enemies, the Lipans, for Mexican
+raiding purposes, it had disappeared in the up-stairs council.  Of
+course they parted peaceably, for even according to Indian ideas the
+fort and its neighborhood was "treaty ground," on which there could be
+no scalp-taking.  Besides that, there were the rangers ready to act as
+police.
+
+As for Tetzcatl, he and his mule were nowhere to be seen.
+
+Siestas were the order of the day inside the walls of the Alamo, but
+one man was not inclined to sleep.
+
+Out by the eighteen-pounder stood the tall form of Colonel Travis, and
+he was glancing slowly around him with a smile that had anxiety in it.
+
+Near a door of one of the lower rooms of the convent swung the hammock
+that contained Davy Crockett.  He was lazily smoking a Mexican
+cigarette, but he was not asleep.  He could see a great many things
+through the open door, and he was a man who did a great deal of
+thinking.
+
+"What's the matter with Travis?" he asked.  "What's got him out thar?
+Reckon I'll go and find out if there's anything up."
+
+In half a minute more the two celebrated borderers were leaning against
+the gun, side by side, and there was a strong contrast between them.
+
+Travis was not without a certain polish and elegance of manner, for he
+was a man of education and had travelled.  If, however, Crockett was
+said to have killed more bears than any other man living, Travis was
+believed to have been in more hard fights than any other, unless, it
+might be, Bowie.  Utterly fearless as he was, he nevertheless commanded
+the Alamo, and he could feel his military burdens.
+
+"What's the matter with me?" he replied to Crockett's question.  "Look
+at this fort.  If I had five hundred men I could hold it against the
+whole Mexican army.  That is, unless they had heavy guns.  But I've
+less than a hundred just now.  We couldn't work the guns nor keep men
+at all the loop-holes."
+
+"That's so," said Crockett.  "The Greasers could swarm over in onto ye.
+But Sam Houston could throw in men if Santa Anna should cross into
+Texas.  I don't reckon he'd try to haul heavy cannon across country.
+He'd only leave 'em in the sloughs if he did."
+
+"That's so," said Travis.  "But he's coming some day.  I want to be
+here when he comes.  I want you and Bowie and all our old crowd."
+
+"I'll be fifin' 'round," said Crockett; "but just now I've got to go
+and blow my whistle in Washington.  Durned long trip to make, too."
+
+"Come back as soon as you can," replied Travis, with unusual
+earnestness.  "I've a job on hand.  Houston has ordered me to scout
+along the Nueces.  I'll only take a squad, but it weakens the garrison.
+Bowie has made up his mind to take a ride with Castro.  Some of the men
+that are not enlisted yet will go with him, most likely."
+
+"Let him go," said Crockett.  "He'll learn a heap of things.  He kind
+o' gets me as crazy as he is about our new Southwest enterprise.  Tell
+you what!  Just a smell o' gold 'd fetch the immigrants in like blazes.
+Prairie fire's nothin' to it."
+
+"He won't smell any," laughed Travis; but they had turned away from the
+gun, and were pausing half-way between the Alamo and the church.  They
+were glancing around them as if to take a view of the military
+situation.
+
+It was quiet enough now, and there was no prophet standing by to tell
+them of the future.  What their cool judgment now told them as entirely
+possible was surely to come.  From beside that very gun they were to
+see the "Greasers," as they called the soldiers of Santa Anna, come
+swarming over the too thinly guarded wall.  There, at the left, by the
+four-pounder, was Travis to fall across the gun, shot through the head.
+Here, on the spot where he now stood, was Crockett to go down, fighting
+to the last and killing as he fell.  In the upper corner room of the
+Alamo, where the conference with Tetzcatl and the chiefs had been held,
+was Bowie himself to perish, like a wounded lion at bay, the last man
+in the Alamo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE RACE FOR THE CHAPARRAL.
+
+It was a bugle and not a drum that summoned the garrison to answer at
+their morning roll-call.
+
+"Bowie," said Colonel Travis, just after he had dismissed the men, "I
+don't want to ask too much.  You're not under my orders, but I wish
+you'd take a pretty strong patrol and scout off southerly.  The Lipans
+camped off toward San Antonio, but I'd like to feel sure that Great
+Bear kept his promise and rode straight away.  He isn't heavy on
+promise-keeping."
+
+"Not where scalps are in it," said Bowie.  "He's in bad humor.  I'll
+go."
+
+"You bet," remarked Crockett.  "Castro hasn't many braves with him.
+He'll be bare-headed before night if the Comanches can light onto him."
+
+"All right," said Bowie; "but they won't strike us just now.  I don't
+want Castro wiped out.  We're old friends."
+
+"Mount your men well," said Travis to Bowie.  "You may have hard
+riding.  Don't fight either tribe if you can help it.  I must be off on
+Houston's orders as soon as I can get away."
+
+"I'll take a dozen," replied Bowie.  "The fort 'll be safe enough just
+now."
+
+No further orders were given, but he picked both his men and his
+horses, and he seemed to know them all.
+
+They were good ones, the riders especially.  They were all veterans,
+trained and tried and hardened in Indian warfare, and ready for
+anything that might turn up.  They went into their saddles at the word
+of command as if they were setting out for a merry-making, and the
+little column passed through the gate-way two abreast, followed a
+minute later by their temporary commander.
+
+The Texan rangers were armed as well as was possible at that date.  The
+Colt's revolver had but just been invented, and the first specimens of
+that deadly weapon found their way to Texas a few months later.  Barely
+two small six-shooters came in 1836, but these opened the market, and
+there was a full supply, large pattern, sent on in 1837.
+
+Just now, however, each man had horse-pistols in holsters at the
+saddle.  In each man's belt were smaller weapons, of various shapes and
+sizes, and not one of them failed to carry a first-rate rifle.  All had
+sabres as well as knives, but they were not lancers.  On the contrary,
+they were inclined to despise the favorite weapon of the plains red men
+and of the Mexican cavalry.
+
+Bowie was now at the front, and he appeared to have some reason of his
+own for making haste.
+
+No such indication was given, however, by an entirely different body of
+horsemen, five times as numerous, which was at that hour riding across
+the prairie, several miles to the southeastward.  These, too, seemed to
+have a well-understood errand.
+
+Their leader was about two hundred yards in advance of the main body,
+and he paused upon the crest of every "rising ground" as he went, to
+take swift, searching glances in all directions.
+
+"Great Bear is a great chief!" he loudly declared.  "He will teach
+Castro and the Lipan dogs a lesson.  They have set Travis against the
+Comanches.  Castro shall not ride into Chihuahua.  I will hang his
+scalp to dry in my own lodge.  I will strike the Mexicans.  Ugh!"
+
+He spoke in his own tongue, and then he seemed to be inclined to repeat
+himself in Spanish, for he was an angry man that day.  It was not at
+all likely that he would prove over-particular whether his next victims
+were red or white, and he evidently did not consider himself any longer
+within neutral territory.
+
+Suddenly the Comanche war-chief straightened in his saddle, turned his
+head, and sent back to his warriors a prolonged, ear-piercing whoop.
+
+A chorus of fierce yells answered him, and the slow movement of the
+wild-looking array changed into a swift, pell-mell gallop.
+
+It had been a whoop of discovery.  At no great distance from the knoll
+upon which Great Bear had sounded his war-cry a voice as shrill and as
+fierce, although not as powerful, replied to him with the battle-yell
+of the Lipans.  In another instant, the wiry mustang which carried an
+Indian boy was springing away at his best pace eastward.  Probably it
+was well for his rider that the race before him was to be run with a
+light weight.
+
+Red Wolf was all alone, but if Great Bear was hunting Lipans, they, on
+their part, were on the lookout for Comanches.  Their cunning chief had
+read, as clearly as had Travis, the wrathful face of Great Bear.  He
+had camped for one night in the comparatively secure vicinity of San
+Antonio.  Shortly after he and his braves began their homeward ride
+that morning, he had given to his son and to several others orders
+which were accompanied by swift gesticulations that rendered many words
+needless.  What he said to Red Wolf might have been translated,--
+
+"We are to strike the chaparral on a due south line from the fort.
+Ride a mile to the west of our line of march.  Keep your eye out for
+enemies.  If you see any, get back to us full speed.  Great Bear has
+sixty braves.  Maybe more.  We are only twenty.  He would wipe us out."
+
+Away went Red Wolf.  He was only a scout, but he was a youngster doing
+warrior duty, and he felt as if the fate of the whole band depended
+upon him.  It was another big thing to add to his remarkable
+experiences of the day before,--a fort, guns, a grand cock-fight, and
+the heroes of the border,--white chiefs who were famous among all the
+tribes.  More than all, and he said so as he rode onward, he had been
+spoken to by the Big Knife of the palefaces, and he had not only seen
+but had handled the "heap medicine knife" itself.  He was now almost a
+brave, with a name given him by the hero, his father's friend, and he
+was burning all over with a fever to do something worthy of the change
+in his circumstances.
+
+He was well mounted, for he was the son of a chief, and there had been
+a drove of all sorts to select from.  The mustang under him was a
+bright sorrel,--a real beauty, full of fire, and now and then showing
+that he possessed his full share of the high temper belonging to his
+half-wild pedigree.
+
+Mile after mile went by at an easy gait, and the watchful scout had
+seen nothing more dangerous than a rabbit or a deer.  He was beginning
+to feel disappointed, as if his luck were leaving him.  It was hard
+upon a fellow who was so tremendously ready for an adventure if none
+was to be had.  He even grew less persistently busy with his eyes, and
+let his thoughts go back to the fort.
+
+"Heap big gun," he was remarking to himself.  "Kill a heap.  Shoot away
+off."
+
+At that instant his pony sprang forward with a nervous bound, for his
+quick ears had caught the first notes of Great Bear's thrilling
+war-whoop.  Red Wolf went with him as if he were part of him, while he
+drew the rein hard and sent back his shrill reply.
+
+"Great Bear!" he exclaimed.  "Catch Red Wolf?  Ugh!  No!  Take heap
+Comanche hair."
+
+The other warriors were not yet in sight, but there was a great deal of
+"boy" in his boastful threat, considering the known prowess of their
+leader.
+
+The sorrel pony was having his own way, and the horse carrying Great
+Bear must have been not only fast but strong, or he would have been
+left behind in short order.  It was not so, however; and now, as higher
+rolls of the prairie were reached and climbed, the entire yelling band
+were now and then seen by the young Lipan.
+
+"Poor pony!" he remarked of some of them, for their line was drawing
+out longer as the better animals raced to the front and the slower fell
+to the rear.  All were doing their best, and some were even catching up
+with Great Bear.  It would, therefore, be really of no use for Red Wolf
+to stop and kill him, unless he were ready, also, to take in hand and
+scalp a number of other warriors.
+
+"What Red Wolf do now?  Ugh!"
+
+It was a question which was running through his mind hot-footed, and it
+was not at first easy to shape a satisfactory answer.
+
+A white boy would have been likely to have let it answer itself.  He
+would have ridden as straight as he could to rejoin the band of Lipans
+and to tell his father that the Comanches were coming.  He would have
+thought only of getting them to help him in his proposed fight with
+Great Bear.
+
+Red Wolf was an Indian boy.  All his life, thus far, he had been
+getting lessons in Indian war-methods.  He had heard the talks and
+tales of chiefs and noted braves in their camps and councils.  He had,
+therefore, been taught in a redskin academy of the best kind, and he
+was a credit to his professors.
+
+"Ugh!  No!" he exclaimed, at last.  "Comanche find chaparral.  No find
+Lipan."
+
+He had no need to urge his pony, but he rode southward, not eastward.
+Already, in the distance, he could see the endless, ragged border of
+the chaparral.  It began with scattered trees and bushes out on the
+prairie.  These increased in number and in closeness to each other,
+until they thickened into the dense, many-pathed labyrinth.  The
+pursuers also could see, and they could understand that if the fugitive
+they were following was leading them toward Castro's party, they must
+close up to him now or never.
+
+The whoops which burst from them as they dashed along were loud, but
+short, sharp, excited.
+
+"Whoop big!" shouted Red Wolf.  "Heap yell!  Castro hear whoop."
+
+He had noted that the wind was blowing in the right direction.  It
+could carry a sound upon its wings far away to the eastward, but two
+very different kinds of human ears received and understood the fierce
+music the chasers were making.
+
+"Forward!  Gallop!" rang from the heavily-bearded lips of the commander
+of horsemen coming from the northward.
+
+"Comanches!  Colonel Bowie!" shouted a grizzled veteran behind him.
+"That's Great Bear's band, you bet!"
+
+Another whoop swept by them on the wind as Bowie replied to him,--
+
+"And they've struck the Lipans, I'm afraid.  We must try and get into
+it before too much mischief's done.  On, boys!  We'll give him a
+lesson."
+
+Silence followed, but the men looked at the locks of their rifles and
+felt of their belt pistols as they went forward.  It was no light
+matter to act as police, or even as peacemakers, in that part of the
+world.
+
+The other listeners were nearer and could hear more distinctly, but no
+sound was uttered by the warriors with Castro when their chief drew his
+rein and held up a hand.  Every man of them knew, or thought he knew,
+just what it all meant, but more news was coming.
+
+One brave who had been some distance in their rear, as a lookout in
+that direction, came on at full speed, followed by another whose duties
+had detailed him more to the westward.  Both brought the same errand,
+for the first exclaimed, as he came within speaking range,--
+
+"Ugh!  Heap Texan," and the other, whose eyes may have been sharper,
+added, "Big Knife!  Many rifle?"
+
+"Comanche!  Great Bear!" roared Castro, in a deep-toned, wrathful
+voice.  "Red Wolf lose hair!  Ugh!  Chaparral!"
+
+He knew that his son must in some way have been the immediate cause of
+that whooping, but his first duty as a leader was to save his party,
+letting his vengeance wait for a better opportunity.  He led on,
+therefore, toward the only possible refuge, muttering as he went.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Heap boy.  Run against Comanche!  Young chief!  Ugh!
+Go to bushes.  No good wait for Big Knife.  Not enough Texan.  Too many
+Comanche."
+
+He might well be anxious concerning his promising son, but Red Wolf's
+hair was yet upon his head, for the wind tossed it well as his fleet
+mustang carried him past the outermost clump of mesquit-bushes.
+
+"Whoop!" he yelled.  "Red Wolf beat Great Bear!  All Lipans get away.
+Ugh!"
+
+He had not beaten his pursuer by more than two hundred yards, however,
+and several other Comanches were now as near as was their chief.
+
+Could there be such a thing as an escape from all of them?  Would not
+the entire swarm go in after him and surely find him, no matter what
+path he might take?  The situation looked awfully doubtful in spite of
+the moderate advantage which he had thus far maintained.
+
+Closer grew the trees.  Nearer to each other were the thick "tow-heads"
+of bushes.  On went Red Wolf, veering to the left around each
+successive cover, but seeming to push directly into the chaparral.  It
+was a complete cover now, and he was well hidden at the next sharp,
+sudden turn that he made to the eastward.
+
+Paths, paths, paths, fan-like, but that none of them were straight, and
+fan-like was the spreading out of the wily Comanches.  Or perhaps they
+were more like a lot of mounted, lance-bearing spiders, that were going
+in to catch a young Lipan fly in that web.
+
+As for him, he had whooped his very loudest just before he reached the
+chaparral, and a gust of wind had helped him like a brother.  Again
+Castro had raised a hand, but now he shouted fiercely,--
+
+"Hear heap boy!  Red Wolf!  No lose hair yet.  Ugh!  Whoop!"
+
+For all he knew, nevertheless, he may have been listening to the last
+battle-cry of his brave son.  He and his braves were at that moment
+riding in among the bushes, while more than half a mile away, upon the
+prairie, galloped Bowie and his riflemen.
+
+"Reckon we'll git thar jest about in time to see 'em count the skelps,"
+remarked one ranger.
+
+"Reckon not," replied another.  "Those Lipans are as safe as
+jack-rabbits if once they kin fetch the chaparral."
+
+Red Wolf had reached it, but he was by no means safe.  Great Bear
+himself had dashed in so recklessly that he and his first handful of
+fast racers were galloping upon the wrong paths.  They discovered their
+error, or thought they did, in a minute or so, but a minute was of
+importance just then.  They lost it before a kind of instinct told them
+to wheel eastward if they expected to find the Lipans.
+
+That had been the direction taken by one of their best-mounted comrades
+on entering the chaparral, and the soft thud of his horse's hoofs had
+now reached the quick ears of Red Wolf.
+
+"Ugh!" he exclaimed.  "One!"
+
+He had pulled in his panting pony, and he now unslung his bow and put
+an arrow on the string.
+
+"Red Wolf young chief!" he said.  "Wait for Comanche!  Tell Big Knife!"
+
+It was not altogether imprudence or bad management to let his
+hard-pushed mustang breathe for a few moments.  It might be called
+cunning to let his enemies go by him if they would.  But stronger than
+any cunning, or than any prudence concerning his horse, was his burning
+ambition to do something that he could boast of afterwards.  What is
+called Indian boasting is only the white man's love of fame in another
+form.  Each red hero is his own newspaper, and has to do his own
+reporting of his feats of arms.
+
+The hoof-beats came nearer, swiftly, upon a path which crossed his own
+at the bushes behind which he had halted.
+
+Twang went the bow, the arrow sped, and a screeching death-whoop
+followed.  The Lipan boy did but prove himself altogether a son of
+Castro when he sprang to the ground and secured his bloody war-trophy
+at the risk of his life.  The pony and the weapons of the fallen brave
+were also taken.  Then once more Red Wolf was on the sorrel dashing
+onward, while behind him rose the angry yells of the Comanches, who had
+heard the death-cry and knew that one of their number had "gone under."
+
+"Ugh!  Heap boy!  Save hair!" was the hoarse-toned greeting given to
+his son by Castro three minutes later.
+
+"Comanche!" said Red Wolf, holding up his gory prize.  "Great Bear
+come.  Not many braves right away.  Too many pretty soon.  Heap run.
+Ugh!"
+
+Castro understood the situation well enough without much explanation,
+and his prospects did not seem to be very good.  He and his braves were
+too few to win a pitched battle and too many for concealment.
+
+"Ugh!" he replied to Red Wolf.  "Great chief no run.  Die hard.  Heap
+fight."
+
+The one thing in his favor was the first mistake made by Great Bear.
+It had kept him from being in person among the next half-dozen of the
+braves who had gone to the left, so very close upon the heels of Red
+Wolf.  Even their wrath for the fate of their foremost man did but send
+them on the more recklessly to avenge him.  They whooped savagely as
+they galloped past his body at the crossing of the paths.  They still
+believed they had only one Lipan to deal with, but they were terribly
+undeceived, for their blind rush into the presence of Castro and his
+warriors was as if they had fallen into a skilfully set ambuscade.
+They were taken by surprise, outnumbered, almost helpless, and down
+they went, not one of them escaping.
+
+Away behind them, the fast-arriving main body of the Comanches listened
+to the death-shouts and to the Lipan whoops of triumph, and they obeyed
+the astonished yell with which their leader summoned them to gather to
+him at the spot where he had halted.
+
+"Too many Lipan," he said, to a brave who rode in with a kind of
+report.  "Castro great chief.  Heap snake.  No let him catch Great Bear
+in chaparral trap.  Wait.  Comanche fool.  Lose hair for nothing.  Red
+Wolf heap young brave.  Kill him dead."
+
+That was indeed fame for the young Lipan warrior.  Not only had he been
+recognized by his pursuer, but the great war-chief of the Comanches
+believed that the son of his old enemy was proving himself another
+Castro, as courageous and as cunning as his father.  A mere boy, not
+yet sixteen, had become of such importance that he must be killed off,
+if possible, to prevent the future harm that he would be likely to do.
+
+Red Wolf's ambuscade had not been of his own planning, but he had
+performed his accidental part of it remarkably well.
+
+"Red Wolf, young chief!  Son of Castro!" said his father, proudly.
+"Big Knife good medicine.  Saw boy.  Old friend tell name.  Ugh!  Good!"
+
+To his mind, therefore, Colonel Bowie had been a kind of war-prophet,
+declaring the capacity of the boy he had named, giving him "good
+medicine," or tremendous good luck, and now his correctness as a
+prophet had been unexpectedly established.  So said more than one of
+the Lipans who had been at the fort and had witnessed the performance
+with the wonderful medicine knife.
+
+Now, during a number of minutes, all the chaparral was still, for even
+the wild creatures were hiding and the human beings talked by motions
+and not by spoken words.  Not one of the latter, on either side, could
+as yet shape for himself a trustworthy idea concerning the numbers or
+the precise locality of his enemies.  All had dismounted, however, and
+the hard-ridden horses had a chance to recover their wind.  No less
+than seven of them, that had been very good Comanche ponies that
+morning, had now changed their tribe and had become Lipans, whether
+they would or not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AMONG THE BUSHES.
+
+The Texan rangers had arrived just in time to see the finish of a very
+fine race.  They had not actually seen Red Wolf win it, but they were
+in no doubt as to why his pursuers made such a frantic dash into the
+chaparral.
+
+"Not after the Comanches!" shouted Bowie.  "Into the cover and find the
+Lipans!  Charge!"
+
+They went in at a point that was nearer than were Great Bear and his
+braves, to the spot where the Lipans worked their unintentional ambush.
+They heard all that whooping, and the stillness which followed it did
+not puzzle old Indian fighters.
+
+"There's been a sharp brush."
+
+"Those were scalp-whoops."
+
+"We're in for it, boys.  Shoot quick if you've got to, but hold your
+fire to the last minute.  There are none too many of us."
+
+Those were their orders, but there was no shooting to be done right
+away.
+
+Hardly had Bowie pulled in, calling a halt, in some doubt as to which
+path, if any, it was best for him to follow, before a sorrel mustang
+came out in an opening before him, somewhat as if he had been dropped
+like an acorn from one of the scrub oaks.
+
+"Red Wolf!" exclaimed Bowie.  "Where is Castro?"
+
+"Big Knife, come!" replied Red Wolf, pointing rapidly.  "Castro there.
+Great Bear there.  Heap Comanches.  Young chief take hair!  Ugh!"
+
+He was holding up, with intense pride, his proof that he had been a
+victor in a single-handed fight.  To the mind of any man of Bowie's
+experience it was entirely correct, and he said so.
+
+"All right," he told his young friend.  "Go ahead.  Be a chief some
+day.  Now I must see your father short order.  Go ahead."
+
+It was but a few minutes after that that the Lipan chief and Big Knife
+were shaking hands, but their questions and answers were few.
+
+"Glad I got here before things were any worse," said Bowie.  "I can
+make Great Bear pretend to give it up as soon as he knows I'm here."
+
+"Ugh!" replied Castro.  "Great Bear heap lie.  Say go home.  Then kill
+horse to catch Lipan."
+
+"Just so," said Bowie.  "Of course he will.  Chief, hear old friend.
+Do as I say."
+
+"Ugh!" came back assentingly.  "Big Knife talk.  Chief hear."
+
+"I'll keep him back while you get a good start," said Bowie.  "But do
+you and your braves ride for the Rio Grande.  Ride fast.  Get back to
+your lodges by that way.  I'll follow to-morrow with a squad."
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro, doubtfully.  "No go to lodge now.  Rio long water.
+Where wait for Big Knife?  Bravo there, along river."
+
+"I don't exactly know just where to say," began Bowie.
+
+"Hacienda Dolores!" sounded gruffly out of one of the bushes near them.
+"Across the river.  Tetzcatl."
+
+Castro almost set free a whoop in his surprise, but he checked it in
+time, and only exclaimed,--
+
+"Black Panther hide deep.  Good.  No let Comanche see him.  How Big
+Knife find hacienda?"
+
+"All right," said Bowie.  "I know.  It's the abandoned ranch on the
+other side.  Pretty good buildings, too.  Just as good a place as any,
+if I can get there with a whole skin.  Reckon I can."
+
+"Red Wolf lead horse to hacienda for Big Knife," said his father; but
+the voice from the bushes added, "Tetzcatl."
+
+"That's it," said Bowie.  "I'll get there.  You and the youngster meet
+me and my men at about this place to-morrow any time I can get here.
+Say it 'll probably be toward noon.  Now I must have a talk with Great
+Bear."
+
+A chorus of friendly grunts responded to him from the Lipans who had
+gathered around, and they seemed to follow his instructions at once.
+Even Red Wolf and his pony had already disappeared.
+
+There was a bugle among the varied outfit of the rangers, and now it
+was unslung by its bearer.  He really knew what to do with it.  As the
+band of white men rode cautiously forward in the direction given them,
+the martial music sounded again and again at short intervals.  It was
+an announcement to the Comanches that they had more than Lipans to deal
+with, and it was also a plain invitation to a parley.
+
+Just how many red foemen he might have in front of him Great Bear did
+not know.  Neither had he any count of the white riflemen, but their
+presence settled his mind.
+
+"Great Bear no fight Texan now!" was his immediate declaration to his
+warriors.  "Heap fool Big Knife.  Put him in Alamo.  No see through
+wall.  Then find Castro in bushes.  No let Lipan get away."
+
+His next business, therefore, was to ride forward, with a cunning
+semblance of friendly frankness, to talk with Bowie and send him back
+to the fort, leaving the bushes clear of rifles.  Not even then did the
+rangers expose themselves unduly, and Great Bear knew that he was
+covered by more than one unerring marksman while he was shaking hands
+so heartily.
+
+"Heap friend," he said.  "Great Bear glad Texan come.  Glad to see Big
+Knife.  Lipan kill Comanche.  Gone now."
+
+"Great Bear lie a heap," returned Bowie, coldly.  "Said he would go
+home to his lodge.  Break word.  Stay and fight Lipan."
+
+"Ugh!" returned Great Bear, insolently.  "Great Bear chief!  What for
+Big Knife ride in bushes?  Hunt Lipan dog?  Take Castro hair?  Shut
+mouth.  No talk hard.  Go to fort.  Go sleep!"
+
+"Heap bad talk," said Bowie, with steady firmness.  "Great Bear is in a
+trap.  Better get out.  Lose all his braves.  This isn't your land.  Go
+to lodge."
+
+The chief again spoke boastfully, and Bowie became argumentative.  One
+of his present objects was to use up time in talk, and he was quite
+willing to stir Great Bear's vanity to all sorts of assertions of the
+right and power of himself and his tribe to fight their enemies
+wherever they could be found.
+
+He was succeeding very well, and every minute was of importance to the
+Lipans, who were now threading their southward way through the
+chaparral with all the speed they could reasonably make.  With the sun
+overhead to guide by, they could dispense with a compass.  Here and
+there, moreover, some of them, who seemed to have been there before,
+found marks upon tree-trunks and branches which may have meant more to
+their eyes than to those of other people.
+
+"Great Bear is a great chief," said Bowie, at last, looking at the
+subtle Comanche steadily.  "He has talked enough.  What does he say?
+Will he fight now, or will he go to his lodge?--Bugle, ready!"
+
+The bugler raised to his lips his hollow twist of brass, but a storm of
+"Ughs" broke out among the Comanche warriors.
+
+Most of them had been near enough to hear the conversation.  They were
+on dangerous ground and were becoming altogether willing to get out of
+it.  At this moment they saw rifles cocked and half lifted.  They knew
+that every white man before them was a dead shot, and none of them felt
+any desire to hear a bugle blow or a rifle crack.
+
+The chief himself considered that he had talked long enough, and that
+he had been sufficiently insolent to preserve his dignity.  He could
+therefore pretend to yield the required point.
+
+"Good!" he replied.  "Great chief go.  Big Knife ride to fort.  Lipan
+dogs run away.  Save hair.  Comanches take all some day.  Not now.
+Texan heap friend.  Shut mouth.  Ugh!"
+
+He offered his hand, and Bowie took it, but after that he and his
+rangers sat upon their horses in grim, menacing silence, while the
+Comanche warriors rode out of the chaparral.  They did so glumly
+enough, for they had been outwitted and they had lost some of their
+best braves.
+
+"Now, men," said Bowie, "it was touch and go.  They were too many for
+us if it was a fight.  We're out of it this time, but they won't forget
+or forgive it."
+
+"You bet they won't," replied a ranger; "but I had a sure bead on Great
+Bear's throat medal, and he knew it.  He'd ha' jumped jest once."
+
+"Back to the Alamo," said Bowie.  "We must make good time."
+
+Away they went, and in an instant the appearance of military discipline
+had vanished.  The leader and his hard-fighting comrades were once more
+fellow-frontiersmen rather than "soldiers."  Differences of rank,
+indeed, were but faintly marked upon the dress or trappings of any of
+them.
+
+There were no epaulets or sashes, but at no moment of time could an
+observer have been in doubt as to who was in command.  The roughest and
+freest spoken of them all showed marked deference whenever he addressed
+or even came near to the man whom Great Bear himself, with all his
+pride, had acknowledged to be his superior.
+
+"Jim," said Bowie to a tall horseman who was at his side when they came
+out into the open prairie, "have you made up your mind to go with me
+into Chihuahua?"
+
+"Go!" exclaimed Jim.  "Why, colonel, I ain't enlisted.  Travis can't
+stop me.  Of course I'll go.  Wouldn't miss it for a pile.  It 'll be
+as good as a spree."
+
+So said more than one of the other rangers when opportunity came to ask
+them the same question.  To each the romantic legend of the hidden
+treasures of the Aztec kings had been mentioned confidentially.  No
+doubt it acted as a bait, but every way as attractive, apparently, was
+the prospect of a raid into Mexico, a prolonged hunting and scouting
+expedition, and a fair chance for brushes with Bravo's lancers.
+
+"A Comanche or Lipan is worth two of 'em," they said, "and one
+American's worth four.  We shall outnumber any lot of Greasers we're at
+all likely to run against."
+
+There was a great deal too much of arrogance and overbearing
+self-confidence among the men of the Texas border, and at no distant
+day they were to pay for it bitterly.
+
+They had gone and the chaparral seemed to be deserted, but it was not
+entirely without inhabitants.
+
+"Tetzcatl!"
+
+"Ugh!  Red Wolf!"
+
+There they sat, once more confronting each other, the young Lipan on
+his pony and the old tiger on his mule.
+
+"Boy heap fool," said Tetzcatl.  "Comanches in chaparral.  Castro gone."
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf.  "See one Comanche ride away.  Keep arrow."
+
+Tetzcatl's eyes were angry.  Part of his disappointment had been the
+renewal of the feud between the tribes.  He had hoped for their joint
+help in working out his own revenges.  Nevertheless he now listened to
+a further explanation, and learned that a noted Comanche warrior had no
+use for bow or lance just then, because of an arrow that was yet
+sticking through his right arm above the elbow.  Red Wolf could not
+follow him, but he had captured a dropped lance, which he was now
+somewhat boastfully exhibiting.
+
+"Boy go now," said Tetzcatl.  "Tell Castro, Texans gone to the fort."
+
+"No!  no!" replied Red Wolf.  "Big Knife say wait.  Tetzcatl wait.
+Hide in bushes."
+
+No further persuasion was attempted by the old Tlascalan, although he
+did not conceal his preference for being without young company.
+
+"Come," said Red Wolf.  "No stay.  Heap eat.  Where water?"
+
+That seemed a useless question to be asked in such a place, but there
+were secrets of the chaparral which were unknown to the red men of the
+plains.  This was not their hunting-ground and never had been so.
+Moreover, there had been local changes and wide bush-growths during the
+years which had elapsed since the tribes of the Guadalupe and Nueces
+River country had been exterminated.
+
+Less than half an hour of brisk riding brought Tetzcatl and his
+companion to the hiding-place of one of those secrets of the chaparral.
+
+"Whoop!" burst from Red Wolf.  "Old lodge.  Heap water.  Great
+medicine.  Tetzcatl white head.  Know heap!"
+
+Except for its being there, unknown to almost everybody, there was
+nothing to be seen that could be called remarkable.  There were some
+tumbling walls of _adobe_, or sunburned brick, of no great extent or
+number, near the margin of a bright-looking pond.  There might be two
+acres of water, but no rill could be seen running into it.  One that
+ran out, feebly, on the farther side, shortly disappeared in the sandy
+soil.  Red Wolf knew, for he at once rode to investigate.
+
+"Ugh!" he exclaimed, when he reached the bit of marsh where the tiny
+rivulet ended.  "Dead water."
+
+A deer sprang out of a covert at the border of the marsh, but Red
+Wolf's bow had been all the while in his hand, ready for instant use.
+The bowstring twanged, the arrow sped, and in a moment more a thrust of
+a lance followed.
+
+"Heap meat," said the young hunter, as he sprang to the ground and
+tethered his mustang.
+
+He did not have to cut up his game unaided.  Tetzcatl came to join him
+with his heavy _machete_ already out, and he proved himself an expert
+butcher.
+
+"Good!" said Red Wolf.  "Where go now?  Heap fire tell Comanche."
+
+"Come," said Tetzcatl, slinging the venison across his mule, but he
+said no more about what he intended doing.
+
+They rode back to the pond and around it to the southerly side.  Here,
+scattered over several acres of open, grassy ground, were the ruins,
+none of them more than one-story buildings.  At one place, near the
+middle of them, there remained almost a complete house, roofed over.
+Into this, leaving his mule at the door, Tetzcatl led the way.  On the
+floor in a corner smouldered the embers of a fire, suggesting that he
+had been there before, on that very day.  Fragments of dry wood lay
+near, and were at once thrown on to make a blaze, in spite of the
+remonstrances of Red Wolf.
+
+"Smoke tell Comanche," he said, as the blue vapor began to curl out at
+an opening in the shattered roof.
+
+"No!" replied Tetzcatl.  "Small smoke.  Much wind.  Comanches are a
+great way off."
+
+Red Wolf had to give it up, and he was very ready to enjoy broiled
+venison.
+
+The best part of his unexpected good luck, however, was the water.  The
+deer had been a sudden arrival truly, but deer were plentiful in Texas
+in those days.  They were to be met with at any time, but a pond in a
+desert was quite another affair.
+
+The riding and the fighting and the after-lurking among the bushes had
+consumed the day.  The sun was going down when the two cooks in the
+_adobe_ turned away from their dinner and carefully covered their
+fire-embers.  The mule and the mustang had also been doing very well
+upon the grass of the clearing.  Everything was peaceful, even
+comfortable, therefore, when Red Wolf remarked to Tetzcatl, "Dark come.
+Heap sleep.  Ugh!"
+
+"_Bueno!_" he replied.  "Boy sleep.  Old man too old."
+
+With thorough-going Indian caution, however, the son of Castro did not
+think of sleeping in any house, to be found there, perhaps, by his
+enemies.  He took his pony with him and went in among the bushes.  Then
+he tied the sorrel securely, but left him to whatever might be coming.
+As for himself, no other young wolf hunted for a more perfect cover
+before consenting to shut his eyes.  Then, indeed, it was quickly
+proved that the toughest kind of red Indian boy could be completely
+tired out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE OLD CASH-BOX.
+
+The morning sun of the next day was well up in the sky before it could
+manage to look in over the bushes and find out what was going on around
+the pond and the ruins.  Long before that, however, a bright young face
+of a dusky-red tint came to the side of a sumach-bush and peered out a
+little anxiously.  Nothing living was to be seen excepting a mule at
+the end of a lariat and pin.  As if satisfied by what he saw, the young
+redskin disappeared, but he shortly came out again, leading a pony.
+Another pin was driven to hold the pony's lariat, but the two animals
+were not picketed near each other.  They belonged to different tribes
+and they might be at war.
+
+Then once more Red Wolf glanced swiftly in all directions.  He saw a
+large rabbit sitting still and looking at the mule, but he did not see
+any Tetzcatl.
+
+"Heap water," he remarked, and he at once went to the margin of the
+pond.  He took a long draught.  It was pure, but he could not say that
+it was very cold.  "Ugh!" he exclaimed, as he threw aside his weapons
+and took off his buckskins.
+
+In he waded, but the pond grew deeper a few yards out, and he dashed
+ahead in a manner that proved him a tip-top swimmer.  Such a morning
+bath was a rare luxury, but, as soon as he had paddled around long
+enough, he swam ashore and sat down to dry.  Perhaps it was also for a
+thinking spell, and he had quite a number of things to think of.  One
+among them came to the front pretty soon, and he put on his small
+allowance of clothing.  Then he picked up his lance, his bow, and his
+arrows and walked toward the _adobe_.  He found it as empty as he
+expected, and he at once stirred up the fire.  There was plenty of
+venison, and he knew nothing at all about bread, coffee, and the other
+superfluous accompaniments of a white man's breakfast.
+
+What, indeed, could be better for an already celebrated Lipan warrior,
+intending to be a chief some day, than a whole pond of water, very
+nearly a whole deer, and a good fire to cook by?
+
+He was satisfied thus far, but there was one trait of his character
+which had been showing itself ceaselessly.  Red Wolf was a born
+investigator.  It was something more than mere curiosity.  It worked
+well, too, with all his training as a hunter and as a warrior, for it
+led him to try and find out the meaning, if it had any, of every thing
+and circumstance he might happen to meet.  His eyes were hardly ever
+quiet, and they were a very keen, penetrating pair of eyes.
+
+He broiled and ate his last cutlet, went to the pond for a draught, and
+then he set himself to a close study of the ruins.  He went from one to
+another of them rapidly at first, until he was able to say of them,
+counting upon his fingers,--
+
+"Heap old fort.  Many lodges.  No big gun.  Heap fight one day."
+
+What he meant by that was that in several places he had discovered
+skulls and bones, which told of men who had fallen there with none to
+care for their burial.  Some of these were inside of the walls of the
+houses.  Others were scattered in the open.  All were dry, white,
+decayed, ready to crumble entirely.
+
+The first inspection had been of a hasty kind, as if for fear of
+interruption.  When it was over, Red Wolf stood still for a moment, and
+stared at the openings in the chaparral.  Somebody, an old man with
+white hair, for instance, ought to be coming out at one of them at
+about this time.  Why did he not come?
+
+"Great Bear in bushes," he remarked.  "Heap Comanche.  Big Knife come.
+Texan.  Red Wolf want Tetzcatl."
+
+He could not have him right away, that was plain, however much he might
+want him.  So he turned to the ruins for another search, and this time
+he went more slowly, and scrutinized with greater care every square
+foot of each in turn.
+
+Nothing could have been left in any of them, of course, but he was on
+the lookout for "sign."  There seemed to be none for him to read, until
+at last, in one of the most completely broken quadrangles of old walls,
+he stood still and uttered a loud "Ugh!" of astonishment.
+
+"Hole in wall," he said.  "Heap dollar."
+
+A considerable mass of _adobe_ had been shattered in falling.  Just
+under its former base there had been a kind of brickwork box.  It had
+been built over so as to conceal it completely, but it had never been
+provided with either door or lid.  In it had been placed a number of
+deerskin bags.  One of these had split in falling, and there on the
+ground lay a number of silver coins.  They were Spanish-Mexican
+dollars, halves, quarters, all more or less blackened by corrosion,
+exposed as they were to rain and sun, but all as good as ever.
+
+Red Wolf had seen silver money, and any coin was to him a "dollar," but
+it was a matter concerning which he knew very little.  It was
+altogether "white man's medicine," and of a very powerful kind.  He
+knew that, at least, and his next thought was uttered aloud.
+
+"Tetzcatl not see dollars.  No find.  Red Wolf talk to Big Knife.
+Great chief know.  Heap take."
+
+Very strong was his convictions that if Tetzcatl had at any time
+discovered that stuff, he would have hidden it again or carried it
+away.  He did not regard the Tlascalan as his friend by any means, nor
+did he consider him as any kind of white man.  Colonel Bowie was his
+chief just at this time, and he would know what to do with dollars.
+Therefore there could be no hesitation as to the right course to be
+pursued.  Somehow or other this affair was to be reported to the Texan
+hero and to him only.
+
+All that Red Wolf said or did, nevertheless, brought clearly out a
+well-known trait of savage character.  That is, he had no clear idea of
+"value," and so he was not ready for "money."  All of his thorough
+education as a brave of the Lipans had not taught him to count.  He
+would have been as poor a hand at a bargain as if he had been a whole
+council of great chiefs selling half a new State to the agents of the
+United States.
+
+His most exciting idea concerning his discovery was that he had found
+something which he believed would be of especial interest to Big Knife.
+
+He gathered the scattered coins and put them into the hole.  He lifted
+the uppermost bags to find out how heavy they were, but he did not open
+any of them.  He put down the last bag that he lifted with a low-toned
+exclamation of "heap medicine," as if it awed him.
+
+Only a few minutes of work were then required to cover the opening with
+fragments of _adobe_.  After that the young treasure-finder, who did
+not know what he had found, turned and walked away toward the pond.
+
+He must have been thinking of other matters while he walked, for he
+turned quickly and went to his mustang.  Up came the lariat-pin, and
+once more the sorrel, after being watered was led into the greater
+security of the chaparral.
+
+"No Tetzcatl come," he remarked, as he went.  "Too many Comanche."
+
+He had been a reckless, foolhardy young fellow, and he said so, in
+remaining so long out of cover, when he knew what enemies were hunting
+for him.  He tethered the pony and found for himself a thicket from
+which he had a good view of the pond and its surroundings.  No smoke
+was now arising from the _adobe_.
+
+Patiently, silently, he lay and waited and an hour passed slowly by.
+Then he suddenly crouched lower and fitted an arrow to his bow-string.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Horse foot come!"
+
+More than one set of hoofs was falling upon the soft sand of a pathway
+near him, but only a faint sound was made after their gait changed from
+a "lope" or canter to a slow walk.  At the moment when this was done
+four pairs of eyes were swiftly scanning the open.  Low-voiced
+exclamations indicated that they had discovered something altogether
+new to them, and then they rode out from the chaparral to examine it
+more thoroughly.
+
+"No Lipan," he heard them say.  "No pony.  Castro gone."
+
+They had been led there by the trail of Red Wolf's mustang and the
+mule.  They now proceeded to search for any other tell-tale footprints,
+and Red Wolf followed them with his eyes.  They were not likely to
+discover even the fireplace, unless they should dismount.  He thought
+of the dollars, but he believed them to be altogether safe.  His most
+troublesome thought was his pony, for if that unwise animal should see
+fit to send out a neigh of inquiry to either of the Comanche ponies
+concealment would be no longer possible.
+
+"Red Wolf lose hair," he said.  "Strike Comanche brave!  Kill a heap!
+Too many."
+
+He was determined to die fighting, but his enemies were now riding out
+beyond the ruins, not in his direction.  He was only too sure that they
+would come back again.  It was a question of life or death that would
+be settled speedily, one way or the other.
+
+Crack!  It was the loud report of a rifle ringing out of the southerly
+border of the chaparral, and the taller of the four Comanches pitched
+heavily to the ground.
+
+Loud yells of rage and astonishment were uttered by the three remaining
+braves, but they did not wait for a second shot.  They wheeled their
+mustangs and galloped wildly away through the nearest opening in the
+shrubbery.
+
+"Heap dead," said Red Wolf.  "Ugh!  Texan!"
+
+He lay as still as before, however, during several minutes, and no
+white rifleman made his appearance.  The slain Comanche lay on the
+grass where he had fallen, and his riderless pony fed quietly near him.
+It was only one, after all, of the numberless, unexplained tragedies of
+the border, and Red Wolf was too wise a young Indian to go out and hunt
+around for its meaning.  He untethered his pony, however, and made
+ready for a run, if that should prove to be the next demand made upon
+him.
+
+"Ugh!" he suddenly exclaimed.  "Tetzcatl.  No Comanche."
+
+Out from the chaparral beyond the pond walked the somewhat mysterious
+Tlascalan, but Red Wolf sent toward him a kind of warning cry, as like
+the croak of a crow as if a very skilful crow had made it.
+
+Tetzcatl himself might be such another crow from the response that came
+back.  In a few minutes more he and Red Wolf were behind the same
+thicket, exchanging reports of their situation.
+
+The old man seemed to care very little about the hidden rifleman or the
+dead warrior.  Red Wolf told all other things, but he did not mention
+the dollars.  He did, however, take note of every square inch of the
+white-haired tiger he was talking to, and he came very near uttering an
+exclamation when his keen eyes detected a stain of powder in the middle
+of Tetzcatl's left hand.  The thought which at once arose in his mind
+was, "Load rifle.  Powder stick on hand.  Hide in the bushes.  Shoot
+Comanche.  Leave gun there.  Ride around pond.  Heap fool, Red Wolf.
+Boy!  Ugh!"
+
+It was what lawyers call circumstantial evidence, but there was no
+direct proof that the Comanche had not fallen by the hand of a Texan
+ranger.
+
+"Follow Tetzcatl," said the old man.  "See Big Knife."
+
+Not another word did he utter, but he and Red Wolf rode on together
+during about twenty minutes side by side.
+
+If the young Lipan expected to meet any of the rangers or their leader
+at the place named the previous day, he was mistaken.  Bowie had indeed
+kept his appointment, much earlier than he had suggested, and there had
+been important consequences.
+
+Part of what had happened began to be understood by Red Wolf when he
+and Tetzcatl came to so sharp a halt as they did.
+
+Only a few yards ahead of them six riflemen sat motionlessly in their
+saddles with their rifles raised as if about to fire.  The foremost of
+them was apparently taking aim.
+
+The fire flashed from pan and muzzle, and the report was followed by a
+shrill screech from behind some bushes not sixty yards away.  A horse
+dashed out and off, followed by another, whose rider also fell to the
+ground as a second and third rifle cracked together.
+
+"Load, boys!  Quick!" shouted Bowie.  "They haven't surrounded us, but
+that's what they're up to.  There's another!"
+
+The third Comanche was galloping too fast to be made a good mark of,
+but three bullets followed him and his pony dropped.  Then it was not
+one of the Texans but Tetzcatl on his mule who now spurred forward.  He
+had not gone to help anybody, for his _machete_ was in his hand.
+
+"Red Wolf, halt!" commanded Bowie.  "Tell!  Talk fast!"
+
+It was not easy to obey an order that kept him from striking an enemy,
+but Bowie was his chief just then, and the story of the pond, the
+_adobe_, the four Comanches, and all other points worth telling, were
+rapidly told.
+
+"Good!" said Bowie.  "Tetzcatl's coming.  That fellow can't give Great
+Bear any information.  Now for the pond.  What we want next is water."
+
+The entire party wheeled away behind Tetzcatl as guide, and Red Wolf
+fell back among the men.  He did not yet feel free to question so great
+a man as Big Knife, but he learned from the rangers as they rode on
+that their whole party had narrowly escaped a collision with "too many
+Comanches" at the spot where they had met the Tlascalan.  "We'd ha'
+been wiped out sure," they said.
+
+After that they had dodged and lurked in the chaparral, while he went
+for a scouting trip to the pond.  It now seemed fairly safe to go
+there, but there was no certainty as to what had become of the main
+body of the Comanches.  Of course, after having broken his agreement to
+go home, Great Bear felt it to be his military duty to destroy a squad
+of Texans who might otherwise report him and bring a stronger force to
+punish his misdoings.
+
+If the pond had hitherto been one of the secrets of the chaparral, it
+was one no longer now.  Loud, however, were the exclamations of
+surprise uttered by the Texans when they rode out into the open.
+
+"There's no telling what 'll be found if ever the chaparral is
+cleared," said Bowie.  "We don't know much anyhow.  Texas must be free
+first, and settlers must come in."
+
+"Colonel," said a ranger, "jest so; but no settler's goin' to clar
+chaparral as long as thar's loads o' clean prairie to feed stock on.
+This 'ere brush 'll stay whar it is."
+
+"Never mind now," replied Bowie.  "Water the critters and picket them
+where they can bite grass, beyond the walls, or as near as you can.  We
+could hold that middle _adobe_ for a while, but we're in a pretty tight
+kind of box."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ESCAPE OF THE RANGERS.
+
+"It won't do for us to hang around this place," was the substance of a
+number of remarks that were made by the riflemen as they cared for
+their horses and then followed their leader into the central building.
+
+"Now, men," said Bowie, as they gathered around him, "the critters must
+have a good rest and a feed.  We've run them hard.  We'll get our
+rations right off."
+
+All that was left of the deer began to go out of sight rapidly.
+Hunters like these were not apt to carry any considerable amount of
+provisions with them.  It was not necessary in a region abounding with
+game.  They were as independent as so many Indians, and every day's
+ride was expected to provide for its own evening camp-fire, with
+variations.
+
+The fire blazed up; Tetzcatl and one of the men volunteered as cooks;
+the others were stationed here and there as outlooks, with a tendency
+to keep well under cover of the old walls.  It may have been a
+willingness to be out of sight from the bushes that led the old
+Tlascalan to his duties at the fireside.
+
+Red Wolf had all the while kept in the background, so to speak, but
+now, at last, he found an opportunity he had been waiting for.
+
+"Big Knife great chief," he said to the colonel.  "Red Wolf heap boy.
+Want talk."
+
+"Come right along," replied Bowie, leading him a little aside.  "Speak
+out.  What is it?  Have you found sign?"
+
+"Heap sign," said Red Wolf.  "Heap good medicine.  Big Knife come, see."
+
+"I'll do that!" exclaimed Bowie, with a sudden increase of interest.
+"No Indian boy was ever waked up like that without a reason for it."
+
+Red Wolf's face was indeed "waked up," but it contained also an easily
+read warning when he added,--
+
+"Tetzcatl.  No good.  No want him."
+
+"I don't want him," said Bowie.  "Walk slow now.  Go right along."
+
+It looked as if they were only strolling from one heap of rubbish to
+another.  Red Wolf's leading was very direct nevertheless, and they
+were entirely hidden from observation when they stood in front of the
+covered crypt in the broken wall.
+
+Even then not a word was uttered by either of them while the Indian boy
+removed some of his fragments of _adobe_.  When, however, he put in his
+hand and drew it out full of silver coins, the sombre face of the Texan
+blazed fiery red.
+
+"Heap dollar," remarked Red Wolf.  "Big Knife find dollar.  No
+Tetzcatl."
+
+[Illustration: "HEAP DOLLAR," REMARKED RED WOLF]
+
+"All right, my boy,", said Bowie, but he vigorously aided in the
+further work of uncovering the bags.
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf.  "Heap lift."
+
+So it was, for some of the bags were quite heavy.  All were taken out,
+and one after another they were opened and their contents were
+inspected.
+
+"Twenty of them are gold doubloons," exclaimed Bowie.  "The rest are
+silver.  Now Houston can buy his rifles!  There may be enough for
+cannon.  What he needs is the hard cash.  Why, there isn't powder
+enough in all Texas for one sharp campaign.  But there will be.  This
+is glorious!"
+
+He was not thinking of himself, therefore, but of the young republic
+which he and his brave comrades had created and were defending.  This
+money, lying here, so strangely found, so entirely at his disposal, was
+not to be regarded as his own.  Its only value to him was the service
+it could render in gaining the independence of Texas.
+
+Rough, indeed, were the border men, but there are no better examples of
+unselfish devotion to a common cause than they were at that hour
+giving.  Shoulder to shoulder they stood, the most unflinching band of
+self-enlisted volunteers that is recorded.
+
+"There must be a good deal more than a hundred thousand dollars," said
+Bowie, beginning to put back the bags into the hole.  "There may be
+twice as much, but if there is, it won't go far enough.  My mind's made
+up.  I'll go with Tetzcatl.  If there's anything in that story of his,
+we may find the cash to fit out batteries of artillery and buy five
+thousand rifles."
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf.  "Heap dollars buy heap guns."
+
+"My boy," said Bowie, "you come along with me.  I'll take care of you.
+You shall have a rifle, pistols, knives, blankets, horses, anything you
+want.  Now, Red Wolf, look!"  He pointed at the covering they were
+putting on.  "Heap hide!  No tell!  Dollars lie still!"
+
+"Red Wolf shut mouth," was all the spoken reply, but his eyes blazed
+with the pride he felt over the reception of his "find" by the white
+hero.  It was almost like being already a chief to be on intimate,
+confidential terms with so celebrated a warrior, with a leader whose
+ordinary manner was as haughty almost as that of Castro.
+
+A few handfuls of dust, a careful wiping out of foot- and hand-marks,
+and then the secret of the wall was as safe as it had ever been.
+
+Bowie, however, lingered for a moment, looking at the shattered _adobe_.
+
+"One thing more is true," he muttered.  "All that stuff was found and
+coined in this country.  There is more where it came from, wherever the
+mines and placers may be.  It stands to reason that the old Mexicans
+didn't get it all out.  That makes me believe Tetzcatl!  Cortez didn't,
+couldn't, have gotten hold of all the gold the Aztecs had above-ground
+when he came here.  The Spaniards knew there was more.  I'll go after
+it."
+
+Back went the two discoverers to the cook-room and to their rations,
+and none who saw them come could have found upon their faces a trace of
+the excitement they had shown over their bags of doubloons and dollars.
+
+Two hours later all the animals belonging to the party were feeding
+peacefully in the grassy open, and behind a knoll, not far from some of
+them, lay Colonel Bowie.  His long, heavy "Mississippi rifle" was
+thrown forward across the knoll.  Just behind him, among some withered
+weeds, lay the Lipan boy, as if he did not now feel willing to be far
+away from his white chief.  He was watching him closely, and the
+thought in his mind almost escaped at his lips, so clear was the
+meaning that he read in the motions of the marksman.
+
+"Big Knife sight deer," he thought.  "Long shoot.  Whoop!  Comanche!"
+
+His whoop was uttered aloud as the fire flashed from the rifle-muzzle,
+and the report was answered by a chorus of yells from among the dense
+masses of the chaparral.
+
+"Tally one," said Bowie, coolly.  "This business is going to cost Great
+Bear something.  I'll get a bead on him next.  Six yesterday and five
+to-day.  I'll lie still and load up, though.  It's close quarters."
+
+Not one of the other Texans had uttered a word, but each was already
+near enough to good cover to drop behind it, ready for long-range rifle
+practice.
+
+One feature of the situation was only too evident, nevertheless, and
+there was immediate peril of a crushing disaster.
+
+The hot blood ran like fire through the veins of Red Wolf.  Here was a
+grand chance to earn distinction.  It would be worthy of the oldest
+brave in his tribe.  The horses!  The only hope for escape!
+
+So like a deer he bounded from his cover and went forward.  He did not
+go to the nearest horses, but beyond them, to those which were
+apparently in the greatest danger of speedy capture by the Comanches.
+
+One of these had belonged to the brave who was killed in the open that
+morning, and another had been won in the chaparral from his companions.
+They were especially valued as prizes of war.  Up came the two
+lariat-pins.  Sharp jerks of the lariats called the ponies from their
+feeding and they followed the pulling.  Louder every moment sounded the
+whoops from among the bushes, and arrow after arrow whizzed through the
+air.
+
+"Whoop!" yelled the young adventurer.  "Red Wolf heap boy!  Comanches
+little dogs!  Rabbits!  Coyotes!  Crows!"
+
+It was genuine Indian glory to be able to send back such screeches of
+insult and derision in reply to all those arrows.  Some of them
+narrowly missed him, although he managed to make a good shield out of
+the two ponies.  That was the way he lost one of them, for the poor
+animal was shortly plunging hither and thither with an arrow through
+his neck.
+
+Down he went, but Red Wolf immediately pulled up another peg, saving
+the noble racer of Colonel Bowie, and he therefore got in with a pair.
+He was met by Tetzcatl, the only man upon his feet, but he took the
+lariats into his own hands, remarking in a very business-like way,--
+
+"_Bueno_!  Go!  Bring all!  Quick!"
+
+The remaining animals were hardly near enough to the bushes for arrows
+to reach them, and the red men under cover seemed to hesitate about
+exposing themselves.
+
+"Humph!" growled Bowie.  "They're only waiting for something or they'd
+dash out at him.  But isn't he a buster!  He'll equal his father some
+day.  This is too bad, anyhow.  All those dollars must stay where they
+are for a while."
+
+Every horse was brought in without any further incident, but, for all
+that, the situation of the mere handful of Texans was becoming
+extremely unpleasant.  It would, however, have been a great deal more
+so if they had been compelled to rely upon their own scanty knowledge
+of the neighborhood they were in.  It was too new a country.
+
+Colonel Bowie had not moved until the animals were safe, but he now put
+his fingers to his lips and blew a long, vibrating whistle.  Instantly
+his men arose behind their covers of _adobe_ or of rough ground and
+began to make their way to the central ruin.  It was rapidly done, and
+Red Wolf was the last to come in, leading his own sorrel.
+
+"We're corralled!" said one of the men.
+
+"Not quite so bad as that," replied another; "and it'll be bad for them
+if they rush in."
+
+"I reckon they're waiting for more to come," said the colonel, coolly.
+"It takes a good many to work a surround."
+
+"_Bueno!_" said Tetzcatl just then.  "Time to go.  Beat the redskins
+now."
+
+"Go ahead," responded Bowie; "we're ready."
+
+The men mounted at the word.  They had been hurriedly putting on
+saddles, and bridles, and now they sat like statues on horseback while
+he exchanged a few swift sentences with their white-headed guide.
+
+"Forward!  Take it easy!" was the next command.
+
+Then it looked at first as if he were about to lead a charge directly
+into the bushes from which had come the arrows and the whooping.  So
+complete was the appearance that several Comanches on the opposite side
+of the pond came out into the open.  They would have been in just the
+right position to attack the Texans in the rear, after riding around
+the pond.  Moreover, it seemed plain that the "surround" had been very
+nearly accomplished.
+
+"That's it," said Bowie.  "We've drawn 'em out.  We know where they
+are.  Now!  Gallop!  Boys, it's a run, but I reckon we've euchered 'em."
+
+He and Tetzcatl had suddenly wheeled toward the left, and not a
+Comanche made his appearance on the easterly side of the open as he and
+his men dashed into one of the widest avenues.
+
+Fierce were the whoops and yells of the outgeneralled red men as, with
+one accord, they came out of their several covers to follow.  Over a
+score were already in sight, and the yelling indicated that twice as
+many more were near at hand.  The Texans were to run a race for their
+lives, but every animal that was entered for the race was in good
+condition, and not one of them was a second-rate runner.
+
+"Pull in!" shouted Bowie, at the end of a quarter of an hour.
+"Tetzcatl says we're about safe."
+
+"We've rid through tangles enough," replied a ranger.  "How fur are we
+now from the south side of the chaparral?"
+
+"Not so far as we were," replied his commander, "but we don't get out
+into prairie right away.  You'll see what it is when you get there."
+
+"I want to git thar, then, awful," came from another of the men.  "We
+haven't had a scratch yet, but it's been right smart of a close shave."
+
+So it had, and the Comanches were following upon the plain trail that
+was made by so many horses.  Their real difficulty as pursuers was not
+the trail itself, by any means.  Great Bear was with them now, and he
+had a high respect for the men he was dealing with.  A number of
+minutes had been lost to him at the outset by the make-believe charge.
+After that, as his gathering band rode on, the prudent chief compelled
+his eager braves to draw rein several times at places where the thick
+"tangles" suggested the possibility of an ambush and a deadly volley of
+rifle-bullets.  It was really a pokerish business to follow dead shots,
+men of desperate courage, too, among those dense coverts.  He was a
+wise chief, no doubt, but every time his foremost warriors paused to
+reconnoitre the white men gained additional time.
+
+Red Wolf all the while kept somewhat diffidently in the rear.  He was,
+after all, only a boy among great warriors.  Before long, however, he
+found himself riding at an easy gait side by side with Colonel Bowie,
+and the Big Knife was holding out something.
+
+"Young brave!" said he.  "Want good knife?  Present."
+
+It was one which had been found in the belt of the first Comanche
+warrior killed in the open, and there had been no claimant for it.  It
+was a very good knife, longer than most others, although not shaped
+altogether like a bowie.  Its sheath was silver-mounted and its edge
+was keen.  It was worth a dozen of common butcher-knives such as the
+one Red Wolf now carried, and his eyes glistened with pleasure.  It
+would be a war-trophy to show to his father, and all his tribe would
+envy him so fine a weapon.  Its greatest value, however, even to them,
+would be the fact that it was a battle-token given by the great
+single-hand knife-fighter of the white men.
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Red Wolf.  "Heap knife.  Great chief give!  Whoop!"
+
+He secured it in his belt, and then his old butcher-knife was
+contemptuously transferred to a place among the fringes of his leggings.
+
+The Texans were not using up their horses, but no halt was made.  They
+went steadily forward for several miles of winding way, and then the
+chaparral began to change its character.  Instead of mere bushes there
+was heavy timber with much undergrowth, and the land grew rugged and
+rocky instead of sandy.
+
+Tetzcatl was continually several yards in the advance.  He now turned
+and beckoned, spurred his mule, and seemed almost to vanish.
+
+"Forward, men!" shouted Bowie.  "I know what he means!  I've been
+bothered by that very ravine more than once.  It runs almost to the
+Nueces River.  Hurrah!  Great Bear won't run his braves into such a
+death-trap as that is.  Come on!"
+
+A number of fine old oak-trees stood like sentries grouped around the
+mouth of a kind of chasm, with rocks on either side.  There was a
+descent at once, and the ravine grew deeper as the rangers rode farther
+into it.  Tetzcatl was ahead of them, but the mule plodded on without
+waiting for anybody, while his rider turned and put a finger on his
+lips.
+
+Not a shout was uttered, therefore, to tell how glad they all were to
+get into that ravine, and Bowie almost instantly exclaimed, in a low
+voice, to the long-legged Texan who was riding near him,--
+
+"Jim Cheyne!  Look!  That's what he means.  That head, up there at the
+cliff-edge, among the rosin weeds.  Can you fetch him?  Long range, but
+I'll try.  One of us may hit."
+
+"Ready!  Together!" answered Jim, and in a few seconds more the two
+rifles cracked almost like one.
+
+Tetzcatl had watched the marksmen, and now he nodded approvingly and
+rode on, but no one climbed to the upper level to inquire whether one
+bullet or two had cut short the scouting of the imprudent brave, whose
+eagle feather had betrayed his weedy lurking-place.
+
+It was, nevertheless, another proof that Great Bear was a great chief
+and that he knew that country, for he had sent his scouts in the right
+direction before trying to close in upon the Texans at the pond.  He
+had even guessed correctly at one of their possible lines of escape.
+He could not have calculated beforehand that a feather and a head with
+a bullet in it should give so complete a confirmation.
+
+"He won't go back to tell," said Bowie, "but we shall be followed all
+the way."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE CAMP AT THE SPRING.
+
+"Crockett, there isn't any use talking.  We've an awful tough job cut
+out."
+
+The old bear-hunter had stuck his coonskin cap upon the muzzle of his
+rifle, and he stared up at it for a moment.
+
+"Reckon we have," he said; "but we kin skirmish around the corners of
+it somehow.  I've been in tight places before now, but I allers crawled
+out or fought out."
+
+"We'll have to fight out this time," said the large, determined-looking
+man he was talking with.  "But what on earth are we to do for money?"
+
+"We're played out," replied Crockett, thoughtfully.  "We've borrowed
+all we could.  We've taxed till we can't put on any more.  Uncle Sam
+won't let us have any.  Houston, we're in a hole."
+
+"The worst of it is right here," continued Houston.  "If the
+legislature lays a tax, all the cash is appropriated before it's
+collected.  What I want is some money to spend without giving any
+account of it.  We want a powder-and-lead fund.  I've spent all I had."
+
+"You kin skin my pile," said Crockett.  "Wish thar was more of it.
+We're torn down poor.  We might almost be whipped by Santa Anna for
+want of money to keep the men in the field.  Think of losing the Alamo!"
+
+"I couldn't help it just now if we did," groaned Houston.  "It's safe
+yet."
+
+"'Tis till somebody comes to take it," was the ominous response of
+Crockett, as he lowered his rifle and put on his coonskin.  "Just as I
+told ye.  Travis is off on his scout with half the garrison.  Bowie
+went on that expedition of his, and I hope he may get back.  Thar isn't
+enough powder in the fort to fire all the guns more'n twice 'round.  No
+provisions to speak of.  No nothin'.  If Greasers enough came, they
+could a' most walk right in."
+
+"They're not ready to come yet," said Houston; "but they're coming,
+Davy!  There 'll be blood when they get in as far as the Alamo!"
+
+"You bet thar will!" shouted Crockett, springing to his feet.  "I mean
+to be thar when they come.  We kin hold it ag'in' all Mexico if we've
+men and powder."
+
+The two Texan patriots were not in any house.  They had been sitting
+side by side upon a log not far from a rail-fence corner where their
+horses were hitched.  From what they said it appeared that they had met
+there by appointment.  It was as good a parlor as such men needed to
+discuss affairs of state in.  Houston had now risen, and they were
+walking toward their horses.
+
+"Crockett," he said, "it's time for me to git up and git.  You go on to
+Washington.  See what you can do.  Inquire about rifles and cannon and
+ammunition."
+
+"Well," replied Crockett, "money's the best kind of am'nition, but we
+needn't forget one thing.  Santa Anna feels a kind of bowel grip right
+thar.  He can't fetch as many rancheros as he'd like to cross the Rio
+Grande with.  He'd ruther 'tend a cock-fight any day than meet us in a
+shootin' match, onless he was ten to one."
+
+"I wouldn't mind four to one," said Houston, "but I would mind being
+cut up for lack of powder to shoot with."
+
+"You bet!" said Crockett, bitterly.  "Think of bein' jest murdered by
+Greasers!"
+
+They had reached their horses, and in a moment more they were steadily
+galloping northward.
+
+A very undefined domain was the vast region to which the Spanish
+conquerors had given the name of Texas.  They had never thoroughly
+explored it, nor had they determined its boundaries.  Its northerly
+line was that of the then French province of Louisiana, and that was as
+uncertain as the weather.  It might be said to begin at the Sabine Pass
+on the sea-shore.  From that it was supposed to wander inland.  The
+United States surveyors had made their own maps after Jefferson
+purchased Louisiana from Napoleon, but they had no direct French or
+Spanish help.
+
+Westward, Texas was believed to have a limit somewhere among the as yet
+unvisited mountains and plains.  No line had been fixed on that side.
+Southward, the old Spanish maps, and afterwards the Mexican copies of
+them, were at variance as to whether the Nueces River or the Rio Grande
+marked the Texas border.  This was of less consequence so long as Texas
+should belong to Mexico, but, a few years later, those conflicting maps
+played an important part in bringing about the war with the United
+States.  All of that record belongs to history, and so does the older
+claim that Texas never, at any time, belonged to Spain, but was, in
+part at least, French territory, and was sold to the United States,
+accordingly, along with Louisiana.
+
+It is history now, but that history had not been made up when, late
+that day, Colonel Bowie and his men rode out of the long ravine and
+found themselves upon an open prairie.  It was dotted here and there
+with groves of oak.  Much more interesting at first to the mounted
+marksmen was the fact that it was also dotted by several small droves
+of wild cattle.
+
+"Buffalo!" exclaimed Bowie.  "I didn't think of meeting any here.  We
+must have one.  Then we'll go into camp as soon as we can find water."
+
+"Ugh!" came instantly from the Lipan boy.  "Red Wolf find heap water."
+
+"Bully!" said the colonel.  "This used to be a Lipan hunting-ground.
+Go ahead.  Find us a good spring."
+
+Red Wolf had his orders and off he went, while Jim Cheyne looked after
+him and remarked emphatically,--
+
+"That young chap's going to be a buster.  But now, boys, don't let's
+load up too much with meat.  One good critter's all we want."
+
+"All right," replied one of his comrades; "but, Jim, if we keep our
+hair on overnight thar won't be any time wasted on huntin' to-morrow."
+
+"We shall strike straight for the Nueces, and then for the Rio Grande,"
+said Bowie.  "Great Bear hasn't let up on us, and we must look out for
+him all the time.  He's just death on a trail."
+
+"You kin swar to that," added Cheyne.  "He's as ready to ride into
+Mexico, too, as we are.  How's that, Tetzcatl?"
+
+"_Bueno!_" snapped the dark-faced panther.  "Comanches find Bravo's
+lancers beyond the river.  Kill them all."
+
+He gave no reason for the resentful feeling he had shown against Great
+Bear, but loud chuckles among the men expressed their approval of his
+idea that if the Comanches should meet the lancers the story of the
+Kilkenny cats would be repeated.
+
+A general hunt was forbidden on account of the horses, and only two men
+went out as buffalo butchers.
+
+On leaving his party, Red Wolf rode in a kind of long circuit instead
+of aiming at the nearest grove.  He galloped a full mile before he gave
+any reason why he had not gone in a straight line.  He may have been a
+little uncertain about his landmarks, but he made no considerable error
+in his calculations.
+
+"Ugh!" he exclaimed, as he pulled in upon the crest of a prairie roll
+and looked forward earnestly.  "Heap hole.  Big stone.  Big Knife get
+water."
+
+He was near the brink of a deep and remarkable hollow.  It was almost
+regularly funnel-shaped, and on the opposite side of it sat a large
+boulder of granite.  Such "sink-holes" can be found only in limestone
+formations.  They are supposed to lead to caverns and subterranean
+watercourses.  The presence of a mass of granite was, therefore, one of
+the many puzzles for geologists.  Perhaps it had floated there upon a
+cake of ice.  Then the ice had melted; the water had run off down the
+sink-hole; and the boulder was left to supply the red hunters of the
+plains with a perpetual guide-board.
+
+"Big stone here," he said.  "Water there."
+
+The direction in which he rode away gave his words an explanation.  He
+went as straight as an arrow for more than another mile, hardly
+glancing aside, either at groves of trees or herds of fat bisons.
+
+Meantime, the white men he was providing refreshment for rode slowly
+onward.  They heard a brace of rifle reports, and took the success of
+their hunters for granted.  They remarked to each other, however, that
+good luck was with them, for "bufler" were getting scarcer year after
+year so far as that to the eastward.
+
+"One of these days," said Bowie, "they'll all be gone.  This 'll be
+corn land then, and every farmer 'll raise his own beef."
+
+"He'll kill it for himself, too," laughed Cheyne.  "I don't want to be
+here then.  I'd ruther have my beef runnin' round the prairie for free
+shootin'."
+
+Bowie's eyes were all the while busy in a search for "sign."  He had
+found none near his present line of march, but if he could have looked
+back upon his entire trail he would have seen several things to
+interest him.
+
+The first point was in the timber at the upper end of the long ravine.
+A dozen braves of the Comanches were grouped, on foot, around the
+opening through which Tetzcatl had so suddenly disappeared.  They were
+watching, bow in hand, as if it had been the den of some wild animal,
+or rather as if, possibly, some returning Texan might at any moment
+show himself as a target.
+
+Not far down the ravine, but on the upper level on one side of it,
+three more braves sat in silence by the body of their tribesman who had
+been slain by the bullet of Cheyne or Bowie.  Every now and then they
+peered over into the gorge below and listened as if for the sounds of
+horse-hoofs upon the gravelly bottom.  Watchers had been set,
+therefore, to intercept any returning ranger.  That was only by way of
+precaution, in case of an escape from the other part of the relentless
+pursuit.
+
+Miles and miles away, along the route of the winding cleft and on its
+westerly side, rode twice as many Comanches as had been with Great Bear
+when first he had been seen by Red Wolf, on the plain beyond the
+chaparral, two days before.  His reinforcements had arrived and he was
+ready for extensive mischief.
+
+At point after point, wherever the ravine was approachable and descent
+into it fairly easy, a warrior on foot, sometimes even on horseback,
+would go down and search any soft earth at the side of the little rill
+at the bottom.  Then he would swiftly return, report that he had found
+the trail; that Bowie's men were farther down, all of them; and the
+band would ride steadily on.
+
+Of course, this did not mean rapid riding, but it did mean a deadly and
+persistent pursuit.  It meant a bloody revenge for slain warriors.
+
+One brave was now sent back after the squad of watchers, but Great
+Bear's force was a very strong one without them.  Yet other braves were
+riding fast and far in the advance.
+
+Sooner or later it was sure that such a following, by trailers so
+skilful and so determined, would bring them near enough for a sweeping
+blow.  What could half a dozen rangers and one Lipan boy do against the
+overwhelming rush of a hundred and fifty warriors?
+
+Red Wolf did not actually come back to his white friends.  He only rode
+near enough to whoop to them and to wave his lance, as if inviting them
+to follow.
+
+"That's high!" exclaimed Jim Cheyne.  "We might ha' hunted for water
+all night if it hadn't been for him."
+
+"It takes an Indian sometimes," replied the colonel.  "But this crowd
+won't make a long camp on this prairie."
+
+"You bet!" came from several voices at once, and away they rode after
+the young Lipan.
+
+It was a very pretty place for a camp, when they came to look at it.
+Nearly an acre of ground was occupied by tall, old sycamores and
+spreading oaks, and outside of these were bushes.  In the middle of all
+was a fine spring, from which a tiny brooklet rippled out into the
+plain.  Close around the spring the ground had been trodden hard by the
+hoofs of many generations of buffalo and deer, but there was plenty of
+grass without picketing their horses outside of the grove.
+
+"Boys," said Bowie, "if Great Bear should find us, he'll have braves
+enough to corral us in such a place as this.  They could just ride
+around and around, out of shot, and pen us in till we starved."
+
+"That's so," put in a short, bandy-legged ranger whom the others had
+called "Joe," without troubling themselves to add any other name; "but
+I reckon we won't wait to be penned in.  What I'm a-thinkin' of jest
+now is bufler hump."
+
+He had the entire sympathy of his hungry comrades, and they did not
+have to wait long.  The fire was hardly up in good shape before the two
+hunters rode in, bringing the best pieces of a fine "bufler."
+
+"Now we're all right for rations," said Jim Cheyne; "but I'd like to
+know what's went with that young Lipan wolf."
+
+Every man glanced quickly around him, but the son of Castro was nowhere
+to be seen.  He had been as ready for his supper as any white man, but
+stronger than anything else was his feeling that he was on his first
+war-path.  He was a brave of the Lipans, with a new name and a new
+knife.  He had already won some glory and he was burning for more.  As
+for even buffalo "hump," a Lipan warrior who could not go without his
+dinner had never yet been heard of.
+
+He had mounted silently, therefore, and had galloped away, straight
+back, along the line by which he had first come to the grove and
+spring.  He and his pony had been watered, and the latter had nibbled a
+little grass, but that was all.
+
+"Comanche come to hole," he said to himself, as he rode along.  "Red
+Wolf see."
+
+The plan in his head seemed to include nothing more than scouting duty,
+but this was of a peculiar and dangerous kind.
+
+The shadows were deepening in the groves and on the prairie when Red
+Wolf reached the sink-hole, but he was able to examine it carefully.
+The sides of the funnel-shaped hollow were not too steep in some
+places, and he led his mustang half-way down.  He picketed him there,
+upon a slope where he could stand, a little uncomfortably, and pick
+grass, which was greener than any on the outside prairie.  As soon as
+this was cared for, Red Wolf went up again and stationed himself by the
+boulder.  There was quite enough granite for one watcher to hide behind.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Texan too much fire.  Comanche find camp.  Where Big
+Knife?"
+
+It required eyes like his to detect, at that distance, a few faint
+sparks which had floated up above the trees and an exceedingly dull
+glow of light that was just then showing.
+
+"Texan heap fool!" he exclaimed.  "Great Bear come.  Ugh!"
+
+He hardly did his white chief justice, however, for Colonel Bowie was
+even then ordering the fire to be smothered as soon as the needful
+cooking could be done.  There would be no more sparks nor any glow to
+betray the camp.
+
+"Colonel," said Joe in reply, "it's all right, but we'd better jest lop
+down and snooze.  Mebbe it's all the chance we'll git for a nap."
+
+"Snooze away," said the colonel; but Jim Cheyne was looking around him,
+and he suddenly exclaimed,--
+
+"I say!  What's become of that thar old tiger?  He didn't go off with
+the Lipan cub."
+
+"No," said Joe.  "That he didn't.  He was 'round yer chawin' bufler
+meat not five minutes ago.  I heerd him say something 'bout his
+mule----"
+
+"Mule's gone," came from a ranger who had stepped away to look for him.
+"Tell ye what, boys, that thar old rascal's gone back on us."
+
+"I reckon not," replied Bowie, after a moment of consideration.  "He
+hasn't gone to Great Bear, but we shan't see him again till we get to
+the Hacienda Dolores.  Red Wolf's gone scouting."
+
+"That's his best hold," said Joe.  "Glad he went; but they'll get him
+if he doesn't watch out sharp."
+
+That was precisely what he was doing, as he crouched behind the
+boulder, almost as motionless and silent as the stone itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE SKIRMISH IN THE NIGHT.
+
+The great gate stockade at the southeastern corner of the Alamo, near
+the church, was closed.  There seemed to be no patrol outside of the
+wall and all was quiet within, but a solitary sentry paced to and fro
+at the gate, with his rifle over his shoulder.  He was considering the
+situation as he walked, for he remarked, as if to the shadows around
+him,--
+
+"This yer fort is pretty much taking ker of itself, but the Greasers
+don't know it.  Thar ain't any of 'em nigh enough to come for it,
+anyhow.  Ef they did, what thar is of us could give up this 'ere
+outside cattle-pen and retreat into the fort.  We'd hev to give up the
+church, but we could garrison the Convent till help got yer.  That's
+all we could do."
+
+At that moment his rifle came down, for he heard a sound of hoofs that
+ceased in front of the gate.  Out went the muzzle of his piece at a
+shot-hole, and he looked along its barrel as he demanded of the rider,--
+
+"Who goes thar?"
+
+"Sam Houston!" came loudly back.  "Open quick!  I'm followed!"
+
+"Boys!" yelled the sentry.  "It's old Sam himself!  Come on!  I'll git
+the gate open!"
+
+"I met Crockett!" shouted Houston.  "He's all right.  But I've about
+ridden this horse to death.  Down he goes!  They're coming!  Lancers!"
+
+Several pairs of hands were busy with the massive bars of the portal,
+and two of the men had stationed themselves by the six-pounder gun that
+stood there, facing it, like an iron watchman.
+
+Outside, the general stood by his fallen horse, calm and steady as a
+tree, with a heavy pistol in each hand.
+
+"I've barely distanced them," he said.  "Ready, boys!  Give 'em
+something!"
+
+Excepting for the sound of their horses' hoofs Houston's pursuers were
+making no noise, but they were now dangerously near him.
+
+Open swung the gate, and the men who opened it could see the glitter of
+lance-heads in the moonlight.
+
+"Step in, gineral!"
+
+"Jump now!  Git out o' the way!"
+
+"Quick, Sam!  I want to let 'em have it.  Git inside!"
+
+Altogether unceremonious were the rough men of the border in their
+hurried greetings to the man whom they really loved and trusted above
+other men.  He did not seem to hurry, however.  It was with a great
+deal of natural dignity that he strode through the gate-way.  He was
+willing to escape the thrusts of those lances, but he felt no throb of
+fear.
+
+He was safely away from the range of the six-pounder, and that was all,
+when the report of the sentry's rifle at the shot-hole was followed
+instantly by the roar of the cannon.
+
+"It was pretty much all the grape we had," said one of the cannoneers,
+"but I reckon we kin load her once ag'in.  Hope we gethered some on
+'em."
+
+It had been short range, just the thing for grape-shot.  The lancers
+had not dreamed of such a greeting as that in the night, at the very
+moment of their supposed success.  They had felt all but sure of
+striking a blow which would have been to Texas like the defeat of an
+army.  They had followed their intended victim fast and far.  In
+tracing his movements from place to place, and in this final dash for
+his life, they had exhibited more than a little daring and enterprise.
+
+They were barely a minute too late at the end of their long race, but
+they were just in time to be struck by that deadly storm of grape-shot.
+Down went horses and men.  Down went flashing lance-points and
+fluttering pennons, while loud cries of pain, and execrations, and
+shouts of astonishment told how terrible had been the effect of "about
+the last grist of it that we had in the fort."
+
+"Load up, boys!" said Houston.  "Close the gate.  That's all there is
+of that crowd."
+
+"Thar they go, what's left of 'em," replied the sentry.
+
+The fort had not been left without an officer, however, and another
+voice shouted,--
+
+"Steady!  Men!  Lanterns!  A detail of six.  I'll go out and see what
+we did with that grape."
+
+The lanterns were already coming, and Houston himself marched out with
+the detail.  He stooped to look into the face of a Mexican who had
+fallen several paces in advance of the others.
+
+"Colonel Jose Canales!" he exclaimed.  "Well, boys, Santa Anna has lost
+one of the bravest men in his whole army.  I'm glad he hasn't many more
+like him."
+
+"Eight killed and three wounded, counting him in," responded a ranger.
+"It's the uniform of the Tampico regiment.  Canales took his best men
+for this hunt.  Mr. Houston, you've had a narrow escape this time.  You
+mustn't ever do it ag'in.  You ort to be locked up.  You'd no business
+to run such a risk!"
+
+"Why, boys," said the general, "I was uneasy about the fort.  Crockett
+told me more than I knew before, and I came right on to inspect."
+
+"Inspect thunder!" exclaimed the officer in command, a slight-looking
+fellow in a buckskin shirt and tow trousers for uniform.  "Thar isn't
+much to inspect.  What we want is more men and more rifles, and more
+powder and lead."
+
+"Tell you what, Houston," added the gunner who had fired off the grape,
+"don't you know?  If the Greasers came into Texas, this is the first
+p'int they'd make for.  They'll want it bad."
+
+"What's more just now, gineral," shouted a half-angry ranger, "'twasn't
+your place to lose yer skelp a-comin'.  The rest o' the boys feel jest
+as I do.  You mustn't try on sech a fool caper ag'in.  Texas can't
+afford to throw ye away 'bout now.  Ef you was wiped out things 'ud go
+to pieces."
+
+The protests of the brave riflemen were exceedingly free, but they were
+utterly sincere.  They were freemen, talking to a man who perfectly
+understood them.  He therefore apologized, explained, promised
+faithfully to do better next time, and they let him up.
+
+Far away, beyond the belt of chaparral and the long ravine, another
+Texan patriot, as devoted as Houston, sat by his covered camp-fire in
+the grove, and it seemed as if he were echoing the words of the
+garrison of the Alamo.
+
+"Arms and ammunition," he said.  "There won't be any lack of men if we
+can feed 'em.  But a Mexican with a _machete_ or a lance might put
+under a rifleman out o' powder."
+
+He was silent for a moment, and then he added,--
+
+"I mustn't get myself killed on this trip.  If I do, Houston 'll never
+know about that pile in the _adobe_ hole.  I'll be more careful than I
+ever was before."
+
+He was not noted for special care concerning his personal safety, but
+he now arose and went around the camp, from man to man and from horse
+to horse.  He seemed to be all alert, watchful.  There was to be no
+surprise of that camp for any fault of his.
+
+It was now getting well on into the night.  Only a little earlier there
+had been a slight movement of the shadowy form that was crouching at
+the side of the boulder at the sink-hole.
+
+"Ugh!" muttered Red Wolf, but he said no more, as he peered eagerly
+over the rock.
+
+Only such ears as his could have caught a few low sounds that floated
+toward him on the night-wind.  They were cautiously-spoken words in the
+Comanche tongue, and the speakers were within a hundred feet of him.
+
+"Sink-hole," he heard them say.  "No Texans there.  Big Knife took them
+to the water.  Go bring Great Bear.  We find Big Knife."
+
+There he lost several words, but it was plain enough.  These were only
+an advance party.  They had sent a brave back to guide their main body,
+and were themselves to ride on to make sure of the Texans being at the
+camp-ground so well known to Indian hunters.  One of their number was
+to remain at the sink-hole.
+
+"Trap Big Knife?" thought Red Wolf.  "No.  Heap eye.  Texan sleep.
+Great chief wait for Comanches."
+
+He evidently had great confidence in his hero, and he hardly breathed
+while several horsemen went by, leaving a solitary brave to mount guard
+at the outer side of the boulder.
+
+He was very near.  It was almost certain that before long he would
+discover whatever might be living near him if it moved.  It would be
+useless, therefore, for Red Wolf to try to escape on foot that he might
+warn the camp.  It would be even greater folly to go down into the
+sink-hole after his mustang.  It was hardly safe, at first, to risk the
+slight motion required in fitting an arrow to the string.  He must
+wait, he thought.  But if he did, what about the Texans if Big Knife
+should lie down and go to sleep?  Even that small party of Comanche
+warriors might dash in and take a scalp or stampede the horses.  They
+were very dangerous fellows on a warpath or prowling around an enemy's
+camp.
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed the Comanche, wheeling his horse and lowering his
+lance.
+
+Red Wolf's mustang had not been at all comfortable down there in the
+dark.  He had picked grass and he had stepped up and down at the end of
+his tether.  He had heard hoofs go by.  Now he was aware of the
+presence of another horse near him, and he sent up short neighs of
+inquiry.  He uttered the mustang words for,--
+
+"Hullo, pony, who are you?"
+
+The Comanche at once responded,--
+
+"Where are you?  Hey?"
+
+"Horse in hole!" exclaimed the warrior.  "Where Texan?  Where Lipan?"
+
+He listened a moment, and again the animals spoke to each other.
+
+"Ugh!" said the Comanche.  "Texan go away and leave pony.  Go take him.
+Heap brave!"
+
+It was a piece of reckless daring, indeed, to go down alone into that
+blind hollow.  There might be something much more dangerous than a pony
+lurking there.  Again assuring himself, however, that he was a great
+brave and afraid of nothing, he sprang to the ground.  He tethered his
+own pony, laid aside his bow and lance and club and drew his knife.  He
+adjusted his shield upon his left arm, and then he was ready.
+
+His worst peril was not in the hole.  While he was making his rapid
+preparations Red Wolf made his own.  His arrow was in its place now,
+and he was almost lying flat at the corner of the boulder.
+
+There was not light enough for long-range archery, but now the Comanche
+brave stepped stealthily forward, knife in hand, his shield up, and his
+short, hard breathing testifying his intense excitement.  He slipped
+along past the rock.
+
+"Twang" went the Lipan boy's bowstring, and he sprang to his feet,
+drawing his own knife as he did so,--the splendid present of Bowie, the
+white hero.
+
+Loud, fierce, agonized, was the yell of the stricken warrior, but even
+in his agony he whirled around to face his unexpected assailant.  He
+had strength yet, for he sprang at Red Wolf like a wounded wildcat.
+
+Away darted the son of Castro, but his enemy, a man of size and muscle,
+was close behind him.  But that he was already mortally hurt he would
+have made short work of the young bowman.
+
+Back and forth among the shadows bounded and dodged the ill-matched
+combatants.  Red Wolf had no shield, and his knife glanced more than
+once from the smooth, hard bison-hide of his opponent's round buckler.
+
+"Ugh!" screeched the Comanche at the end of a terrific minute, and he
+sank into the grass.
+
+[Illustration: "UGH!" SCREECHED THE COMANCHE ... AND HE SANK INTO THE
+GRASS]
+
+He had done his best, all the while failing, but now the end had come,
+and Red Wolf shortly walked back after the horses.  His own mustang was
+led out of the hollow, the Comanche pony, a fine one, was taken
+possession of, with his late owner's weapons and ornaments and the
+much-prized trophy of victory.
+
+"More Comanche come pretty soon," he exclaimed.  "Red Wolf take hair.
+Tell Big Knife.  Tell Castro.  Who-op!"
+
+Never before had he sounded so loudly, so triumphantly, the war-cry of
+his tribe, but the whoops which answered him did not come from the
+direction of the camp.  They arose from the northward and told of many
+whoopers.
+
+As for the scouting-party, if any of them had turned back to assist
+their comrade at the sink-hole, they as yet were silent.  So was Red
+Wolf now, as he galloped away into the darkness.
+
+The camp was too far away for even a death-whoop to reach it, but
+Colonel Bowie's tour of guard duty had led him out at last to a tuft of
+sumach-bushes, beyond the easterly border of the grove.
+
+Here he stood, looking out somewhat listlessly, but before long he
+uttered a low, sharp exclamation, and brought his rifle to his shoulder.
+
+"They've come!" he said.  "I must rouse the boys.  It's life or death
+this time.  How they tracked us here I don't know."
+
+As he glanced along the rifle-barrel he could see dim forms on
+horseback glide between him and the starlit horizon.  They were at no
+great distance, and he turned to send into the camp a piercing whistle.
+It reached the ear of every ranger, asleep or awake.  Even the horses
+seemed to understand that it was a note of alarm, and they began to
+step around as if they were in a hurry to get their saddles on.  They
+need not have been in any anxiety, for when the men sprang to their
+feet, rifles in hand, their first care was for their four-footed
+comrades.
+
+An immediate reply to Bowie's whistle came also from away out on the
+prairie.
+
+"That's the warning whoop of the Lipans," he said to his men.  "Red
+Wolf is out there somewhere.  Hope they won't get him.  He shouldn't
+ha' whooped."
+
+But Red Wolf had not been unwise, after all.  The Comanche scouts were
+few in number and they had no desire to be caught between two fires,
+Lipans, if there were any, on one side, and the riflemen on the other.
+They therefore dashed ahead, and then nearer, louder than before, the
+Lipan yell sounded again.
+
+"That's a startler!" exclaimed Bowie.  "It isn't the boy!  It's a
+grown-up screech."
+
+Another of the full-sized startlers came, and a third, a fourth.
+
+In, however, without any more whooping, galloped Red Wolf himself, with
+his prizes and his pride and his exceedingly important news.
+
+Closely behind him followed yet another horseman, coming at speed, and,
+in a moment more, Bowie stood face to face with Castro, as the Lipan
+chief, springing to the ground, strode forward and held out a hand.
+
+"Big Knife here?" he said.  "Good.  Lipans at Hacienda Dolores pretty
+soon.  Castro ride back on trail.  Find friend.  Heap talk by and by."
+
+"All right, chief," said Bowie.  "But the Comanches are here.  Let Red
+Wolf tell what he found.  Quick!"
+
+Very rapid indeed was the young warrior's account of his performances,
+and Castro seemed to be growing taller in his glorification over such a
+feat done by his younger self.
+
+All who heard could fully appreciate, and Red Wolf had quite as much
+praise as was good for him.
+
+"Chief!" said Bowie.  "Men!  It's mount and ride now.  Heap the fire.
+Pack the bufler meat.  Fill the canteens.  Get a good ready."
+
+He and Castro had more questions to ask and answer while the swift
+preparations went on, and Red Wolf was thoroughly cross-examined.
+There were no additional tokens of enemies near the camp, but if the
+scouting-party had discovered that the Texans were on guard, another
+party of Comanches, halted at the sinkhole, knew that they had lost a
+comrade and that he had fallen by the hand of an Indian.  The Texans
+did not use arrows nor take scalps.  It was a matter for thoughtful
+consideration, to be reported to Great Bear.
+
+"Ready now," came at last in a low voice from Bowie.  "Mount!  Lead
+ahead, chief.  We can get a good start of 'em before daylight."
+
+It was well to have Castro for a guide, but it was mainly due to Red
+Wolf that they dared to stir out of camp and cover at all.  But for the
+information he brought of the exact situation, prudence might have
+bidden them to remain and fight behind the trees, in the belief that
+overwhelming numbers were around them.
+
+As it was, no Comanche knew of the departure from the camp.  Even when
+the first reinforcements arrived, all that the red cavalry deemed it
+well to do, without the personal presence and orders of Great Bear, was
+to ride slowly around the grove and make sure that nobody in it should
+have a chance to get away.  The fire was blazing high, and they thought
+of what marksmen among the trees and bushes were ready to shoot by the
+light of it.  There was nothing to gain by over-haste, and they waited.
+
+All the while, across the southward prairie, Bowie and his men rode on,
+and now they knew, from Castro, that General Bravo and his lancers had
+been seen along the line of the Rio Grande.
+
+"We can keep out of his way," said the colonel, "but, next thing to
+outracing Great Bear, I want to get a sight of Tetzcatl.  I reckon
+he'll kind o' come up out o' the ground just when we don't expect him."
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro.  "Heap snake.  Heap lie.  No want him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A BAFFLED PURSUIT.
+
+Those were dark days for Texas.  Too many of the white settlers were
+new arrivals, who as yet were in a strange country and had not made up
+their minds as to what leadership they would trust.  There was, indeed,
+a strong central body of veterans who rallied around Sam Houston and
+General Austin.  They were the right men for a battle-field, but they
+had very little ready money.
+
+Thus far, in fact, very nearly the best protection for the young
+republic had been given by the disordered condition of public affairs
+in Mexico.  At last, however, the ablest man south of the Rio Grande,
+General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, had so completely subdued the
+several factions opposed to his supremacy that he deemed it safe for
+him to lead an army for the recovery of the rebellious province at the
+north.
+
+There were those who said that in so doing he ran a serious risk of
+losing whatever he might leave behind him, especially in case of a
+defeat, but the pride of the Mexican people had been aroused and there
+was a clamorous demand for action.
+
+There had all the while been war, in a scattering aimless way, and
+there had been threatening embassies, like that recently accomplished
+by Bravo.
+
+How to invade Texas, nevertheless, was a question to puzzle an invader.
+There were not many points or places in the vast area the Americans
+were seizing that were of military value.  An invading army would but
+waste its time in marching around or in camping on the prairies.  It
+must find a Texan army and defeat it or go home useless.
+
+One of the few points of importance, in most men's opinion, was the
+Alamo fort, but it was really little more than a convenient
+rallying-place.  Apart from that, a scientific general would have said
+that it was nothing but a piece of ground which had been walled in.  It
+was worth blockading, perhaps, but it was not worth a hard fight.
+
+The Texans themselves did not think so, nor did the Mexicans.  To the
+Texans it had a certain value as a stronghold, and they took much pride
+in it on that account.  The Mexican generals were possessed with an
+idea that it was Texas itself and that it would be absolutely necessary
+to take it.
+
+General Houston, making a careful inspection of the fort and its
+surroundings the morning after his arrival, was deeply impressed both
+with its importance and its weakness.
+
+"Boys," he said, "if this place had rations enough and powder enough in
+it you and Travis could hold it all the year 'round."
+
+"Jesso, gineral," responded a ranger; "but if they fetched big guns,
+they could knock them walls to flinders."
+
+The walls looked very strong, and his comrades disagreed with him, but
+Houston shook his head and walked to the eighteen-pounder in the middle
+of what some of them called the "plaza."
+
+"This would do," he said to himself, "but Santa Anna won't drag in any
+guns like this as far as the Alamo.  He can't take this fort with
+nothing but ranchero lancers and field-guns.  I must get some money
+somehow and put things in order, but where I'm to get it I don't know."
+
+He went in then to eat his breakfast, and not long afterwards was
+riding away, with a sufficient escort to protect him from being
+murdered before he could get out of the town of San Antonio de Bexar.
+
+In the dawn of that very morning a cloud of wild horsemen had gathered
+upon the open prairie between the sink-hole and the grove where the
+little party of Colonel Bowie was believed to be still encamped.  That
+from it came no sign of life was of no importance whatever to warriors
+who knew how perfectly the rangers were skilled in all the cunning of
+bush and forest fighting.
+
+A mist had covered the rolls and the hollows, but the smoke of the
+camp-fire could be seen.  Once a log fell, sending up a shower of
+sparks, and Great Bear himself remarked that Big Knife's men were
+putting on more wood.  He now had with him the greater part of his
+force, but every pony was tired, and some of them had given out
+entirely.
+
+There was no special reason for haste, excepting the water of the
+spring for men and beasts.  Perhaps the better way would be to obtain a
+parley and induce the Texans to come out of their ambush before
+slaughtering them.  A little cunning might accomplish that, and so the
+Comanches waited.
+
+Of course, the grove was surrounded to prevent any sudden dash for
+escape, but shortly after the rising sun began his work upon the mist
+the encircling force moved slowly nearer.  The main body moved together
+until they were about a hundred yards from the outer shrubbery.  Then
+they halted, and a single brave, a chief of rank, dismounted and went
+forward on foot, holding out his right hand with the palm up, in token
+of a wish for truce and conference.
+
+The eyes of his band were upon the messenger and he walked steadily,
+although all the while believing himself to be covered by the unerring
+aim of Texan sharp-shooters.  His nerves were very good.  No sooner,
+however, did he reach the trees than Great Bear and his column moved
+forward again.
+
+On strode the solitary herald of peace, or of treachery, but no rifle
+cracked, no mustang neighed, no Texan came out of a bush.  It was the
+strangest affair, to the mind of a man who was absolutely sure that his
+enemies were there.
+
+On he marched until he stood by the fire at the spring, and glanced
+fiercely around him.  It was too much!  His hand went to his mouth, and
+he uttered a whoop which brought every Comanche within hearing
+pell-mell toward the grove.
+
+Such a rush would have been their best chance for crushing Bowie's men
+in any case, but the charging warriors found no Texans to crush.  Wild
+were the whoops of wrath and disappointment, but Great Bear himself was
+equal to the occasion.  His face expressed strong admiration of such a
+feat of generalship, and he said, loudly,--
+
+"Ugh!  Big Knife great chief!  Getaway heap!  Comanche tired now.  Find
+Texan by and by."
+
+There was no help for it.  The only thing to do was to rest and to eat,
+for immediate pursuit was out of the question.
+
+Miles and miles away, an hour or so later, in another camping place as
+good as the one they had left, the white riflemen also were taking it
+easy.  They had plenty of buffalo cutlets to broil; they had distanced
+their pursuers, and they were contented.
+
+"Boys," remarked Colonel Bowie, "we've gained a whole day's ride on 'em
+if we work it right."
+
+"All right, colonel," responded Joe; "but when that young Lipan rid in
+last night I begun to wish I was back in the Alamo.  My skelp felt
+loose."
+
+"He's a buster," remarked Jim Cheyne; "but I'm right down glad his dad
+is here.  Best guide we could git."
+
+As for Red Wolf himself, he was sitting apart from the rest.  After
+all, he was only a boy and all these others were distinguished warriors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CHARGE OF THE LANCERS.
+
+Days that go by with nothing in them but steady riding,
+buffalo-killing, and undisturbed camps at the end of each day may be
+very pleasant but they are not exciting.  As Colonel Bowie remarked to
+his men, however,--
+
+"A squad like ours, mounted as we are, can get ahead faster than a big
+band like Great Bear's.  They'll send scouting-parties ahead, but we
+can keep out of their way.  We're making first-rate time."
+
+So they were, and they were also carefully keeping their horses in good
+condition for any required run.  They carried no baggage, and they had
+now, they thought, a long "start" ahead of their Comanche pursuers.
+
+The most silent rider among them, not excepting Castro himself, was Red
+Wolf, and it was not altogether because he was a boy.  The fact was
+that he had been seeing and hearing a great deal, and that he was full
+to bursting with the spirit of adventure which all the while spoke out
+in the talk of the Texans.
+
+They told wild stories of old war-paths; of fights of every kind, and
+of visits to cities and towns of the white men.  They talked, too,
+about gold and silver and what could be done with money, so that the
+young Lipan grew more and more interested in an idea he never had
+before,--the idea of riches.  It did not yet take complete shape in his
+mind, excepting in one form, given by Big Knife, the hero.  It was what
+he said about the great gun in the plaza of the Alamo, and the money it
+would cost to kill Mexicans with that and the other cannon.  The "heap
+guns" themselves had cost a great deal of money.  In that shape, or
+even in the shape of rifles or horses, Red Wolf could now understand it
+fairly well.  He thought of the bags in the hole in the _adobe_ wall,
+but these, he believed, belonged to Big Knife and the Texans.  They
+could not be the property of a Lipan boy, and he never thought of such
+a thing for a moment.  Very vaguely, moreover, he had gathered that
+this present war-party expected to find gold and silver and to bring it
+back with them, after killing enemies and winning glory in fights.
+
+It was all new and it was all wonderful, but there was no use in
+talking about it, so he kept still and was inclined to ride ahead, or
+else to linger some distance behind his party.
+
+As yet there had been no sign of any pursuers near them, but toward the
+close of one long, bright day Red Wolf had fallen so far behind that he
+was almost out of sight of his pale-face friends.
+
+The swift mustang under him was in fine condition.  So very well did he
+feel that he was restive, and a deer that sprang out of a covert of
+hazel-bushes as he was going by made him jump and throw up his heels.
+Not that he was at all afraid of a deer, but that it was curious,
+perhaps, to find himself carrying a hunter who would not so much as
+send an arrow after such capital game.
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Red Wolf, and it came out sharply, from utter surprise.
+
+In his sudden prancing his pony had wheeled around, and there, coming
+over a rise of ground not two hundred yards away, rode three Comanches.
+The instant they were discovered they uttered fierce whoops and dashed
+forward.
+
+"Wh-oo-p!" yelled the young Lipan, lashing his too spirited pony to a
+run.  "Comanche dog!  Red Wolf!"
+
+There was no more to be said just then, however.  The warm wind from
+the south seemed to whistle past him.  Far to the right and far to the
+left yet other war-whoops were sounding.  Not the whole band of Great
+Bear, he thought, but a sufficient number of their best mounted braves
+to make trouble for Bowie and his men.
+
+There is no such thing as mistaking a war-whoop for any other sound,
+and now Red Wolf exclaimed "Ugh!" again in still greater astonishment.
+He knew that there was no bugle among the Texans with Big Knife, but he
+had heard the sound of one at the fort and afterwards.  "Heap whistle"
+would have been a good translation of his Lipan word for bugle music,
+and he uttered it loudly.  It came from the left, and it was faint at
+first, but in a few moments it was repeated more sonorously, and he
+wheeled his mustang in that direction.
+
+At that very moment Castro himself, riding at the head of the squad,
+lifted his left hand as if pointing and exclaimed,--
+
+"Ugh!  Big Knife hear!  Mexicans!"
+
+"It's a cavalry bugle, colonel!" shouted Jim Cheyne.  "I can ketch it.
+Thar it comes ag'in----"
+
+"Wheel to the right!  Gallop!" replied Bowie.  "It's Bravo's lancers.
+They are this side of the Rio!  Now, boys, the chief was just saying we
+were only a half-hour's ride from the hacienda.  His Lipans are there."
+
+Were they?  It is not always that a man can give the whereabouts of
+other men from whom he has been several days absent.  A ride of half an
+hour is also to be measured by the speed of a horse, rather than by
+feet and inches.  Very near them, therefore, if the distance were that
+of a swift horse on a run, a mule and his rider had halted on the
+northerly bank of a broad and very muddy river.
+
+Directly across the river, on a low bluff of seemingly bare, sandy
+ground, there was a long range of low-built houses, part of them
+surrounded by a wall.  They were altogether like a vast number of other
+Mexican-Spanish _haciendas_, or head-quarters of important country
+estates.  If this, however, were the Hacienda Dolores, and if Castro's
+Lipans were there, they had raised over the largest of the _adobe_
+structures the eagle flag of Mexico.  They had stationed uniformed
+sentinels here and there, and they had picketed horses, with saddles
+and military trappings, in long rows near at hand.
+
+"Tetzcatl counts more than four hundred," said the man on the mule.
+"The Lipans are safe, but the Mexicans must not catch Bowie."
+
+He spoke in Spanish and his voice was quiet enough, but his face was
+all one quiver of rage and hate as he stared across the river.  What if
+his entire plan was to be broken up and his red and white allies
+destroyed by this unexpected activity of his Mexican enemies?  It was,
+moreover, a dangerous place of waiting for a solitary old man, to whom
+no quarter would be given if he were found there by Mexican soldiers.
+
+"Too long!  Too long!" he exclaimed.  "They ought to be here.  It is
+time!"
+
+At that moment the mule under him stretched his neck and head to send
+forth a loud and seemingly uncalled-for bray.  He had an abundance of
+ears, but what could he have heard?  His white-headed master at first
+heard nothing at all, but then he drove his spurs into the sides of his
+trumpeting beast in a way that cut off braying.
+
+"Bowie!" he shouted.  "Running.  He is trapped by Bravo's men!"
+
+There, indeed, racing as if for life, were the six Texans and Castro,
+but where was their young Lipan scout, and what was he doing?
+
+Castro was asking that question, and so was the colonel, only the
+moment before, but now they pulled in their horses to look across the
+river, in blank dismay, at the flag over the hacienda.
+
+"They've got us this time, colonel!" roared a broad-chested ranger.
+"Our call has come.  Let's die game!"
+
+"You bet we will," said Joe, "but we ain't dead yit.  Something's
+a-goin' on away back yonder.  I heard an Injin yell sure's you live."
+
+If he and his friends had not been running away so fast they might have
+heard a number of Indians yell.
+
+Red Wolf had ridden toward the bugle, not away from it.  Hardly three
+minutes of so swift a run had been required to bring him out in full
+view of a strong party of mounted men in the brilliant uniform of the
+Mexican regular lancers.  It was just as they obeyed the musical order
+to go forward at a charging gait.  They were splendid horsemen and they
+moved together in perfect array, but it was not to make a dash upon one
+Indian boy.  They had some reasons for expecting an encounter with the
+band of Lipans which had quartered, during several days, in and around
+the deserted hacienda.  Here these were now, they thought, apparently
+ready to be pounced upon and overwhelmed, but this nearest brave upon
+the mustang showed no sign of hostility.  On the contrary, he pulled
+in, almost halted, and waved his hand to them before pointing back, as
+if he would say,--
+
+"Your enemies and mine are there.  Be ready for them."
+
+Swift orders rang along the charging column, but the solitary Indian
+wheeled out of their way, still making friendly signs, while over the
+swells of the prairie came the wild riders of whom he was evidently
+telling.
+
+To him no more attention could be given just then, for there were more
+Comanches arriving than Bowie had believed at all likely.  They had
+travelled faster and in better condition than he had calculated, and
+fully a third of Great Bear's warriors were within reaching distance.
+
+It was a tremendous surprise all around.  The fast-gathering braves had
+expected to close in upon a mere handful of tired-out Texans.  The
+lancers had counted upon a brush with a small war-party of Lipans.
+Here the two forces were, however, face to face, altogether too near to
+escape a collision, unless one side or both should lose courage and run
+away.
+
+Red Wolf had lashed his mustang to its best speed in wheeling from
+between the combatants, and he barely succeeded, for the Comanches were
+careering in various directions.  It was not their custom to charge in
+close column.
+
+"Ugh!" said the boy warrior.  "Heap fool Comanche.  See Great Bear."
+
+The great war-chief was indeed among his men, as cool as ever in spite
+of the surprise.  He had his best braves with him, and they greatly
+outnumbered the Mexicans.  The latter, indeed, rather than the red men,
+had stumbled into a bad place.  They were brave enough, but the
+Comanches have been called by army officers "the best light cavalry in
+the world."  Not one of them turned to follow Red Wolf any farther, and
+he did not wait to be followed.  He looked behind him only to catch a
+fleeting view of a terribly confused skirmish.  Both sides carried
+lances.  At close quarters, the bows and arrows of the red men were
+even better weapons than were such firearms as were carried by the
+cavalry.  It certainly took less time to load a bow-string than it did
+to put a charge into a horse-pistol or a carbine.
+
+The Mexicans were fighting well, Red Wolf could take note of that.
+What he did not see was the fact that they were going down very fast
+and that more Comanches were arriving.  The one idea in his mind was to
+overtake his friends.
+
+The river!  The great, muddy Rio Grande!  Here it was, with not a sign
+of Colonel Bowie's party upon its desolate bank.
+
+Red Wolf halted in something like dismay, but it was no time for
+hesitation.  His friends could not have gone down southward.  Their
+errand would lead them up the river.  He must hunt for them in that
+direction.  Whether he should ever reach them or not was a difficult
+question, as his first glance across the river told him.  It was not so
+much the flag on the hacienda.  He was not afraid of a flag.  But the
+river was shallow and fordable at this point, and a party of lancers
+had already made its way well out from the farther shore.  They, as
+well as he, could hear the rattling reports and the fierce whooping
+from the battle that was going on, and they were making as much haste
+as the muddy bottom permitted.  They uttered loud shouts when they
+caught sight of the one "brave" on the bank, and they fired shot after
+shot at him, but he was out of range of the short, smooth-bore carbines
+they were firing.  He answered them with a yell of derision and rode on.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Heap Mexican!  All lose hair.  Great Bear come."
+
+Even a Lipan boy could feel more exultation than anything else over the
+idea that one enemy of his tribe was doing much harm to another.  As an
+Indian, moreover, he could be proud of the prowess of a chief like
+Great Bear, almost as great a man, in his estimation, as Big Knife or
+as Castro.
+
+It was a hot skirmish, but it was a short one.  Half the lancers were
+down, but their charge had carried them through the unsteady swarm of
+their enemies.  All that were left were keeping well together and were
+galloping toward the river, followed by flights of arrows.  They would
+have been more closely followed by wild horsemen but for the fact that
+the Comanche ponies were at the end of a long, tiresome "push," while
+the animals of the cavalry were fresh.  There was no such thing as
+catching up with them, and they reached the bank just as their comrades
+from the opposite shore were wading out.
+
+There were loud shouts of explanation.  There were signals to and from
+the hacienda, but all that could be done was to recross the river.
+After all, Red Wolf had not won any glory, but his enemies had once
+more suffered severely in trying to get hold of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE HORSE-THIEVES AND THE STAMPEDE.
+
+"Boys," said Colonel Bowie, sitting upon his panting horse and looking
+back down the river, "they saw us.  I don't think we could make another
+run.  Dismount!"
+
+They were barely a mile and a half above the point where they had
+struck the Rio Grande, but it was time to give their horses a rest and
+to consider the situation.  They had halted on the brow of a bluff, and
+they were looking in all directions.  Not a man of them could guess
+from what quarter their next disaster might come.
+
+"Big Knife wait," replied the Lipan chief.  "Castro go back for Red
+Wolf."
+
+"Guess not!" exclaimed Jim Cheyne.  "Colonel, if thar isn't that thar
+old cuss Tetzcatl on his mule."
+
+Here he came, plodding along as calmly as ever, but there was very
+little news that he could tell them.  He could not even explain the
+presence of General Bravo's regiment of lancers.
+
+"The general said, at the Alamo, that he was going after the Apaches,"
+remarked the colonel, "but here he is."
+
+"Whoop!" rang out from the lower ground easterly.  "Who-o-o-oop!"
+
+"Red Wolf!" exclaimed Castro.  "Boy no lose hair!  Ugh!  Heap young
+brave!"
+
+On he came, and there was no one following him.  How could he have
+escaped?  He tried to tell how when he reached them, but before he had
+finished his story of the Comanches and the lancers Tetzcatl turned his
+mule toward the river.
+
+"_Bueno!_" he said.  "We can cross here.  The lancers are busy.  So are
+the Comanches.  The Lipans are on the other side and we can find them.
+Come!"
+
+"All right!" shouted Bowie.  "Forward!  Boys, Great Bear is our best
+hold just now.  He got in just in the nick of time."
+
+The chief himself had not said so, nor had the beaten lancers.  Both
+sides of that fight had been severely surprised.
+
+It seemed to the Comanches that their long chase had reached a
+stopping-place, and what to do next they could not say, except to rest
+their horses.  As for the lancers, what was left of the fighting party
+was now safe at the hacienda.
+
+The Texans had no choice but to follow their white-headed guide.  Not
+one of them heard him say, as his mule waded into the river,--
+
+"_Bueno_!  The Comanches got them.  It is a great satisfaction.  I will
+take the Texans into the mountains and give them to Huitzilopochtli.
+They shall go down to him when he calls for them.  The gods are hungry."
+
+There had, indeed, been vast changes in the manner and amount of
+worship paid them since the landing of Cortez.  There had been a time
+of fanatical devotion before that, when from twenty thousand to fifty
+thousand human victims had been sacrificed annually to the terrible
+divinities of the Mexicans.  The scattered remnants of the old, dark
+tribes, who still clung to their heathenish faith, might be as ready as
+their fathers had been to offer sacrifices, but the offerings were not
+so easily to be provided.
+
+"The days have been too many," grumbled Tetzcatl, "in which not one
+Spaniard stood before the altar.  We have had to give them mission men,
+women, children.  They shall have six white men from the North."
+
+Those Mexican Indians who, from time to time, had nominally accepted
+the religion brought to them by the missionaries of the Church of Rome
+were not to be classed as Spaniards exactly, but they would answer as
+less valuable substitutes.  Perhaps they were really as available for
+sacrificial purposes as had been the yearly prisoners of war, entirely
+unconverted heathen, who had been slaughtered at the _teocallis_, or
+idol temples, before any Spaniards were to be had.
+
+Altogether ignorant of the religious fate intended for them, the Texans
+gained the southerly bank of the river, but their guide did not pause
+there.  He spurred his mule, waved his hand to them, and pushed onward.
+He was upon ground that he knew, and their weary day's journey ended in
+a dense forest, where they could believe themselves safe, for the time,
+from their enemies.
+
+"Night come," said Castro to his son.  "Red Wolf go see Mexicans.  No
+take horse."
+
+"Ugh!" replied the young warrior.  "Find lancers.  See hacienda.  Where
+great chief go?"
+
+"Castro find Comanches," replied his father.  "Big Knife keep camp.
+Tetzcatl hunt Lipans.  Texan sleep."
+
+It was a time for vigorous scouting, but the condition of the horses
+required that the scouts should use their own legs.  No one went out at
+once, however.  After a hearty supper they all lay down for a while.
+All but Tetzcatl.  Nobody could say just at what moment the old
+Tlascalan disappeared, leaving his mule behind him.
+
+"Boys," remarked Joe, "we're all here and we ain't corked up, but thar
+isn't a blamed thing we can do.  It's been a pretty tough kind of spree
+far as we've gone."
+
+"Wall, ye-es," drawled Jim Cheyne, "and thar's no tellin' what 'll turn
+up next."
+
+"Jesso," came from another ranger, "and we needn't crow loud.  Thar
+wouldn't ha' been a head o' ha'r left among us if it hadn't been for
+that cub o' Castro's; he's a buster."
+
+"So's his dad," remarked Jim; "but whar are they now?"
+
+He was looking, as he spoke, at the spot where he had seen them spread
+their blankets.  Those were there, but neither a young Lipan nor an old
+one.
+
+"They ain't in this camp," said Joe, after a wider search.  "Gone
+visitin'?"
+
+They had not gone together.  A very little later the chief was wading
+into the river at a place somewhat below where Tetzcatl had led them
+across, and he was alone.
+
+His son was at the same time slipping along among the bushes and trees
+toward the Hacienda Dolores.  He was making rapid headway, and his
+bright, black eyes were dancing with excitement.  Fatigue was a thing
+he seemed to know little about.  Probably it had rested him to sit down
+long enough to eat his supper.
+
+The old hacienda had a number of lights burning in it that night, and
+there were campfires kindled here and there outside of the wall for the
+lancers.  There were a few tents, but the greater part of the force was
+compelled to bivouac upon its blankets.  The Comanches were known not
+to have crossed the Rio Grande, and there was no fear of a night
+attack, so that only the ordinary sentries and patrols had been posted.
+The most important of these were in charge of the "corral," where the
+cavalry horses were picketed, and with them a large drove of
+half-trained mustangs which had been gathered to fill the places of
+such animals as were from time to time used up by reckless riders.  The
+rancheros are horsemen, but they are almost horse-killers in their
+merciless spurring.
+
+"Heap pony!" said Red Wolf to himself, when at last he was able to
+crawl along the ground, within watching distance of the corral.
+"Mexican bad eye.  Lose pony.  Great Bear send brave.  Ugh!"
+
+An indistinct shadow was moving along not many yards from him.  Another
+lay very still a little farther off, but this latter shadow was the
+body of the sentry who had gone to sleep on his post.  There was no one
+there now but Red Wolf to note the passage of several more shadows, not
+in uniform.  He crept a little farther and lay still in a hollow.  He
+hardly breathed, for it was equally dangerous to retreat or to go
+forward.
+
+"Lie down heap," he thought.  "See what come.  Ugh!  Comanche bring
+horse.  Pin pony.  Go back for more."
+
+That was precisely what had been done by the daring and expert red
+horse-thieves.  They were unsurpassed in that line of business, and
+they had made their selections with care.  Only the best of the animals
+tethered near that point by the lancers had been selected for removal.
+
+Nevertheless, the red men were few.  They could not spare a sentry.
+They did but secure their first string of prizes by lariats and pins
+before they went in for another lot.
+
+"Big Knife want horse," remarked the young Lipan to himself.  "Red Wolf
+take.  Comanche lose pony."
+
+It was short creeping, and then the pins were out and the string of
+stolen quadrupeds was once more in motion.  Their feet hardly made a
+sound upon the sand as they went.  They were led on to the shelter of
+some bushes, and there Red Wolf left them that he might once more snake
+his way back to his perilous post of observation.  It seemed like going
+to almost certain death, but he worked his stealthy way along until he
+could see a tall warrior, leading several ponies, come to a sudden halt
+at the place where the first captures had been left.
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed the warrior.  "Heap pony gone.  More braves come take
+'em.  Good.  Take more pony."
+
+He believed, therefore, that his own tribesmen had been there, but at
+that moment a shrill "Who-o-o-op" sounded from the darkness near him.
+Almost unconsciously, or from the force of habit, he replied to it with
+his own war-cry.  Following that came a dozen more from within the
+corral.  One after another, in quick succession, every Mexican sentinel
+fired off his musket in sudden alarm.  A bugler caught up his bugle and
+began to blow it loudly.  It was a hubbub of mingled sounds, but the
+warriors in the corral sprang each upon the back of the nearest pony
+and plied his whip savagely upon the frightened animals around him.
+Horses neighed, mules brayed, red men whooped, cavalrymen shouted, and
+the net result was a wild stampede of every brute that was loose or
+that could break his tether.  Of course, they all ran after the first
+to get away, and these had struck out into the open country.
+
+It was no time for Red Wolf to care what became of the drove, the
+hacienda, or the Comanches.  He had retreated after sounding his
+mischievous whoop, and he was now on the back of one of the stolen
+horses, with the others following patiently in a string behind him.
+They at least had escaped being stampeded, and at the same time a large
+number of their four-footed comrades were on their way to the river
+under the care of the successful warriors of Great Bear.
+
+There was no danger that General Bravo's crack regiment would be in
+pursuit of anybody very early the next morning.
+
+The night was indeed nearly gone when Jim Cheyne, standing sentry for
+the Texans, was hailed from among the bushes,--
+
+"Red Wolf!  Want Big Knife.  Bring pony."
+
+"Colonel," shouted Jim, "here's that buster boy again.  He's been
+stealing ponies from the Greasers.  He'll do."
+
+"He will!" exclaimed Bowie, springing to his feet and coming forward.
+
+In a few minutes more he said it again, and so did they all with
+emphasis, but the colonel added, gloomily,--
+
+"It's almost sun-up, boys.  What I want is to hear from Tetzcatl and
+Castro and the Lipans."
+
+"Glad we've a lot of fresh mounts, anyhow," said Joe.  "What we need
+most is to be able to git away."
+
+"We will go to the river-bank first," said Bowie.  "Castro is to meet
+us there.  Even Tetzcatl believed the Lipans had gone across the river."
+
+"If they did it's all day with them," replied Cheyne, but Red Wolf did
+not at all understand him.  He was just then, under Colonel Bowie's
+instructions, selecting for his own use the very best of the fine
+animals he had so daringly captured and brought to camp.
+
+The camp-fires were soon blazing, but little time could be given to
+breakfast.  Their present position was too perilous.  Parties of
+lancers would surely be out, and there were too many of them.  Besides,
+there were the Comanches, and no man knew when or where they might make
+their appearance.
+
+It was bright morning when the little cavalcade, with its fine supply
+of extra horses, filed out from among the woods and went slowly
+northward.
+
+"I kind o' wish we were all back at the Alamo," remarked Joe.
+
+"We won't go in that direction jest yit," said Jim Cheyne.  "We'd
+better ride clean across the continent."
+
+"Halt!" sprang from the lips of Colonel Bowie.  "Here he comes!  My
+God, boys!  What's happened?"
+
+Not with his usual swiftly gliding step, but staggering and panting as
+if in pain, the old Tlascalan appeared at a little distance ahead of
+them.  He was alone, and he motioned to them to stay where they were.
+
+"Find Comanche," suggested Red Wolf.
+
+Bowie was silent, but when the old man drew near enough he asked,--
+
+"Did you sight the Lipans?"
+
+"All gone!" gasped Tetzcatl.
+
+"Castro?"
+
+"Gone!" came faintly back.  "Great Bear's whole band.  My mule!  We
+must push on!  They are crossing the Rio!"
+
+Bowie sprang to the ground and strode forward.
+
+"Man alive!" he said.  "Where are you hurt?  Tell us the rest of it
+while I fix you up.  Jim, get that plaster and scissors out of my
+saddle-bags.  We mustn't lose him just now."
+
+Off came the _serape_ from the old man's shoulders and an awful gash
+was discovered.  His left arm told of an arrow, and there was a deep
+cut on his head.  He was tough indeed to have carried all those hurts
+with him across the Rio Grande.
+
+"I'm surgeon enough," remarked the colonel.  "I don't believe he can
+live, boys, but we must do the best we can.  Put him on his mule."
+
+The wounds had been dressed with much care and skill, but the wounded
+man had hardly seemed to think of them.  Briefly and clearly he told of
+his scouting beyond the river; of a meeting with Castro and then with
+the party of Lipans.  There had been an attempt to rejoin the Texans,
+but in making it the entire force of Great Bear, called out by the
+return of the horse-thieves from the hacienda, had suddenly swarmed
+around them.  Tetzcatl had escaped mainly because he was on foot, but a
+lance-thrust in the dark and the arrows that fell like snow had done
+their work upon him.  Here he was now, to say as persistently as ever,--
+
+"Gold!  The treasure of Montezuma."
+
+"What do we care for gold just now?" grumbled Jim Cheyne.  "I'm
+thinkin' of the ha'r on my head."
+
+Tetzcatl raised his uninjured arm, as he sat upon his mule, and pointed
+toward the hacienda.
+
+"Bravo's lancers," he said, "sweeping the whole country."
+
+"Fact!" said Jim, but Tetzcatl now pointed northward.
+
+"Great Bear and his Comanches all the way to the Alamo."
+
+"That's about so," came from one of the rangers.  "We can't git through
+'em."
+
+Once more Tetzcatl turned, and now he pointed westward.
+
+"Apaches!" he said.  "Bowie must come with me.  A few days' ride.  Then
+he will come back with his ponies loaded."
+
+He spoke with some difficulty, and at the end of his very pointed
+remarks he spurred his mule, as if he were going his own way whether or
+not the Texans were to follow.
+
+"Boys," said Bowie, "what do you say?"
+
+"Thar isn't a word to say," growled Joe.  "We've jest got to git.  Come
+on, fellers.  This crowd's travelling gold or no gold."
+
+"The coast 'll be clear by the time we want to come back," said the
+colonel.  "We shall hardly meet an enemy going or coming."
+
+So they turned and rode on after the old Tlascalan.  Behind them
+quietly followed the Lipan boy.  His young face was clouded with
+sorrow, but the only words that escaped him were,--
+
+"Castro!  Great chief of the Lipans!  Gone!  Red Wolf will strike the
+Comanches!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE LAST OF TETZCATL.
+
+A week had gone by and a little cavalcade rode slowly on along a fairly
+well marked forest road.  In front was a man on a fine-looking horse,
+but at his side a mule was carrying a rider who almost lay down, with
+his arms around the animal's neck.
+
+"Can you stand it to get there?" asked the man on the horse.
+
+"Bowie, you are in the valley now," was the faint-voiced response.
+"Ride on, Tetzcatl cannot die but in the house of Huitzilopochtli."
+
+"Pretty nigh gone, old chap?" was the not unkindly inquiry from the
+next horseman behind them.  "We'll git you thar.  You may pull through.
+You're as tough as a hickory knot."
+
+They could have seen how beautiful was the valley they were riding
+through if they had not been in it.  As soon, however, as the path they
+were in began to climb a steep ascent and they could look back through
+the trees, they broke out into strong expressions of admiration.
+
+"It was a'most worth while comin'," said Jim Cheyne, "if 'twas only to
+see this 'ere.  If Americans got hold of sech a country as this is
+they'd make something out of it."
+
+"They never will," remarked Bowie.  "Best timber.  Best farm land in
+the world.  Fine climate----"
+
+"Gold! gold!  Silver!" gasped the sufferer on the mule.
+"Americans--all men will come some day.  I die, but the lands of the
+Montezumas will not be held by the Spaniards."
+
+It was as if he could bear the idea of leaving his mountains and
+valleys and their riches to any other race than the one which had
+broken the empire of its ancient kings and destroyed the temples of the
+Aztec gods.
+
+The Texans could also see more clearly now the grand height of the
+mountain chain into which they were climbing.  They were evidently in a
+pass, partly natural and partly artificial.  In places which would
+otherwise have been difficult the narrow roadway had been solidly
+constructed of massive stonework, for the greater part unhewn.  There
+had been excavations also, but before long Joe was justified in
+remarking,--
+
+"I say, colonel, this might do for mules, but it won't for mustangs.
+I'd rather go afoot."
+
+He sprang to the ground as he spoke, and his comrades followed his
+example.  Well they might, for at their right arose an almost
+perpendicular cliff, while at their left the side of the mountain went
+down, for hundreds of feet, without a tree or a bush to prevent man or
+horse from rolling the entire descent.
+
+"How far have we now to go?" asked Bowie of his guide.  "Red Wolf, hold
+on."
+
+"Red Wolf find road," came back in Lipan-Spanish.  "Big Knife bring old
+man.  Tetzcatl heap dead."
+
+"Pitch ahead, then!" exclaimed the colonel.  "Boys, wait here with the
+critters.  I'll go on and find the place.  The boy can come back after
+you."
+
+"All right, colonel," replied Jim.  "He won't last long now."
+
+"On! on!" exclaimed Tetzcatl, his fierce, black eyes burning with the
+fire of the fever which had set in upon him, caused by his hurts.  "We
+are at the door!  I will die in the house!"
+
+He was very weak and in pain, but at the end of a hundred yards more of
+that steep and dangerous pass he halted his mule, slipped off to the
+ground, and actually stood erect.
+
+"Stay here," he said.  "No Spaniard ever entered the last house of
+Huitzilopochtli.  I go on!"
+
+He turned, bracing himself with all his remaining strength, and went
+forward as if he believed that his injunctions had been obeyed.
+
+"Fever crazy," said the colonel, in a low voice.  "Keep just behind
+him.  If we can follow without his knowing."
+
+That was by no means difficult, for he did not turn his head, and there
+were many bushes, but it was best to let him keep a number of paces in
+the advance.
+
+It was a winding pathway as well as steep.  There were sudden turns
+around rocky projections, and now the gorge at the left was deeper and
+more terrible to look down into.
+
+"What?" exclaimed Bowie, as he and his boy companion turned one of
+these corners.  "Where is he?  Did he tumble off the path?  There isn't
+a trace of him!"
+
+Vacant indeed was the narrow way before them, but Red Wolf sprang
+forward.  The mountain-side above was not perpendicular at this point
+and there were bushes.
+
+"Too much heap bush," said Red Wolf.  "Track rabbit into hole.  Ugh!"
+
+He parted the luxuriant growth as he spoke and uncovered something
+plainer than a rabbit-track.
+
+"Go ahead!" said the colonel.  "Don't make a sound.  He was trying to
+get away.  He never meant to show it to us at all.  Thunder!  A man
+might hunt for this a hundred years and never find it."
+
+"Ugh!" came warningly from Red Wolf, for right before him was the cleft
+in the rock.
+
+No guard was there to hinder them, but they pushed forward with all
+caution.  Tetzcatl could not be many paces farther on.  He must, as
+yet, be entirely unaware that he had been so closely followed.
+
+"It's a hole into a den," muttered Bowie.  "We've got to all but go on
+all-fours."
+
+It was an exciting moment with so much mystery and uncertainty just
+ahead of him, but he did not betray any excitement.  Hardly as much
+could be said for the Red Wolf, for he was on an entirely new kind of
+hunt and it did excite him.
+
+There is a singular muscular power that often comes with the delirium
+of fever.  It sometimes even exceeds, for a moment, the utmost strength
+of health.
+
+Not at all feeble, but firm and elastic, was the step with which
+Tetzcatl walked out from the entrance burrow into the great hall of the
+cavern.  He went forward without a pause at first, and without
+speaking, although something more than ordinary was going on.
+
+The sculptured head of the war-god stood out in full relief from the
+dark face of the rock, for a great glare fell upon it from the altar.
+The fire was blazing high, revealing here and there the ghastly,
+ghostly figures of the priestly worshippers.  They seemed to be more in
+number than on the day of his departure, but there were also other
+human beings present.  Several of these latter stood immediately in
+front of the altar with rope fetters on their wrists.
+
+A species of monotonous chant was sounding, by discordant voices, in
+the tongue of the ancient race.  Every now and then, as the weird,
+hoarse cadences rose and fell, a club was lifted, a heavy blow was
+struck, followed by a flash of steel and the fall of one of the
+fettered persons.  Each shriek of fear or agony seemed to act as a
+signal for louder chanting, that had in it a sound of angry mockery.
+
+"God in heaven!" exclaimed Bowie, in a hushed whisper, at the upper end
+of the cave.  "I've heard of it!  I've read of it!  That's an idol.
+They are offering human sacrifices.  It's awful, and I can't do one
+thing for 'em.  There went the last of 'em, as far as I can see.  Red
+Wolf, keep close by me.  I'm going to see this thing clean through.
+There goes Tetzcatl."
+
+"Ugh!" was all the reply of Red Wolf, but he was apparently quite ready
+to charge forward, lance in hand, if such were his orders from his
+white chief.
+
+Bowie had drawn his knife and had taken a heavy belt-pistol in his left
+hand, cocking it.  He had not halted for an instant, and he was now
+half-way down the cavern.  Here, however, he almost lay down, with Red
+Wolf at his side, in so deep a shadow that there was little danger of
+their presence being speedily discovered.  At that moment, moreover,
+the cave-dwellers were giving all their attention to Tetzcatl, as he
+stood haranguing them at the highest pitch of his sepulchral voice.  If
+he were giving them an account of his journey into Texas, only those
+who understood his dialect could tell, and before long he turned and
+walked away toward the lower end of the cave, still talking and
+gesticulating fiercely.  All the others moved when he did, and they
+were dragging with them the lifeless forms of the victims that had been
+slain in front of the altar.
+
+"This is a terrible piece of work," muttered Bowie to himself.  "I'd
+like to kill every one of those fellows.  I knew they were still doing
+this kind of thing in Africa, wholesale and retail, thousands on
+thousands, all the while, but I'd reckoned it was long ago played out
+on this continent.  There are loads of things that we don't know.
+Anyhow, this must be about the last of it."
+
+Not even Africa itself exceeded some parts of America in the bloody
+nature of their old-time idol-worship.  There could be, moreover, no
+sound reason for supposing that altogether unreclaimed heathen, here or
+there, would change their ways or cease from observing their rites
+merely because other men had become civilized.
+
+Tetzcatl and his companions reached the level at the brink of the
+chasm, and the booming sound came loudly up.
+
+"What can it be?" thought Bowie.  "I'll see what they're going to do,
+cost what it may.  There isn't a shooting-iron among 'em.  Some of 'em
+are stark naked.  If it's got to be a fight, I believe I could wipe out
+the whole crowd, but I don't mean to run any risks.  What I want is to
+learn all I can this trip and get out alive."
+
+Red Wolf went forward at his side, lance in hand, with the crouching,
+springing step of a young panther rather than the gliding of a wolf.
+
+"Big Knife strike!" he said.  "Heap kill.  Ugh!  Red Wolf!  Son of
+Castro!"
+
+The chanting began again, and Tetzcatl seemed to be leading it,
+gesticulating furiously, while body after body was lifted from the
+floor and hurled into the chasm to go down to the gods.  As the last
+offering disappeared, he turned and pointed at the planks.  In an
+instant these were raised and slipped across the chasm.
+
+"Bridge," muttered Bowie.  "I've been in caves before, but this is a
+pretty big one.  There's more of it, I suppose, away in yonder.  Best
+kind of hiding-place.  Now, what are they going to do?"
+
+Up to this moment Tetzcatl had exhibited the strength of the hot fever
+which was consuming him.  Now, however, he tottered and reeled as he
+walked out to the middle of the bridge.  Standing here, staggering back
+and forth, he shouted a few words in his own tongue and then plunged
+down, head foremost.
+
+"That's the last of him!" exclaimed Bowie.
+
+"Ugh!" whispered Red Wolf.  "Heap look!"
+
+The chanting began again, as if a sacrifice had been offered.  One
+after another the withered guardians of the cave of Huitzilopochtli
+walked slowly across the bridge, and their torches speedily disappeared
+in a vast and vaulted gloom upon the other side.
+
+"Now!" exclaimed Bowie.
+
+He sprang to the altar and snatched from it a branch of blazing pine.
+Red Wolf did the same, and they were without other company when they
+stood together at the brink of the chasm.
+
+"We won't go across," said Bowie; "but what's this?  God in heaven!
+It's the treasure!"
+
+There they lay, the stacks of ingots and the heaps of nuggets.  He
+could not even roughly estimate their value, but he exclaimed,--
+
+"Enough to pay the entire debt of Texas; equip an army; build a navy;
+buy out Mexico from all the land, west, to the Pacific."
+
+It was the golden dream of a new empire, and he stood as still as a
+statue for a half-minute, dreaming it, while Red Wolf lifted his torch
+and peered into the yawning gulf and across the bridge.
+
+"Just as old Tetzcatl said," remarked Bowie, when his thoughtful fit
+ended.  "But we can't take it now.  There may be a hundred men in
+yonder.  What's more, if we tried it on we might be caught in the pass
+by a swarm of 'em.  It won't do.  There are not enough of us this time.
+We'll have to come again.  I'll take along some samples, but gold is
+heavy."
+
+He began at once to cut off long strips from the serape which Tetzcatl
+had thrown upon the floor.  They answered for straps with which to tie
+up for himself and Red Wolf as many gold bars as they could
+conveniently carry.  They worked rapidly, for time might be precious.
+Not merely for the present matter of their own life or death, but that
+no returning idol-worshipper might know that the secret of the cavern
+had been discovered.
+
+"Out now," said Bowie.  "This is all we can do this time, but I don't
+want to see any more high old Mexican religion."
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf.  "Tetzcatl gone.  Heap fool jump!"
+
+"Well," replied Bowie, coolly, "the old rascal was about dead anyhow."
+
+After that he was silent and so was his companion, while they hurried
+out of the cave.  They hardly uttered a word until they stood among
+their comrades in the pass.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Jim Cheyne.  "We've been up and we've been down
+huntin' ye.  What kept ye so long, colonel?"
+
+The fagots of golden bars were held up before the astonished eyes of
+the rangers, and they crowded around to see and to feel the wonderful
+yellow metal.
+
+"Colonel," gasped Joe, "I don't believe a word of it, but just tell us
+what it is."
+
+"The Montezuma treasure!" shouted Bowie.  "Heaps on heaps of it in the
+cave."
+
+"We'll go right in," responded voice after voice, in feverish eagerness.
+
+"Not to-day, we won't," he said, and then, while they listened in
+awe-struck silence, he told them all there was to tell and what he
+intended doing.
+
+"Your head's level," said Jim, at the conclusion of it.  "We mustn't go
+in.  We'd be followed by an army of 'em all the way to the Rio.  Not
+one of us 'd git thar."
+
+"Just so," said the colonel.  "Now I'll swear you all in to keep the
+secret, and then we must be moving.  We can come back with three
+hundred men, and even then nobody must know we're coming till the job's
+done clean."
+
+Every man was ready to be sworn to secrecy, but the Texan patriot made
+them swear to one thing more.  One full half of all that might be
+recovered from the cave, over and above the expenses of an expedition
+to obtain it, was to go into the treasury of Texas, to be spent in
+fighting for its freedom.  They were of one accord as to that, without
+a dissenting voice, but Bowie was a liberal man as well as patriotic
+and prudent, and as soon as the future was duly cared for, he saw that
+it was right and wise to provide them with a sufficient reward for
+their services in the present expedition.
+
+"You've done well this first time," had come from Jim Cheyne.
+
+"Well," said the colonel, "these things are near of a size.  We'll
+divide 'em, share and share alike, every fellow to tote his own
+winnings.  It 'll be the best four weeks' work any of you were ever
+paid for----"
+
+"Half to Texas anyhow!" shouted Jim, as he handled the bars that fell
+to his lot.  "The republic can have my whole pile if I'm knocked on the
+head.  Hurrah!  Now for home!  We've done enough!"
+
+As for Red Wolf, he hardly knew what to do with three long, heavy,
+dingy sticks of metal that were assigned to him.  He fastened them
+behind the saddle which now adorned his mustang, but he did so out of
+respect for Big Knife.  The saddle itself was a kind of paleface
+emcumbrance, but he had won it at the hacienda, and he rode in it for
+the sake of glory, as a prize of war.
+
+As for regarding a gold bar as a silver dollar, he had not yet climbed
+as high as that.  The nearest he came to an understanding was when Joe
+held up one of his own bars and shouted,--
+
+"I say, colonel, just what we've got here would buy another
+eighteen-pounder as big as the one in the Alamo."
+
+"Two of 'em," replied Bowie, "and a dozen rounds apiece of powder and
+ball.  That's what we want,--powder and ball.  Boys!  One more secret!
+I'm going to take you right thar!  We'll go home with cash enough to
+put the Alamo in first-rate order, rations, rifles, and all.  Forward,
+march!"
+
+On they went, down the mountain, carrying with them the secret of the
+treasures of the Montezumas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE PERILOUS PATH.
+
+Can the mere possession of a secret turn a brave man into a coward?
+One would think not, and yet the entire demeanor and conduct of Colonel
+Bowie underwent a change.  It seemed to be growing upon him, as he led
+the way down the pass and out into the valley.  His men, too, hardened
+frontiersmen and Indian fighters as they were, responded almost
+nervously to his every suggestion of extreme watchfulness.
+
+There were good reasons for it all.  They had reached the valley in
+peace, but no one could guess by what eyes their arrival had been
+noted, or what forces might be gathering to strike a blow at them.
+
+The dark clans of the Mexican mountains were known to be courageous.
+No other men had a greater disregard for either the lives of other men
+or their own.  They had succeeded in protecting their fastnesses so
+perfectly that the Spanish and then the several Mexican governments had
+consented to let them alone.  As to the latter, indeed, the short
+history of Mexico as an independent state had been, thus far, little
+better than the record of struggles for power between warring chiefs
+and factions.  Whoever at any date had been temporarily in authority
+had had quite enough to do to maintain his own supremacy.  There had
+been few troops to spare for operations against the red men of the
+North, and none at all for the penetration of the really undiscovered
+country which contained such remnants as Tetzcatl and his comrades of
+the cave.
+
+"They could wipe us out, boys," was the freely expressed opinion all
+around, and they were ready, as Joe expressed it, "to just sneak all
+the way back, if we've any idee of comin' this way ag'in after that
+pewter."
+
+Bowie's own calculations continually went on beyond the dangers of the
+road.
+
+"I've got to reach Houston," he said, "and set him at work with those
+dollars.  We can make up a force to come again with.  I can trust
+Crockett and Travis.  We can have our pick of men.  But we needn't let
+the rank and file know the whole thing.  One of 'em might let it out
+too soon.  If we work still enough, we can ride across all this country
+and hardly stir up the Mexicans.  One big mule train 'll carry all
+there is in the cave.  We can get it across the Rio Grande, perhaps,
+without having to fire a shot.  Not that I mind fighting, if it comes
+to that, but as soon as it's all landed as far as the Alamo, the
+republic of Texas is a made nation.  We can arm all the men we can
+raise, and we can whip Santa Anna out of his boots."
+
+It was the fate of the future that was in his mind and on his
+shoulders.  If he should now get himself killed, with his little band
+of rangers, who would ever know where to come for the treasures of the
+Montezumas?
+
+As for Red Wolf, the secret did not trouble him.  It did not seem to
+belong to him at all.  Nevertheless, it was entirely in accord with his
+ideas that a war-party, returning through an enemy's country, should
+travel as stealthily as so many wild animals.
+
+That first night no fire was kindled, and the march began again before
+the sun was up.  Before the end of the next day one worn-out horse had
+to be left behind.
+
+"We'll use 'em all up if need be," remarked Bowie.  "All I want is to
+get to the chaparral with critters enough to go home from there on a
+walk."
+
+It was on one of those days of watchful, tiresome pushing for the men
+who had the secret to carry and the ingots of gold from the cave, but
+it was hundreds of miles away from them that a group of very
+serious-looking men sat around a table in a log farm-house.  If it were
+any kind of council, the conversational part of it had momentarily
+ceased and they all were thinking silently.
+
+A heavy step sounded outside the door; it swung suddenly open, and a
+voice not at all loud but very much in earnest startled them to their
+feet.
+
+"Here I am, Houston!  They're coming!"
+
+"Crockett!" shouted the astonished general.  "I thought you were in
+Washington."
+
+"Well, I ain't, then," responded the grim bear-killer, throwing his
+coonskin cap violently upon the table.  "I didn't git beyond New
+Orleans.  I found a heap of letters thar, and thar was all sorts of
+deviltry in 'em.  It's no use to look for anything from Congress this
+session, and that ain't the wust of it."
+
+"Out with it, colonel," came from across the table.  "Let's have it
+all.  We were having a blue time anyhow."
+
+"Stingy! stingy! stingy!" roared Crockett.  "Everybody's afraid to put
+in a cent.  Not a dollar to be had, nor any pound of stuff without the
+dollars.  You see, boys, the trouble is the news from Mexico.  Santa
+Anna was at Monterey gathering his best troops and getting ready to
+come after us.  Thar are several regiments already down near Matamoras
+on the coast getting supplies by the sea.  Every friend of ours seems
+to be skeered.  They reckon we'll be chawed up."
+
+"Not so easy," came again from across the table.  "I reckon the
+Greasers have got their work cut out."
+
+"Travis," said Crockett, "I'm glad you're here.  Have you heard from
+Bowie?"
+
+"Not a word," replied Travis, "except that he and Castro had some kind
+of a brush with the Comanches, and another with Bravo's lancers.
+Reckon it was all right.  He's just the kind of fellow to pull through."
+
+Even while he spoke, however, the bright-faced ranger colonel caught
+Crockett's eye and sent him a look that prevented further questioning.
+
+"Time for us to be moving," said Houston, steadily.  "We'll gather what
+forces we can.  The first thing is the Alamo.  We can send a pretty
+good lot of rations."
+
+"Powder!" said Travis, with energy, "What the Alamo needs is powder.
+And we want men enough to handle guns."
+
+"You shall have them," said Houston.  "Texas won't leave you in the
+lurch.  Go and put things in as good condition as you can."
+
+"All right," said Travis; but Crockett was eager to learn whatever news
+might be had around the table, and he lingered to get it all.  At last
+he and Travis walked out into the open air, and they were no sooner
+alone than the latter turned and looked his friend in the face.
+
+"Crockett," he said, "either Bowie is wiped out, or he and his men have
+ridden down into Mexico after that gold of Tetzcatl's."
+
+"That's what he's done, then," said Crockett, confidently.  "He's a
+critter that 'll take no end of killing.  He had the right sort of men
+with him.  What I want is to see him back ag'in, gold or no gold, and
+to have him with us when the Greasers come for the Alamo.  I mean to be
+thar myself."
+
+"Crockett," replied Bowie, "Sam Houston is mistaken.  He can't raise a
+dollar.  All we've got to depend on is the men.  We'll take our pick,
+though, and we can hold that fort against all the ragamuffins south of
+the Rio Grande."
+
+On they walked, talking as they went, but if they could have had a look
+at some of Santa Anna's "ragamuffins" they might not have felt so
+confident.
+
+In the great plaza of the city of Monterey, in front of the church, a
+regiment of infantry was at that hour paraded for inspection.  Their
+arms were good, for they had just been imported from across the
+Atlantic.  Their uniforms were new.  Their drill was fair.  They seemed
+to be well handled.  They were not by any means, in appearance at
+least, the kind of soldiers to be despised by a half-armed garrison of
+an old _adobe_ fort.  Even the stone part of the Alamo defences might
+be in danger, for a battery of heavy cannon was drawn up near them.  In
+front of the line were halted a dozen or so of officers on horseback,
+brilliant in equipment, whose bronzed and bearded faces wore a very
+warlike look.
+
+Encamped near the city walls, outside, were other regiments and other
+batteries.  What could the Texans mean by their contempt for the forces
+which were to come against them?  What hope had their poverty-stricken
+little state in a struggle against such numbers and such resources as
+now were gathering to conquer it?
+
+The review was over.  A salute was fired by the battery.  The troops
+cheered.  The name of Santa Anna mingled loudly with the cheering, and
+the general, sending his splendid horse forward, raised his hat
+gracefully in response.  But then he turned to his attendant officers
+and remarked,--
+
+"It is well, gentlemen.  The troops are in fine condition.  We shall
+sweep the Gringos out of Texas.  Now for the cock-fight, and then we
+will have a quiet game of monte at the palace."
+
+He had pretty fairly condensed into his remarks one feature of the
+situation.  The sturdy riflemen of the American border were strongly
+impressed with the worthlessness of the Mexican military organization;
+with the dissipated, lazy character of its men and their commanders;
+and they confidently expected that a Mexican invasion of Texas would be
+little more than a campaign of wasteful blunders.
+
+"If we can stand their first rush," had been said by General Houston,
+"they'll break all to pieces before they make another."
+
+If Travis and his friends were beginning to be anxious concerning the
+fate of Bowie, he was all the while growing more and more anxious about
+it himself.  He would have been more so if the region of country he was
+pushing his way through had not been so very nearly unoccupied.  Here
+and there a fortified town or village needed to be given a wide berth.
+Strongly built haciendas were to be avoided, if they were not already
+deserted.  Most of them were so by reason of the recent civil wars, and
+yet more on account of the destructive raids of the red men.  It was a
+nearly ruined country, and it was not altogether impossible for even a
+considerable band of prudent men to travel across it without attracting
+too much attention.
+
+The men discussed the probabilities again and again, and their leader
+was studying them carefully, but from time to time he shook his head.
+
+"Boys," he remarked, as they sat around their camp-fire in the woods
+that evening, "you're only half right.  We could march an expedition
+along by this route and not find a soul to hinder us, but there'd be a
+whole brigade of lancers riding this way before we could get the
+bullion and set out for home.  I reckon they'd meet us somewhere about
+here.  They could pen us in."
+
+"Colonel," replied Jim Cheyne, "I've thought of that.  This is the
+shortest road to come or go on, isn't it?"
+
+"By all odds the shortest," said Bowie.
+
+"Then it's our road to come back, and we can choose a roundabout road
+to go there by.  They'll foller our trail, and we kin make one we'd
+jest as lieve they would foller.  We kin beat 'em."
+
+It was a kind of relief to their present anxiety to sit there and make
+plans for the future.  They were never tired, moreover, of hearing
+again and again a description of the cavern, the idol, the sacrifices,
+the plunges into the chasm, and the heaps of gold and silver.  Some day
+they were to see it all for themselves, and they were to take the
+treasure out of the cave and pack it upon their mules and ponies.  Then
+they were to go home with it.  They could buy plantations, build
+houses, "live like gentlemen," as Joe was fond of saying, and all the
+while they could strengthen Texas and help its riflemen to drive out
+Santa Anna.
+
+One of their number, however, did not care a button for anything that
+they were saying.  Not any of it belonged to him.  All that he knew
+about was the present, and all that he could feel were his keen
+instincts as a young Lipan warrior with a party of white men upon his
+hands.  They were friends of his, and it was his duty to take care of
+them.  He had gone to sleep at once that evening, after eating his
+supper at sunset, but not long after the weary rangers spread their
+blankets and lay down their very red associate was up again.
+
+Joe was acting as sentry at the foot of a tree, with his rifle across
+his lap, but he paid no attention to Red Wolf when he saw him walking
+toward the nearest underbrush.
+
+"Indian!" he muttered.  "Let him rip."
+
+"Red Wolf heap look," said he, a few minutes afterwards, as he came out
+into a place where the trees were widely scattered.
+
+A white man might not have seen anything, for all around him was as
+dark as a pocket, but upon a cloudy gloom above the forest beyond him
+there rested a faint, yellowish glow.
+
+"Ugh!" he exclaimed.  "Fire burn."
+
+He had brought no weapons with him excepting the knife and pistols in
+his belt, but he was now armed better than were most Indian boys, and
+Bowie had promised him a rifle.
+
+From tree to tree, keeping among the shadows, on he went, and all the
+while the glow grew brighter, until at last he could see the flashing
+of fires and the forms of those around them.
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf.  "Mexican.  No Comanche.  Heap sleep."
+
+In every direction lay the prostrate forms of men.  Standing erect or
+walking hither and thither were a few who might be acting as a night
+watch.  A group of these were gathered at the end of the camp nearest
+the young scout or spy, and he crept toward them, for they were
+jabbering loudly in Spanish.  They carried weapons, bows and arrows,
+_escopetas_, or short muskets, _machetes_ of all sorts and sizes,
+knives, lances, hatchets, clubs.  They were not regular soldiers, but
+their numbers made them sufficiently dangerous.
+
+"Eat up Texan," thought Red Wolf.  "No catch him.  Go back."
+
+He went rapidly enough, until Joe, at the foot of his tree, was
+startled by a hand upon his shoulder.  A few swift words told him what
+was the matter, and the other rangers were at once roughly stirred up.
+
+"Do you s'pose, colonel," asked Cheyne, "that we've been followed?"
+
+"Not a bit of it!" exclaimed Bowie.  "These chaps got their cue from
+Tetzcatl somehow while we were on the way.  He never meant we should
+find out this thing and get home again.  They don't know the secret
+either.  All they know is that we're a squad of Gringos, and that we
+must be chopped up.  Most likely they heard of us to-day, and mean to
+strike us in the morning.  We must git!  That's all."
+
+"Bully for Red Wolf!" seemed to express the general opinion of the
+rangers, but the half-rested, half-fed animals were untethered at once.
+
+"If it hadn't been for you they'd ha' corralled us," remarked Cheyne to
+Red Wolf, but all the response he obtained was "Ugh!"
+
+"We have everything in our favor," said the colonel, "now we've passed
+'em.  Such a crowd as that won't stir out early.  They'll all lie
+around and jabber and smoke cigarettes and drink pulque and gamble and
+boast, and then they'll swarm in to find that we've stolen a march on
+'em."
+
+For once he was mistaken in his estimate of his enemies.  It was in the
+very dawn of the day, when he and his comrades might have been supposed
+to be asleep, that the miscellaneous militia from the Mexican camp
+"swarmed in" to slaughter the too adventurous Gringos.  It was a sudden
+rush, made at a signal, a musket-shot, and it was made with wild shouts
+of anticipated triumph.  It would have been entirely successful but for
+the fact that Bowie and his men had been pushing northward during four
+long hours, at a rate which had compelled them to abandon one more of
+their over-driven horses.
+
+"We've learned one lesson," said the colonel, when at last they halted
+on the northerly bank of a stream which had proved barely fordable.
+"When we come again we can make sure that all the Greasers will gather
+behind us to cut off our retreat."
+
+"That's what I was saying," replied Cheyne.  "We mustn't try to go and
+come by the same road."
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf.  "Bring heap Texan.  Mexican run."
+
+"There's a good deal in that," laughed Bowie, "but we don't want to
+have to light at all.  We must work it as sly as so many horse-thieves.
+We shall be carrying too much plunder to want a battle with Bravo's
+lancers."
+
+They were safe for the present, however, and after only a brief rest
+they went on again--for life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE RETURN OF THE GOLD HUNTERS.
+
+"Well, boys, we got in like woodchucks by the same hole we came out
+of," said Colonel Bowie to his men.
+
+"Reckon the lancers are scouting the south prairie after us yet,"
+replied Jim Cheyne.
+
+"They didn't knew about the ravine, Jim," said another ranger.  "But
+ain't I glad we're safe in among the bushes."
+
+Here they were, at all events, plodding along one of the sandy avenues
+of the chaparral.  Both the men and their horses had a worn and jaded
+look.
+
+"Our tramp's nearly ended," continued the colonel.  "The lancers made
+it a close shave from the Rio Grande to the Nueces, but we've beaten
+'em.  We know now that Santa Anna is in Texas, and we're back in time
+to take our part in the fight.  We've had good weather to travel in,
+but so will he.  It's getting on into the spring."
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Red Wolf, pausing before a tree.  "Heap Comanche in
+bushes.  Great Bear sign."
+
+There was a gash upon the tree, such as might be made with a knife.  It
+was a curved line with a notch in the middle, for a bow with an arrow,
+it might be.
+
+"Made to-day," said Bowie, as he studied the mark.  "The sap is
+running.  We'll have to keep a sharp lookout if we mean to get through,
+but they can't know we're here."
+
+It was a warning of an unexpected danger, but it did not seem to
+depress them.  On the contrary, their faces were bright and hopeful, in
+spite of the fact that they had left so many tired-out horses by the
+way that they now had only one mount left for each man.
+
+"We haven't lost a man," remarked Jim, cheerfully, "and we've kept
+every pound of the rhino.  We're going back after the rest of it, too."
+
+"We are!" said Bowie, with almost an appearance of enthusiasm.  "We'll
+set out as soon as Texas is clear of Santa Anna."
+
+"That's it," said Joe; "but you see, as soon as he's well whipped the
+coast 'll be clearer than it ever was before."
+
+On they pushed, and Red Wolf rode in the advance as a kind of guide.
+Part of the time he was hidden from his white friends by the crooks and
+turns of the path by which he was leading them, and now and then he had
+to ride back to indicate the right way.
+
+"It takes a redskin," they said more than once, "and he's jest the
+reddest Indian there ever was."
+
+That was so, for the sun had not appeared to have any power over the
+peculiar tint of his skin, but all the while he had seemed to be
+growing older.  If he had been a boy when he joined them at the Alamo,
+Red Wolf was now a warrior, tested by the emergencies of a very
+uncommon "war-path."
+
+The hours went swiftly by and there was no haste to be made.
+
+"Go slow," had been the repeated injunction of Bowie.  "The main thing
+is to get there."
+
+It must have been about noon when Red Wolf came riding back with a hand
+lifted in warning.
+
+"What is it?" asked Bowie.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Great Bear in bushes.  Heap Comanche.  Big Knife heap
+snake."
+
+He wheeled his mustang to the right and they followed him.
+
+"It's awful!" exclaimed Cheyne.  "Colonel, the Comanches have joined
+the Mexicans.  What about the Lipans?"
+
+"Fighting the Comanches," responded Bowie.  "The trouble is that they
+seem to be expecting us.  If we can ride around 'em, though, we'll get
+in."
+
+"All right," said Jim, "but things are looking a little squally.  I'd
+like to give 'em a shot or two."
+
+"Not a shot if we can help it," said Bowie.  "Wait till I show you
+something.  It's only a short ride now."
+
+It was much longer because of the detour, and Red Wolf was now once
+more out of sight.
+
+"What's that?" exclaimed Bowie.  "What on earth made him whoop?
+They've got him!  Gallop, men!  Save him if we can!"
+
+They went forward at a swifter gait, but there was no saving to be
+done.  They were already nearer than they had supposed to the pond and
+the ruins.  The young Lipan had pressed on also, with a pretty clear
+idea in his head.  He had even ridden to the border of the open, and
+had been looking out and around it searchingly.
+
+"Ugh!" he said, "Great Bear no come!"
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed a deep voice from a thicket near him.  "Castro!"
+
+"Whoo-oo-oop!" burst from the lips of Red Wolf, and he wheeled his pony
+right into the thicket.  "Castro!"
+
+He could not have held in that burst of surprise and joy, nor could the
+chief himself have done otherwise than to come out from his
+hiding-place with a great bound.  Swift, indeed, were the explanations
+which were exchanged.  Only a brief outline could be given by Red Wolf
+of his wonderful campaign in Mexico.  The particulars would have to
+wait.  Castro himself could do but little better at that moment.
+
+"Tetzcatl heap liar!" contained the root of the matter.
+
+He had said very little more than that when they heard hushed voices in
+the pathway near them.
+
+"Jest about yer it was," said one.
+
+"Look out sharp now!" said another.
+
+"I'll find his carkiss if I can," came from Joe.  "He was a buster.
+But what did he whoop for?"
+
+"He ort not to," remarked Jim, "but I s'pose he couldn't help it.  Now
+they'll all know we've come.  But I just liked that young feller."
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro.  "Heap friend of Red Wolf.  Boy talk."
+
+Out darted Red Wolf, and in a moment more there were hearty
+hand-shakings all around.
+
+Castro had ghastly tokens to show of the blows he had stricken upon his
+Comanche enemies, but now he gave also a better account of the manner
+of his separation from his friends on the night after they went over
+the Rio Grande.
+
+There had been, as Tetzcatl had reported, a sharp brush between the
+Lipans and a party of Comanches.  The old Tlascalan had only overstated
+the affair in order that he might carry off the Texans with him.
+
+"All gone" had been partly true, nevertheless, for the Lipans, losing a
+few braves, had been forced to retreat toward the north.  They had
+thereby been compelled to give up any idea of trying to join Bowie's
+party.
+
+Ever since then, believing that his son and his friends had been "wiped
+out," the revengeful chief had been hanging upon the movements of Great
+Bear's band wherever they went or came.  He was now informed somewhat
+more fully of what the adventurers had been doing, but it was no time
+for too much talk.
+
+"Forward now," exclaimed Bowie, at last.  "Our next business is to get
+the cash and push on to the Alamo.  We're pretty nigh out of powder
+ourselves.  We couldn't stand a long fight."
+
+On they went, therefore, cautiously enough, but when they reached the
+open it seemed entirely deserted.  They halted in the bushes while
+Castro and Red Wolf made circuits to the right and left.
+
+"Men," said Bowie, with emphasis, while they waited, "we'll go in and
+get it.  We must take almost any risk to carry it off.  But don't you
+forget, if I go down, that this cash belongs to Texas.  'Tisn't yours
+nor mine, except each man's fair allowance for taking it in.  None of
+you fellows found it, in the first place."
+
+"All right, colonel," responded Joe.  "Hurrah for Texas.  I don't want
+any dollar that isn't mine."
+
+"Don't hurrah quite yet," said Bowie.  "We don't know how near we may
+be to a hundred scalping-knives.  Hullo!  Here they come."
+
+It was the two Lipans and not the Comanches that he referred to.
+
+"Big Knife walk along," said Castro, as he came nearer.  "No Comanche."
+
+"I'd like to give 'em a hit," growled Bowie, "but this isn't the time
+for it.  Come on, boys.  We mustn't waste a minute."
+
+Even now he seemed perfectly cool, but none of the other Texans failed
+to show how strongly the "hidden treasure" fever had taken hold of
+them.  It grew manifestly hotter after they had ridden to the ruined
+_adobe_ house, dismounted, and followed their leader in.  It was almost
+impossible to believe that he was about to show them anything like
+actual gold and silver.
+
+"You don't mean to say," said Joe, "that such a feller as old Tetzcatl
+left anything behind him up here?"
+
+"No, he didn't," replied Bowie.  "This isn't any Montezuma money.  My
+notion is that it's old Spanish funds.  If so, all the more does it of
+right belong now to the State of Texas."
+
+"Of course it does!" said Cheyne, and the others heartily echoed him.
+
+"Out it comes, then!" shouted the colonel, with the first external
+flash of the excitement which had all the while been smouldering within
+him.  "You'll see what it is now.  You didn't more'n half believe me,
+did you?  Look at that!"
+
+Over rolled the _adobe_ fragments which concealed the cash, and out
+came bag after bag, cast down with a chink to be at once caught up by
+eager hands and opened.  It was a breathless kind of work to make those
+bags tell what was in them.
+
+"It's a pity so much of it's only silver," remarked Jim, regretfully;
+"but silver's better'n nothin'."
+
+"Every feller wants more than he's got," said Joe, "but you'd kinder
+ought to be satisfied this time."
+
+Red Wolf and his father had looked on in silence, but now the chief
+beckoned to his son and walked out.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Red Wolf tell story.  Talk Mexico.  Long trail?  Heap
+fight?"
+
+All that remained to be told of the trip with Tetzcatl came out
+rapidly, until the mountain pass was reached and the doings in the
+cavern.
+
+"Ugh!" sharply exclaimed Castro.  "Shut mouth!  Montezuma bad medicine!
+Texan all die.  Big Knife go under.  Red Wolf?  No!  Red Wolf Indian.
+No hurt him.  Lose hair if he talk."
+
+He said more, but his entire meaning seemed to be that it was a
+well-understood doctrine that any white adventurer learning the secrets
+of the Aztec gods was a doomed man.  They would surely follow him up
+and kill him.  It was not so bad for a full-blooded Indian, but even a
+Lipan would do well to forget anything he had heard or seen that
+belonged to the bloody mysteries of the evil "manitous" of the old
+race.  It was evidently a deeply rooted superstition, and Red Wolf was
+quite ready to accept it fully.  They returned to the ruin in time to
+hear Bowie remark,--
+
+"Two hundred thousand, pretty nigh, dollars and doubloons.  Now, boys,
+a thousand apiece for taking it in.  All the rest goes to fight Santa
+Anna."
+
+"That's the talk!" said the rangers, and the horses were led up to
+receive their loads.
+
+It was not very easy to pack the ponderous stuff, even at the sacrifice
+of all the blankets on hand.  After it was done, moreover, another fact
+was evident.
+
+"Boys," said Joe, "it's a walk for us all the way to the Alamo."
+
+"That 'll just suit the critters," replied the colonel.  "It's all
+the're fit for.  But we mustn't fail to get there.  I kind o' feel as
+if Texas was getting safer."
+
+They were themselves by no means safe and it was time to go forward.
+The horses had picked a little grass.  They had been watered, and so
+had the feverish, anxious rangers, but rest for either was not to be
+thought of.
+
+Slowly, cautiously, the devious avenues of the seemingly endless
+thickets were traversed, and at last the little cavalcade, with its
+precious freight, emerged among the scattered trees on the border of
+the prairie.
+
+"'Tisn't time for us to whistle yet," said Bowie, "even if we're out o'
+the woods.  Hullo!  Men!  There they come!  Forward!  Double lines.
+Horses outside."
+
+"Whoop!  Whoop!" came fiercely from Castro and his son.
+
+"I reckon we've been watched for somehow," growled Jim.  "We'll show
+'em a good fight for the pewter, but don't I wish thar was more of us!"
+
+It seemed as if the loads of dollars added to the desperate courage of
+the men, and they made ready for the coming fight as if more than their
+own lives were depending upon it.
+
+The horses were ranged in parallel lines, and the riflemen walked on in
+the space between.  It was a kind of travelling breastwork, and it must
+have had a dangerous look to an outsider.  A number of wild horsemen,
+therefore, contented themselves, for the present, with whooping loudly
+and riding around at safe distances.  There were a great many of them,
+but Castro declared that the entire force under Great Bear had not made
+its appearance.
+
+"It looks bad for our side," said Bowie.  "It's a long time since any
+Comanche war-parties have ventured in as far as they have this season.
+Santa Anna was quite enough for us to handle without the redskins."
+
+He hardly knew, at that moment, how dark a cloud seemed to be hanging
+over Texas in those closing days of the winter of 1835-1836.  All
+things had been going wrong.  There were quarrels among leaders, and
+even Houston had lost, apparently, a great deal of his popularity.  As
+Crockett expressed it,--
+
+"The cusses expect the old man to do some things that can't be did."
+
+There were a great many things that he could not do.  Nevertheless, he
+worked unceasingly.  He made visits of inspection here and there.  He
+made speeches, printed patriotic appeals in the newspapers, and argued
+with timid or disaffected settlers.
+
+It all seemed to be of little use.  The Indians were busy on the
+borders.  Reports of the feeling in the Congress of the United States
+were discouraging.  All the while, moreover, every arrival from south
+of the Rio Grande told of the extensive preparations which the Mexican
+president was making for an invasion.  He was said to have gathered a
+force that would prove overwhelming, and he had declared death to all
+rebels.
+
+"If we don't look out," said Crockett to Travis that afternoon, as they
+stood together in the open gate-way of the Alamo, "the Greasers 'll
+catch us all in bed.  But don't I wish I knew what had become of Bowie
+and his men?"
+
+"They won't fetch back any gold," replied Travis; "but I'd like to see
+them if they rode in as bare as redskins."
+
+"Colonel," exclaimed Crockett, "give me a dozen men and let me take a
+scout over the south prairie.  I might have some kind o' luck.  Might
+knock over a Comanche."
+
+"Let you have 'em?" said Travis, with sudden energy.  "Take 'em!  I'll
+come right along with you.  I'm dog tired of loafing in this coop.  Get
+your men."
+
+The rangers of the garrison were as weary of inaction as was their
+commander, and double the number called for almost insisted upon
+mounting for the proposed scout.
+
+"The fort 'll keep till we git back," remarked Crockett; "but if I
+don't git out of it and shoot something I shall spile."
+
+There were very good military reasons for precisely such an errand of
+inquiry.  The vicinity of prowling savages was pretty well known, and
+it was desirable to learn as much more as possible.
+
+The party from the fort rode out, therefore, and they were well upon
+their way, but they were not near enough to hear the whoops of Great
+Bear's warriors nor the cracking of the first rifles which replied.
+
+There had been a steady onward march of Bowie's men, without any other
+change in the situation than an increase in the number of their enemies.
+
+"Boys," the colonel said, "we've gained about a mile and a half, but
+they're closing in on us a little.  Let 'em have a pill first chance
+you get.  Halt!"
+
+There they stood, their rifles levelled across the saddles.  It was
+hardly worth while to waste their small stock of powder upon swiftly
+careering horsemen, although now these were frequently within range.
+
+"I'll take that drove," exclaimed Jim, as several of the whoopers
+wheeled into a closely gathered group.
+
+"Got him!" he shouted, as his rifle cracked.
+
+"One more," added Bowie.  "Hold your fire, men.  It won't do to have
+too many guns empty at one time."
+
+The backs of two mustangs were empty, however, and the yells which
+followed were those of angry braves who had been stung to rashness
+rather than intimidated.  Of course, they all wheeled away at first,
+taking their dead comrades with them.
+
+The Texans again moved steadily forward, but hardly more than a quarter
+of a mile had been gained before Bowie shouted,--
+
+"Here they are, men!  The whole band has got in on us this time.
+They're gathering for a rush.  Ready!  Die game!"
+
+A swarm,--a cloud,--an overwhelming torrent of the fierce cavalry of
+the plains, was forming in loose but effective array to sweep in upon
+their victims.  What could six rifles and two bows do against such a
+storm as was now about to burst?
+
+"Die like men!" shouted Bowie.  "Kill every redskin you can draw a bead
+on!"
+
+Crack, crack, went rifle after rifle, and not a shot was thrown away;
+but the Comanches were whooping forward upon their charge and all would
+soon be over.
+
+"Hullo!  What's that?" shouted the colonel.
+
+"Whoop!" yelled Castro.  "Rifle!"
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf.  "Heap Texan!  Comanche lose hair!"
+
+Sharp, rapid, utterly unexpected, was the rattle of rifle-shots from
+away beyond the cloud of pony riders.  Down went horse and man in quick
+succession.
+
+"Travis and the rangers!" yelled Jim Cheyne.
+
+"The boys have come!  Thank God!" gasped Bowie.  "Five minutes more and
+Houston wouldn't have had a dollar of this stuff."
+
+Not even then was he wasting a thought upon his own life or upon the
+lives of those who were with him.
+
+It was a terrific surprise to the red riders.  They were smitten as by
+lightning.  They could have no idea of the numbers of their new
+assailants, and they were in wholesome dread of the marksmanship of the
+Texans.  Well they might be!
+
+Wheeling into a line at the order of their commander, the rangers were
+deliberately picking off warrior after warrior until their rifles were
+empty.
+
+"Forward!  Charge!" shouted Travis.
+
+"Come on, fellers!" yelled Crockett.  "It's Bowie and the boys!  Don't
+you miss a shot."
+
+They were not missing so long as any human target was within pistol
+range, but the targets were getting away.  This was not at all what
+they had counted on.  They fought for a moment, of course, for they
+were warriors, and their flights of arrows were not sent in vain.
+
+Right through them rode the rangers, leaving three of their number on
+the grass, while several more carried with them well-aimed arrows.
+
+"Hot work," laughed Travis, "but here we are!  Bowie, old fellow!
+Hurrah!"
+
+Away wheeled the stricken Comanches, for the rangers were reloading.
+The savage rush was over and the next business was to get out of rifle
+range.
+
+It was a curious spectacle.  There stood Crockett, the rough old bear
+hunter, the sarcastic humorist, the lank, lantern-jawed frontiersman,
+hugging Colonel Bowie.  It almost seemed as if he were crying.
+
+"Hurrah!" he shouted.  "I kind o' knowed they hadn't wiped him out."
+
+"Crockett, old boy!" said Travis.  "Give him a chance to speak.  You
+are choking him."
+
+"Jest what I want to do," said Davy.  "Now, Bowie, whar have you been?"
+
+"Let go, Crockett," said Bowie, "and I'll tell you.  But some of the
+men are hurt----"
+
+"The boys are 'tending to 'em," replied Travis.  "How about Tetzcatl?"
+
+"Not a word of him now!" burst from Bowie, vehemently.  "Travis!  I've
+found cash enough to pay for all the ammunition we need to whip Mexico.
+I'll tell you as we go along.  Where's Sam Houston?"
+
+"He's to be at the fort to-day," said Crockett.  "But whar on earth did
+you pick up any dollars?"
+
+The first answer was Bowie's finger on his lips.  Then they three
+mounted and rode on together.
+
+As for the rest of the rangers, they were indeed caring for the
+wounded, and even for the dead, but the story of the cash found in the
+ruined _adobe_ house was travelling fast from man to man.
+
+That was followed, of course, by an account of the raid into Mexico
+with Tetzcatl, but that part of the story was defective.  As it was
+related it did not contain any intimation of the mountain pass, the
+cavern, or the treasure of the Montezumas.  It did not, and yet one
+ranger after another said to the man next him, in varied forms of
+speech,--
+
+"Tell you what, those fellows that went with Bowie are keeping back
+something.  They've learned more than they're willin' to tell.  We must
+get it out of 'em."
+
+As for Red Wolf, he and his father had been lost sight of for a few
+minutes, but in the last part of that close, terrible fight they had
+been plying their bows incessantly, and now they were out on the
+prairie.  They were Indians, Lipans, an old warrior and a young brave,
+and they were following the custom of their race, for they were taking
+trophies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE ARMY OF SANTA ANNA.
+
+"Houston?  You here?  I've something to show you.  Hurrah for Texas!"
+
+The commander-in-chief had been sent for days earlier, and he had come
+in haste, for a fast-riding courier had brought him word that Santa
+Anna and his army were already across the Rio Grande.
+
+"Bowie!  Thank God!" almost roared the old hero, springing forward.
+"Oh, Bowie!  I'd begun to believe you were dead."
+
+"Not a bit of it!" shouted back Bowie.  "I've won a pot of money for
+our side.  Here it comes."
+
+A train of horses was filing through the gate-way of the Alamo.  They
+were not the worn-out animals which had travelled so fast and so far,
+for Crockett had made the rangers give up as many quadrupeds as were
+necessary for the wounded men and the money-packs.  Three horses,
+indeed, bore sadder burdens, for the dead also had been brought in.
+These had halted outside the walls and a burial party was at work.
+
+"It costs us something to win freedom," was the sombre comment of
+General Houston.  "Many another brave fellow must go down before we
+clean out the Greasers and the redskins.  Now, Bowie, come in and tell
+me what this means."
+
+They walked on into an inner room of the fort, but not even to Houston
+did Bowie as yet unfold the secret of the cavern.
+
+"Too many know it already, or half know it," was the thought he did not
+put into words.  He told all about the Spanish dollars and doubloons,
+however.  In turning them over to the state, less the small sums agreed
+upon as the allowance of his men, he stipulated that the first use made
+of any money should be for provisions, powder and ball, for the defence
+of the Alamo.
+
+"Houston," he said, with emphasis, "my notion is that it can't get here
+any too quick.  Travis is wrong.  Santa Anna will march straight for
+the Alamo."
+
+"He may.  He may," replied the general.  "At all events, I must set out
+with the cash.  I must send you all the help I can right away.  Then I
+must raise troops and march to meet the Mexicans.  It's a blue time for
+Texas, but this is a ray of light."
+
+It was only one ray, for in all other directions the prospect seemed
+dark.  His own preparations for departure were made at once, and in the
+gloom of that very evening he rode away.
+
+"We must go all night," he said, "and not a soul outside the fort must
+know what we're taking with us."
+
+About an hour later, eleven men sat together in the upper corner room
+of the convent building, and every man of them bound by an oath and by
+his word of honor to keep secret all he might hear.
+
+"Boys," said Bowie to his own men, "if Travis and Crockett are let in
+and no more, the secret is just as safe.  I don't feel as if they were
+outsiders."
+
+"Just the same as ourselves," replied Jim Cheyne.  "They're to help us
+git up the expedition.  But what about the gold bars we fetched this
+time?  They'd tell it all if we showed 'em now."
+
+"Keep 'em for expenses when we are ready for business," said Bowie.  "I
+didn't say a word of them to Houston.  We can hole them right here in
+the corner of this room.  Safe as a bank."
+
+"And if Santa Anna captures the fort, what then?" asked Joe.
+
+"Nobody 'll ever hear of any gold he got here," replied Bowie, grimly.
+"If one of his men found it, he'd take it away from him and have him
+shot for desertion."
+
+The bars belonging to the men were brought, and they made only a small
+pile, after all, when packed in a corner, under the couch, with old
+saddles stuffed in front of them.  Red Wolf's prizes, of course, were
+not included.
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro, after watching the operation.  "Big Knife kill
+Travis.  Kill Crockett.  No kill all Texan.  Heap shut mouth.
+Montezuma talk, all bad medicine."
+
+"All right, Castro," said Bowie.  "When my time comes I shall die."
+
+"What does he mean?" asked Travis.
+
+"You couldn't root it out of him," said Bowie.  "He believes that every
+white man who meddles with this stuff is bound to go under.  It's
+poison."
+
+"Out with your yarn, then," said Crockett.  "I'll take my chances.  You
+kin name the day for my funeral."
+
+Steadily, from step to step, the colonel told the story of his raid
+into Mexico.  Not a word was uttered by anybody else until he came to
+the description of the cavern.
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Castro.  "Heap bad medicine.  Now Travis go under.
+Crockett lose hair."
+
+He evidently did not wish to hear any more himself, but curiosity is a
+strong tether, and, after all, he was an Indian, and upon him the
+mysterious peril might not have so much power.  Red Wolf knew the
+secret already, and nothing evil had as yet happened to him.  The chief
+remained, therefore, in silence, while Bowie told of the human
+sacrifices, the fate of Tetzcatl, and the heaps of ingots, tons and
+tons of them.
+
+"Go for it?" shouted Travis.  "Of course we will.  As soon as we've
+beaten the Greasers I'll raise the men that can ride across Mexico to
+get the stuff out of that cave.  It's a wonderful thing to know, but
+when you come to think of it, it's the most natural thing in the world.
+Montezuma and Guatamoczin did exactly what you and I would have done,
+both before Cortez came and afterwards.  We wouldn't have given it up
+neither, and they didn't."
+
+"Thar's heaps of human natur' in this world," remarked Crockett.  "I'd
+ha' bet they'd ha' done just exactly what they did do.  There's nothing
+curious about it."
+
+"No more there is about their idols," added Travis.  "They kept them
+just as all the other heathen do in Asia and Africa.  Hundreds of
+millions of idol-worshippers go it right along, with the missionaries
+among 'em.  They kill the missionaries, too, now and then.  Some eat
+'em, and these fellows cut their throats and pitch 'em into a hole."
+
+It seemed as if every trace of anything mysterious or improbable
+departed from the old legend of the Aztec gold and silver the moment
+the truth concerning it came out to be studied by such matter-of-fact
+men as these.  Their hard common sense took it like any other business
+affair, and they were almost ready to name beforehand the men they
+meant to take with them on the expedition they planned to secure the
+treasure.
+
+After telling the story, however, Bowie grew silent and moody.  He
+looked around him upon the bare walls of the room.  He passed a hand
+over the low couch upon which he was sitting.  He hardly seemed to
+listen to what the others were saying.  When at last there was a pause
+and a silence, he arose to his feet, and a shadow, darker than usual,
+was on his face.
+
+"Travis," he said, "I want to get out of this room.  It's close and
+hot.  I somehow don't like it.  It keeps me thinking of Tetzcatl, too,
+and of all he said when we talked with him here.  He was a kind of
+devil, he was.  I'm glad he went down into that chasm.  If it's good
+and deep he 'll stay there."
+
+He strode rapidly out of the room, and they heard Castro mutter,--
+
+"Big Knife too much talk.  Montezuma talk bad medicine.  All lose hair.
+Ugh!"
+
+Red Wolf had listened but he had said nothing, for nothing was left him
+to tell.  He was a proud young brave, however, for the Big Knife, the
+great white chief, had praised him tremendously, and his own father had
+more than once said, "Heap young brave."
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro, laying a hand upon the arm of his son; and they
+arose and followed Bowie until they stood with him in the plaza.
+
+"Well, Castro?" asked Bowie.  "What is it?"
+
+"Want horse," said the Lipan chief.  "Good pony.  Ride heap.  See
+Mexican.  Come tell Bowie.  Sleep now.  Go before sun."
+
+"Bully!" exclaimed Bowie.  "I'll give you the best critters in the
+fort.  I want to know just where Santa Anna is.  What you two want
+first, though, is to sleep about ten hours and eat all you can hold."
+
+Castro meant just that, for even the tough sinews of a Lipan warrior
+could feel the strain they had borne.  Away he went with Red Wolf, and
+now the colonel's face grew brighter, for half the garrison was
+gathering around him.
+
+"I can't talk much now, boys," he said.  "You know about all there is
+to tell, but I'll add one thing."
+
+He pointed westward in silence for a moment, and his eyes wore almost a
+dreamy look as he went on:
+
+"All that land, clean through to the Pacific, must belong to Texas.
+Somewhere in yonder among the mountains, in the rocks and in the
+gullies, there is more gold and more silver than the world has ever yet
+heard of.  The new Gulf republic must take in New Mexico, and Arizona,
+and California, and it will become the treasure-house of all the time
+to come.  We are poor now, but we shall be the richest people on earth.
+Only we must understand one thing at the outset.  Gold is like freedom.
+Every pound of it that was ever won was somehow paid for in blood.  I'm
+ready to give mine, right here, if I'm called for.  Now I'm going in
+for a hammock.  I'm clean used up."
+
+It was past the middle of February, in the year 1836.  The weather had
+been stormy, but was now better, bearing few traces of winter as it is
+in more northerly latitudes.  It was a season of the year that could be
+expected to favor military movements, but the Mexican commander had
+been disappointed and seriously delayed during all the earlier part of
+his invasion.  The rains and mud had been in the way of heavy
+provision-trains and artillery.
+
+A little after sunrise on the morning after the arrival of the
+returning raiders, the sentry relieved at the Alamo gate-way reported
+the departure, an hour earlier, of Castro and his son.
+
+"Gone on a scout," said Travis.  "Hope they'll have good luck.  We
+don't know half enough just now."
+
+All that day was spent by the small garrison of the fort in what they
+called getting ready for a better state of things.  They expected
+reinforcements and supplies, but Crockett and Bowie, rather than even
+Travis, insisted upon putting all they had in the best possible order.
+A strict account of rations was taken.  Cannon were carefully cleaned,
+and most of them needed it.  Every weapon, large or small, was brought
+out for inspection or repairs.  Every ounce of powder was measured as
+if it were gold.  At least a dozen men were kept at work moulding
+bullets, and for this purpose a number of leaden filigree ornaments
+were taken from the window casings of the old church.
+
+"Best that can be did with 'em," remarked Crockett.  "Church lead is as
+good as any other to kill Greasers with."
+
+The supply of water was sure, for the Spanish builders had constructed
+aqueducts which brought an abundance, like springs within the walls.
+
+The men were in high spirits over their work, and even Colonel Bowie
+lost some of the gloom which had been upon his face.
+
+"Crockett," he remarked, however, "I hope Houston 'll make good time.
+We shan't be ready for Santa Anna an hour too soon."
+
+"Travis hardly believes he's comin'," replied Crockett.  "He reckons
+the old monte-player will strike for the middle of the State and the
+coast towns."
+
+"Not and leave the Alamo behind him," said Bowie.  "We'll have the
+first fight right here, and it 'll be a hard one."
+
+So they talked and worked, and the day passed and another night came
+and went.  It was a little after the middle of the next day that a
+brace of mustangs were reined in upon the brow of a low hill looking
+southward.
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed one of them.  "Red Wolf heap look.  Santa Anna come!"
+
+The younger rider was silent, but he was looking.  For the first time
+in their lives they had seen an army.  The southerly prairie was nearly
+level, traversed along its farther border by a winding stream of water.
+On this side of the stream, in long lines, in columns and in
+detachments, marched several regiments of infantry attended by
+batteries of light artillery.  On their flanks and in the advance rode
+strong bodies of lancers.  There were flags and pennons, and the
+serried bayonets wore a warlike look.  There were even bands of music.
+
+"Heap Mexican!" exclaimed Red Wolf.  "Tell Big Knife."
+
+"Alamo men all die," replied Castro.
+
+He did not move, however, during several minutes, for the bugles of the
+lancers and the shouted orders of the infantry commanders had called a
+halt.  Very shortly there were sufficient indications that the invading
+force had marched far enough for that day and that it was now going
+into camp.
+
+It was by no means a perfectly organized army, and there was a sad lack
+of precision in its movements, but its dispositions for camping were
+tolerably well made.  Tents were put up for officers, but the rank and
+file were expected, evidently, to bivouac.  There would be little
+hardship in that, but if the Lipan scouts had been able to make a
+closer inspection, they might have noted that the entire array of over
+five thousand men wore a hard-travelled, worn-out appearance, as if
+they had been pushed and as if it were really about time that they
+should have a rest.
+
+There were clumps of trees on the prairie.  Wood could be cut and fires
+could be made, but before the first smoke began to rise Castro wheeled
+his horse.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Ride now.  Kill pony.  Comanche no come."
+
+He had been staring at point after point to discover if any of his old
+enemies were acting with the Mexicans.  If they were, none of them
+could as yet be seen among the troops of Santa Anna.
+
+He and his son disappeared over the rolls of the prairie, and, unless
+they should be intercepted, there would be news for the garrison of the
+Alamo.
+
+Not in the centre of the Mexican camp, but on the bank of the river, a
+large and nearly new marquee tent had been put up as the first order
+for a halt was given.  At a little distance a fire had been quickly
+kindled and cooking was already going on.  In front of the tent stood a
+group of officers and they were chatting merrily.
+
+"We will crush the Alamo like an eggshell," asserted one of them.
+
+"It will surrender at discretion on our arrival," added another!
+
+"Travis will never be so foolhardy as to resist an overwhelming force,"
+remarked a third; but he added to the dark-faced man in the middle of
+the group, "General, what are we to do after dinner?  I'm tired of
+inspecting."
+
+"So are the men," responded the general.  "I think we shall have
+something better.  We can empty a coop."
+
+He pointed as he spoke at a spot of ground fifty yards from the tent,
+at the right, where several ragged _peons_ were at work with stakes and
+cord.  They were already constructing a cockpit, for the Mexican
+commander did not propose to let so small a matter as the conquest of
+Texas deprive him of his favorite amusement.  Moreover, on the bank of
+the river, beyond the cockpit, were drawn up two large wagons, and each
+of these was almost over-piled with wicker coops, the occupants of
+which were from time to time crowing defiantly at each other.  If the
+army was to rest there while the Texans were getting ready to receive
+it, more than one of the coops might possibly be emptied by the
+proposed combats of the gallant poultry.
+
+Meantime, the disposition of battalions, regiments, and batteries was
+left haphazard to subordinates who had no fowls to think of, and the
+general and his brilliant staff went in to dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE FIRST SHOT.
+
+Four days went by.  All the space inside the walls of the fort had a
+clean and tidy look.  The soldiers of the garrison went hither and
+thither with an air of being under more than usual drill, but their
+varied uniforms were about the same as ever.  A light rain was falling
+and the skies overhead were heavy with clouds, as if a storm were
+coming.
+
+A shout was heard outside the gate, and then its massive oaken portal
+swung wide open, while Colonel Travis stood by the six-pounder, his
+handsome face bright with expectation.
+
+"Boys!" he shouted, "the supplies have come!"
+
+Nearing the gate-way was a train of large wagons, and on either side
+and in the rear of them rode mounted riflemen.
+
+"Reinforcements, too!" exclaimed Crockett, as he strode forward to the
+side of Travis.
+
+Colonel Bowie was already out beyond the wall, scrutinizing the
+approaching train and its guard.
+
+"Not a quarter as many men as we needed," he remarked, in a low,
+foreboding tone.  "I hope there are more coming."
+
+On rolled the wagons, while cheer after cheer went up from the
+garrison, to be answered as heartily by the new arrivals.
+
+"Keep right on," shouted Travis to the drivers.  "Halt in front of the
+church."
+
+The last pair of wheels was in the gate-way when galloping past them
+came a half-naked rider.
+
+"Whoop!" he yelled.  "Red Wolf want Big Knife.  Castro horse dead.
+Santa Anna come!"
+
+"All right!" called out Travis.  "Come this way.  Bowie, bring him in.
+Men, go on unloading.  Tally all there is."
+
+Down from his panting pony dropped the young Lipan, and his eager
+report required few questions to make it clear.  Either his father had
+not been so well mounted or else he had been too heavy a weight for a
+long race.  His horse had given out entirely a few miles from the fort,
+and Red Wolf had ridden on alone.  All the officers of the rangers had
+gathered to hear, and when the report was completed they looked at each
+other with serious faces.
+
+"It's just about as we expected, after all," said Travis.  "I'm glad
+there are no Comanches with them.  If Castro is right, there are over
+five thousand of them.  A thousand more or less won't make much
+difference.  They're about four days' march from us, I should say, but
+the lancers could get here sooner.  Most likely they will."
+
+A rugged-looking ranger stood before him, touching a ragged hat-brim.
+
+"Well, Sergeant Daly," said Travis, "how do you find the cargo?"
+
+"Bully, far as it goes!" responded the sergeant.  "I reckon it gives us
+rations for about two weeks.  Pretty good lot of rifle powder.  Not so
+much cannon powder and grape-shot as we'd ought to have.  No solid shot
+to speak of, but there's some.  Forty spare rifles, and I wish we had
+men for 'em.  But these yer new men are all prime fellers, and we can
+foot up one hundred and forty good shots, all told."
+
+"We ought to have at least three times as many," said Travis.  "Every
+man is worth his weight in gold just now."
+
+"The trouble is," remarked Bowie, "Houston hasn't had time yet to use
+those Spanish dollars.  He will, though.  What we must do is to try and
+hold the fort till Austin's riflemen get here.  Every day 'll count.
+Santa Anna is a slow marcher."
+
+"You're mistaken thar," exclaimed Crockett.  "If his Greasers could
+fight as well as they kin walk, we'd be gone up sure!"
+
+The next duties related to the unloading of the wagons and to all the
+information that could be obtained from the new men.  Even while Travis
+was talking with them, however, an hour or so later, a hand touched his
+arm, and he turned to look into the face of Castro.
+
+"What is it, chief?" he asked.
+
+"Close gate," said Castro.  "Load big gun.  Lancer!  Bring pony in."
+
+"They mean to make a dash for our corral, do they?" replied Travis, and
+orders for the care of the horses of the garrison went out at once.
+
+It would not do to lose them all just now, and they, at least, would
+have abundant rations within the enclosure.  One of the best of them
+was turned over to Castro in place of his used-up pony, and another as
+good was given to Red Wolf.
+
+While this was going on, Bowie had been busy with the spare rifles that
+had just arrived, and now he made his appearance, carrying two weapons
+that were more ornamental than the rest, for both were silver mounted.
+
+"Travis," he said, "this is for the chief, and this is the one I
+promised Red Wolf."
+
+"They've earned 'em," exclaimed Crockett.  "Give 'em a first-rate
+outfit.  Hope they'll kill a grist of Greasers."
+
+Colonel Travis himself presented the rifles, but his words were few.
+Castro took his own and examined it all over.
+
+"Ugh!" he said.  "Heap shoot.  Travis kill Mexican with big gun.  Red
+Wolf take rifle.  Come!"
+
+Red Wolf's eyes had been glittering with delight.  Never before had he
+heard of an Indian boy of his age owning a really first-class rifle
+with all its accoutrements of wiping-stick, ramrod, powder-horn, and
+bullet-pouch.  Those were the days of flintlocks, and the
+long-barrelled shooting-irons did not need any "cap-box" to go with
+them.
+
+He was hardly expected to say much, but he made out to tell the
+colonel,--
+
+"Red Wolf shoot a heap.  Mexican lose hair.  Wipe out Comanche."
+
+As he finished speaking, however, Bowie himself laid a hand on his
+shoulder.
+
+"Red Wolf go with his father now," he said.  "Come back to Big Knife.
+Chief, let him come as soon as you can."
+
+He had understood a sentence that Castro had uttered in his own tongue
+with its accompanying "sign."
+
+"Chief send boy," replied Castro.  "Go now.  Travis fight a heap."
+
+The two Lipans were upon the backs of their fresh mustangs the next
+minute, and they rode out of the gate as if some errand of importance
+hurried them.
+
+"Reckon they think we've got our work cut out for us," said Crockett.
+
+"They've seen the Mexican army," replied Bowie, "and they know just
+what's coming.  So do we, but we mustn't say anything to discourage the
+men."
+
+A watcher at a loop-hole saw Castro and Red Wolf wheel around the
+corner of the wall and gallop westward, but before he could report the
+direction they had taken the garrison was startled by the roar of a
+cannon from one of the southern embrasures.  There had been a reason
+for the course taken by the Lipans.
+
+"Who fired that gun?" shouted Travis, angrily.  "Who fired without
+orders?"
+
+"I did," came promptly back from Sergeant Daly.  "I had the best kind
+of a bead on that crowd of lancers.  It was only a four-pound shot, but
+it ploughed right into 'em."
+
+"Not another charge is to be wasted," replied Travis.  "We need every
+kernel.  We were none too quick about the corral, though."
+
+"Travis," said Bowie, quietly, "our time's about come.  Houston must
+send us more men or we can't so much as man the walls."
+
+It was a matter of course that a strong body of cavalry had been sent
+on in advance of the invading army.  No doubt there had been an idea of
+striking the rebellious Texans at every possible point.  The lancers,
+however, had not met with anything to strike at, and all they now could
+do, apparently, was to reconnoitre the fort.  It was in a spirit of
+entirely empty bravado that they had approached so near or else they
+had forgotten that the Alamo had any artillery.  They had at last
+halted, while their commander deliberately scanned the post and its
+surroundings through his field-glass.
+
+Bang! went the four-pounder, and Daley's aim had been first-rate.
+
+"_Caramba_!" roared the colonel.  "My baggage mule!  My equipments!
+Santa Maria!  My cigarettes!"
+
+Over went a fine mule, certainly, as the four pounds of iron arrived,
+but not because of anything that prevented him from getting up at once
+and braying.  Upon his patient back, rising above the panniers that
+adorned his flanks, had been a load more large than heavy.  It was this
+hump of varied luxury and usefulness into which the sergeant's wasteful
+shot had ploughed.
+
+Mexico had not lost even so much as a mule, but the ground was strewn
+with cigarettes and other merchandise, and the lancer force had been
+warned that they were in front of a battery.
+
+"Fellow-citizens!" shouted the angry officer.  "Heroes of Mexico!
+Yonder is the Alamo!  In a few days we will ride into it and teach the
+Gringo rebels a lesson they will remember.  Forward, right wheel!
+Gallop!"
+
+Gallop they did, but Travis's order to save ammunition had already put
+them entirely out of danger.
+
+Miles away to the westward rode Castro and his son, but the chief had
+now gone far enough for the purpose which had taken him away from the
+fort.  He drew his rein and Red Wolf imitated him.
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro, holding out a hand.  "Rifle!"
+
+The splendid present was handed over, but other commands followed, and
+the young warrior was stripped of his bow and arrows, his lance and his
+pistols.  His only remaining weapon was the knife in his belt.  There
+was not a shadow of disobedience, not even of dissatisfaction, upon his
+face, but he was evidently waiting for an explanation.
+
+"Red Wolf no lose rifle," said Castro, at last.  "Great chief take it
+to lodge.  Hide it with tribe."
+
+"Ugh?" said Red Wolf, but he knew there was something more to come.
+
+"No bad medicine," said Castro, holding out his hand again.
+
+The three gold bars allotted to Red Wolf were tightly secured to his
+saddle.  They were now untied and handed over.  The chief dropped from
+his pony and walked to the nearest oak, one of three by which they had
+halted.  He took out his knife, dug a pretty deep hole, and dropped the
+precious but dangerous prizes into it.
+
+Red Wolf had followed him in silence, and now, when the earth and sods
+were replaced, Castro stood erect and pointed at the spot under which
+lay the gold.
+
+"All Texan lose hair," he said.  "Red Wolf hide bad medicine.  Find
+some day!  Die then.  Montezuma wicked manitou."
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Red Wolf.
+
+Nevertheless, a deep "sign" was cut upon the oak-tree before they
+remounted.  Then the chief went on to explain to his son the further
+duties required of him.
+
+It did not take a great many words, but the meaning of it all was
+simple.
+
+The Mexicans and the Lipans were now nominally at peace.  Any Lipan was
+fairly safe among them, unless he should seem to be on a war-path
+against them.  At the same time, Mexican cavalry would surely disarm a
+mere boy,--that is, they would steal his rifle, even if they then
+should let him go unharmed.
+
+So far, so good, but Castro raised his arm and pointed eastward.
+
+"Boy hear!" he said.  "Travis send Texan to friend?  Mexican catch
+ranger.  Shoot him.  No catch Red Wolf.  Go!  Ride hard!  Tell great
+Texan chief Santa Anna here!  Say he camp around Alamo.  Say Travis
+want more Texan.  Ugh!  Go!"
+
+It was an errand of importance, therefore.  It was worthy of a warrior.
+It was a message of life and death, but it called for cunning, caution,
+hard riding, rather than for sharpshooting.  A few further instructions
+as to where to go and whom to find were all that was needed, and away
+went the ready messenger.
+
+Castro himself rode away, laden with the precious shooting-irons.  He
+too had need for caution and for cunning if he was ever to rejoin his
+tribe, but Red Wolf, riding northward now, was saying to himself,--
+
+"Ugh!  Heap young brave.  Bring Texan to Big Knife.  Heap fight
+Mexican."
+
+He may have been perfectly aware that Colonel Travis was the white
+chief who was in actual command of the rangers and the fort.  To his
+mind, however, the Texan armies, if not the republic itself, were best
+represented by the stalwart hand-to-hand fighter who had given him the
+knife which he now so carefully concealed under his buckskins.  Having
+done so, he transferred his old, half-despised butcher-knife from his
+leggings to his belt, and remarked concerning it, "Mexican take?  Ugh!
+No lose heap knife.  Take Mexican hair."
+
+There was a menacing look in his face, and he rode on with the air of
+an adventurer who was quite ready for mischief, if a chance for any
+should be given him.
+
+The region of country he was to go through was supposed to be
+peaceable, as yet.  It contained only scattered ranches and small
+settlements, but it might speedily contain almost anything else, for
+perils of all sorts were pouring in upon the Texas border.
+
+Matters at the fort were quiet, but the rangers in their quarters, even
+while running bullets, and the officers in their hammocks, not one of
+them asleep, seemed to have constituted themselves a kind of general
+council of war.  At least they were discussing every feature of the
+situation, and were talking themselves more and more into a state of
+mind that bordered closely upon contempt for Santa Anna and his five
+thousand men.
+
+The most undemonstrative man among them all was Colonel Bowie.  He had
+slung his hammock near one of the embrasures, with a cannon at his
+side, and, like the cannon, he was continually peering out.  Even after
+it grew darker and only moonlight remained to show him anything, he
+every now and then seemed to take an inquiring look at the surrounding
+country.
+
+"I can see that cave," he muttered to himself, "as clear as if I were
+in it.  What if the fate of a young nation should depend upon our
+getting into that hole again?  If those old rascals knew we were
+coming, they'd pitch it all down the chasm.  I'd like to know, just for
+curiosity, what fellows and how many of them have been butchered before
+that altar.  In the old times they used up whole tribes and regiments
+of captives that way.  Then I'd like to know where all that bullion
+came from.  I don't believe they mined for it.  They didn't know how.
+They got it out of river-beds, I reckon, just as they do in Asia and
+Africa."
+
+He had hit the mark, for there was no other way imaginable.  But where
+were the riverbeds, and how much more gold-dust and nuggets might there
+be remaining in them?
+
+He could dream and speculate there in his hammock, but that was all he
+could do.  His young republic was indeed to come and go.  Mexico was to
+lose Texas and her other northern provinces.  The pioneers among whom
+he was so daring a leader were to accomplish even more than they were
+planning.  Beyond all his dreams, however, would be the solution of his
+gold problem.  Only a few years later the slopes and gulches of the
+California mountains were to swarm with hardy miners, and the treasures
+of the Montezumas were to sink into insignificance in comparison with
+the wealth to be taken out, not by the Aztecs or the Spaniards, but by
+the "Gringos."
+
+Would anybody then be found to take note of the fact that Bowie and his
+comrades were the advance-guard, the skirmish-line, almost the "forlorn
+hope" of the armies of Taylor and Scott?  The United States, the world
+at large, and even Mexico, owe their memories something of recognition,
+and they were not even much "ahead of their time."
+
+"Crockett," said Travis, just before they went to sleep, "Bowie can't
+get that cave out of his head."
+
+"It's t'other way," replied Crockett.  "He can't get his head out of
+the cave, and I'll be glad, you bet, when we all get our heads out of
+the cave this push of Santa Anna is putting us into."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CROCKETT'S ALARM GUN.
+
+February 24, 1836, and a splendid winter morning for a parade.
+
+Altogether unmolested as they came, the Mexican army marched into
+position around the Alamo fort.  Not a shot was fired at them.  Not a
+man of the garrison was in sight.  There was a sullen air about the
+whole concern.  Upon the church wall, indeed, Colonel Travis with a
+field-glass studied and estimated the assailants he was to contend with.
+
+"No heavy guns, Davy," he said to Crockett, standing near him.  "Castro
+was right about everything else.  We shall get a message from Santa
+Anna pretty soon.  Hullo!  There he comes now.  Let's go down."
+
+"You've only jest one thing to do," replied Crockett, dryly, at the
+head of the stairs they were to go down by.
+
+"What's that?" said Travis, getting ready for a joke.  "Out with it."
+
+"Well," chuckled the bear hunter, one stair down, "you know what he's
+goin' to ask for.  Just you demand the immediate, onconditional
+surrender of Santa Anna and all his chickens."
+
+"Crockett!" exclaimed Travis, "I can tell you one thing.  I know him.
+If we should surrender, no matter what conditions he might give, the
+old murderer would have every man of us shot before sunset."
+
+"Not a doubt of it," said Crockett; "and between you and me and the
+gate-post, I'd ruther do a small chance of hard fighting first.  That's
+about the way the men feel, too."
+
+That was the kind of reputation the Mexican general had won for
+himself, and he was shortly to add to it by his conduct of his campaign
+in Texas.
+
+By the time the two friends came out through the church door-way, the
+officer of the guard at the gate was loudly responding to a sonorous
+bugle summons.  A mounted officer, attended by the bugler only, had
+halted outside.
+
+"A cartel from His Excellency General de Santa Anna!" he shouted, in
+response to the hail of the sergeant.  "I am accredited to Senor
+Travis."
+
+"Colonel Travis, you mean!" shouted back the sergeant, angrily; but the
+clear, ringing tones of Bowie called out,--
+
+"Let him in, Daly.  Never mind his nonsense."
+
+Open swung the gate, and in rode the very airy captain of lancers who
+had been sent to demand the surrender of the fort, but who had
+insolently neglected to acknowledge the military rank of its commander.
+
+[Illustration: IN RODE THE VERY AIRY CAPTAIN OF LANCERS]
+
+That was the sum and substance of the letter he shortly delivered to
+Travis, after dismounting and exchanging formal compliments.  Added to
+it, however, was the grim assurance that, in case of resistance, the
+fort would be stormed at once and no quarter whatever would be shown to
+the garrison.
+
+"Good!" said Travis, smilingly.  "No use in my writing.  Go back to the
+general and tell him to come on.  We are ready."
+
+"Is that all?" exclaimed the astonished captain.  "Are you mad?  Do you
+really intend to resist us?"
+
+"Travis," whispered Crockett, "tell him to say that if they'll march
+right hum and agree to stay thar, we won't hurt a soul of 'em."
+
+The captain heard him, and his astonishment showed itself more plainly,
+but the reply of Travis was strictly formal.
+
+"That is all," he said.  "He knows me.  Tell him I am in command here.
+We shall hold the Alamo!"
+
+Low bowed the captain, turning to his horse, and in a moment more he
+was spurring beyond the gate, and it closed clangingly behind him.
+There was really nothing more for the bugler to do, but he blew his
+horn furiously before he galloped away.
+
+"It'll take something better'n bugle music to get the Greasers over
+those walls," remarked Crockett; but the long eighteen-pounder was now
+at one of the southerly embrasures, and, at a signal from Travis, a
+thunder of defiance rang out.
+
+"That's the last blank cartridge we'll fire," said Travis.  "Now let's
+see what they'll do next.  The fools can't really mean to try to storm
+the works?  I almost wish they would."
+
+"If he'd said he'd do it to-day, he'll put it off till to-morrow,"
+replied Crockett, sarcastically.  "He never kept his word since he was
+born,--except about throat-cutting."
+
+No other voice responded.  Quiet, resolute, cheerful, the picked men
+who constituted that heroic garrison were at their stations, and not a
+quiver of fear showed itself among them.  As for the enemy, Crockett
+had not been far out of the way.  Postponement was second nature to
+Santa Anna.  Besides, he was really possessed of considerable military
+education and ability.  He could see that, as the rangers said among
+themselves, "he had a pretty hard nut to crack."  He would therefore
+think about it during the rest of that day.  All he was ready to do at
+once was to send his heaviest battery into position and order it to
+blaze away.  It was composed of very handsomely polished brass
+nine-pounder guns.  It swept into its place with a flourish of brass
+music from the bands and a sounding of many drums.
+
+"There will be a breach in the wall before sunset," declared the
+general, confidently.  "We can charge in to-morrow."
+
+Loudly roared the guns, and they were good ones, but praise did not
+await the artillerymen.  One shot struck the wall of the church.
+Another went over the fort.  The remainder fell short and ploughed deep
+furrows in the sandy soil.
+
+"Santa Maria!" exclaimed the colonel of artillery.  "We must do better
+next time."
+
+The six guns of the battery were reloaded.  Every piece was aimed with
+care, and off they went again.
+
+"How is it, Crockett?" shouted Travis to his friend, for the eccentric
+satirist was sitting on the wall, his legs dangling outside, and he was
+leaning forward.
+
+"Two on 'em hit the wall," replied Crockett.  "Dented it some.  Tell
+Daly to come around and see the holes."
+
+"Bowie," said Travis, "you and Daly.  Don't let another man out.  His
+next battery is nearly ready to open fire."
+
+It was quite ready, but it was composed of lighter pieces.  A minute or
+so later, Bowie and the sergeant were out in front talking to Crockett
+on the wall.
+
+"They've damaged it a little," said Daly.  "I don't like the looks of
+it."
+
+"Could they punch a hole through," asked Davy, "if they hammered long
+enough?"
+
+"Reckon they could," remarked Bowie.  "I think that's our worst danger.
+But I want to hear from those other guns."
+
+Two batteries sounded this time, and the three Texans stood still and
+watched with deep interest the effect of the shots.  It did not seem to
+occur to either of them that a cannonball might possibly hurt a man.
+
+"Right over my head," said Crockett, quietly.  "Hit the roof of the
+convent."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Daly.  "Them nine-pound balls punch, but the sixes
+don't make a mark worth a cent.  They can jest thunder away."
+
+"Come on," said Bowie.  "Let's go in.  If they had heavier guns there'd
+be a breach in that wall pretty soon.  Anything smaller'n sixes would
+be like pelting us with apples."
+
+Santa Anna did not seem to be of that opinion.  Or else he may have
+calculated that sharp cannonading would dishearten the garrison.  His
+own troops evidently enjoyed it, but there was a severe shock awaiting
+the distinguished Mexican.  Again and again his heaviest battery had
+spoken thunderously, and he felt sure that it must have accomplished
+something, but now before him stood General Castrillon, in command of
+all the artillery of the invading army.  His face was red, his
+moustaches seemed to curl with wrath, and his first utterances were
+half choked with furious execrations upon the army commissary at
+Monterey.
+
+"What is the matter, general?" sternly demanded the commander-in-chief.
+
+"No more nine-pound shot!" roared General Castrillon.  "The miscreant
+has loaded the other wagon with twelve-pound balls!  They are useless!"
+
+"_Caramba!_" almost screamed his chief.  "I will have him shot!  Let
+the cannonading cease.  The fort must be taken by escalade.  Have the
+ladders ready by nine o'clock to-morrow morning."
+
+The fort was safer, but an admirable example had been given of the
+inefficiency, indolence, and general worthlessness of the Mexican
+officials.  Not even the probability of being shot for their blunders
+could induce them to discharge their duties thoroughly.
+
+"That battery's tired out," remarked Crockett, as the pause in the
+firing grew longer.  "Reckon they're holdin' on while they can take a
+game of seven-up.  They haven't hurt us any."
+
+"Yes, they have," said Travis, quietly.  "Don't you see?  Or haven't
+you been up the church again?  They're swinging their camps around to
+make a blockade."
+
+"They can't choke us off that way," responded Crockett.  "Thar ain't
+enough of 'em.  If they'll string out in as long a line as would go'
+round, it 'll be thin all the way.  I'd go a-gunning anywhar along that
+line."
+
+"That isn't the point," said Travis.  "He's arranging to cut off
+reinforcements.  He knows how many men we have, you can bet on that.
+He doesn't mean to let any more in."
+
+"The kind of men that are coming," growled Crockett, "are likely to
+find a way in or make one.  But it's about time they were here."
+
+"I'm going to send a despatch to Houston," said Travis.  "Carson has
+volunteered to take it."
+
+"Well," returned Crockett, "most likely he'll know without our tellin',
+but what if Carson doesn't get through?"
+
+"We must take our chances," said Travis.  "One man's all we can spare.
+I'm almost afraid Houston can't send any more to us just now."
+
+"Every man in Texas owns a rifle!" exclaimed Crockett, with energy.
+"Not a livin' soul ought to stay at home."
+
+"Pay and rations," said Travis, calmly.  "I'm afraid Bowie's dollars
+didn't come in time.  It isn't any fault of his, but all the gold in
+Mexico wouldn't save the Alamo."
+
+Bowie was listening, but he turned away without speaking, for he was
+questioning himself.  Was it any fault of his?  Had it been his duty to
+return at once with the cash found in the _adobe_ ruin instead of
+pushing on with Tetzcatl?  It was a serious question, but at last he
+put it away.
+
+"Come what may," he told himself, "I could not have done otherwise.  I
+had no choice.  I was driven.  I was in one of those places where a man
+cannot decide for himself.  The Comanches did it."
+
+The movements of the several assignments of the Mexican army went on
+deliberately all through the day.  The circle that was made was pretty
+long, however, and there were gaps between the camps which would
+require careful patrolling to make complete what Crockett described as
+"the corral of the Gringos."
+
+"Anything like a provision-train, for instance," remarked Bowie,
+"couldn't get in without a battle.  There isn't any American force yet
+gathered in Texas that could undertake to whip an army of five thousand
+men."
+
+Night came at last, and with it came a moon instead of the darkness
+which Travis had been wishing for.  It was not a good night for a
+secret messenger, and the mounted patrols of the enemy were going to
+and fro almost up to the walls of the fort.
+
+"Their infantry outlooks are well out in advance of their lines,"
+remarked Travis, standing in the gate-way.  "I doubt if it's possible
+for Carson to get through."
+
+"If I thought he couldn't I'd go myself," exclaimed Bowie.  "I wish he
+were an Indian!"
+
+"That's jest what I am," came from the brave ranger who had
+volunteered.  "I've crept through a band of Chickasaws.  My skelp isn't
+wuth as much as Bowie's is, anyhow.  It's no use in talkin'.  I'm off."
+
+"You bet he is," quietly remarked a voice behind them, "and I'm goin'
+with him the first stretch."
+
+There stood Davy Crockett, rifle in hand.
+
+"I'd feel better if you would," said Bowie.  "You're an older hand than
+he is.  See him as far as their lines and take note of everything,--and
+come back."
+
+"Come back?" chuckled Davy.  "Of course I will.  I'll have some fun,
+too.  Get along, Carson.  I'm goin' to take keer of ye.  You're young."
+
+Off they went, and Travis laughed aloud as they disappeared.
+
+"You wait now," he said.  "Davy's goin' to stir up the Greasers somehow
+before he gets done with 'em, but I can't guess what the sell is."
+
+It would have been only a very sombre life-and-death affair to men of
+another kind, but these were hardly excited to any unusual feeling.
+They were in the daily habit of looking death in the face, and they
+could laugh at him.  Nevertheless, during many minutes that followed,
+they and a changing group of rangers waited in the gate-way, listening
+silently to every sound that came to them from the hostile camps.  A
+troop of horse went trampling by within a hundred yards of them and
+they heard the words of command.  More minutes passed and the stillness
+seemed to increase.
+
+"We'd have heard something if the Greasers had sighted 'em," whispered
+one of the men.  "They're not took yet----"
+
+"Hear that gun!" shouted Travis, the next instant.  "That means
+something!"
+
+Another cannon sounded, and another, and then they heard the rapid
+reports of musketry from a score of points all along the lines.
+
+"Bad luck!" groaned a ranger.
+
+"They've got 'em!" said another.
+
+"It's good-by, Davy Crockett, I'm afraid," said Bowie, in a voice that
+was deep with emotion.  "We ought not to have let him go."
+
+The expressions of regret for him and Carson were many and sincere, all
+around, but the cunning old bear hunter had been doing a remarkable
+piece of what passed with him for fun.
+
+Only about ten minutes before the first alarm gun sounded a pair of
+shadows had been gliding along on the ground, midway between the two
+camps that were nearest to the fort gate.
+
+"So far, so good," whispered one of them.  "What's best to do next?"
+
+"Straight into the corral," was the reply.  "I allers feel at hum among
+hosses.  They're kind o' friendly.  Besides, you've got to hev one to
+travel on."
+
+A very large number of them, of all sorts, had been picketed there, a
+short distance in the rear of the camps.  They were guarded, of course,
+but they were entirely out of the supposable reach of Gringo thieves
+from the fort, and the guards were taking things easily.  So were the
+quadrupeds, and not one of them was at all disturbed in his mind when
+two men who might belong to the same army slipped silently in among
+them.
+
+"No Greaser kin see through a hoss," remarked one of the adventurers,
+"but I'll tell you what, my boy, your tightest squeeze is goin' to be
+in gettin' out on the further side.  They're guardin' thar rear more'n
+they are toward the fort.  They're on the watch for anything Sam
+Houston may let loose on 'em."
+
+That was in strict accordance with the military prudences of the
+situation, but for that very reason all the guards on duty were looking
+out instead of looking in.  No patrol, for instance, beyond the camps,
+whether mounted or on foot, could at once imagine anything suspicious
+concerning a dim shape slowly tramping out from the horse corral.  Only
+one did come, and he walked along leading with him a saddled and
+bridled mustang.
+
+"Here comes the guard!" he suddenly exclaimed, aloud.  "Now's my time.
+I'll signal to Davy."
+
+He sprang upon the back of the mustang, turned and blew a short, sharp
+whistle, and galloped away.  Hundreds of men may have heard the
+whistle, but only one understood it.  Not a solitary Mexican at once
+followed the vanishing horseman, and he quickly was beyond successful
+following.
+
+Hoarse shouts had gone after him, truly.  Orders to halt, with Spanish
+inquiries and execrations, had sounded from all directions.  It was
+understood that something or other had happened, and there were
+officers who at once began to investigate the matter.
+
+The proper direction of their first efforts was plainly indicated by an
+extraordinary disturbance in the corral.  Quite a large number of the
+horses were now loose and they were running around excitedly.  It did
+not arise to the dignity of a stampede, but the guards who first rushed
+in came near being trampled down.  These were joined at once by the too
+zealous sentries of a battery which had been stationed at the right of
+the corral, so that its guns were for the moment left to take care of
+themselves.
+
+"Don't I wish I had some spikes?" inquired a very low, hoarse chuckle
+that was crawling along at the side of one of the guns.  "If I had I'd
+spile every touch-hole of this 'ere battery.  Hullo!  Thar they are.  I
+reckon I kin shew 'em a new p'int in the right way of handlin'
+artillery.  That is, if ary one of these long fours is primed."
+
+After that there came a clicking of flint and steel, and then a soft
+glow of fire close to the ground.
+
+Louder grew the tumult in the corral, angrier and more numerously arose
+the shouts and commands of the officers.
+
+"Jim Carson's got clean away from 'em, I reckon," was spoken more
+loudly, "but that lot of Greasers have marched to about the right spot.
+Wonder what this thing is shotted with.  Here she goes!"
+
+A hand went up to the breech of the gun and then the first booming
+alarm went out.
+
+"Reckon 'twas a round shot," he said.  "It fetched 'em.  One more."
+
+A second gun spoke out, and then a third, in quick succession, but to
+Mexican ears it seemed the correct thing for any of their own guns to
+do in case of a sudden alarm at night.  It would show the garrison that
+its besiegers were awake.
+
+Nevertheless, the iron missiles had been sent with deadly effect among
+the luckless detachment of infantry, and every man of it who was left
+unhurt fired off his musket at the space in front of him and the
+possible Gringos it might contain.  Sentry after sentry, all along, in
+camp after camp, followed that example, front and rear.  The very
+game-cocks in their coops crowed vigorously, and the general himself
+came out of his tent to see what was the matter with them and with his
+army.
+
+The artillerymen who now came hurrying back to their guns found no one
+with them,--nothing but an entirely unexplainable mystery.  There were
+now no soldiers in front of the battery, however.  The coast was clear,
+and across the moonlit area from which he had driven his enemies Davy
+Crockett strode on to the Alamo.
+
+"Who goes there?" greeted him from the sentry at the gate.
+
+"I ain't a-goin' jest now; I'm comin'," shouted back the very grim old
+joker, with a fierce laugh.  "Travis, I reckon Jim Carson's all right.
+We took him a good mount from thar own corral.  But I fired them alarm
+guns myself.  Wait till I git in and I'll tell jest how I did it, but I
+reckon the Greasers 'll think we've made a _sortee_."
+
+Three cheers were given him, and these too were heard by the Mexicans
+to increase their perplexity.  Something very like a _sortie_ had
+really been made, and the entire Mexican army was getting under arms.
+One regiment marched a mile before it could be ordered back, but Santa
+Anna himself had preserved his military composure.
+
+"_Caramba!_" he exclaimed, in reply to one of his officers.  "Houston?
+No!  He has no force that he can send.  We have nothing to deal with
+but the desperadoes inside of yonder walls, and we shall slaughter them
+to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE REINFORCEMENT.
+
+Away outside of the fort wall at sunrise stood Davy Crockett, all
+alone.  He had been noting with evident interest the marks made upon
+the masonry by the cannon-balls fired the day before.
+
+"All right," he said.  "It amuses them and it doesn't hurt us.  I'm
+only fifty, and my ha'r will be turnin' gray before they git in this
+way."
+
+It was a satisfactory conclusion, and he turned to scan the Mexican
+lines.
+
+"Jim Carson got away from them," he said.  "Of course he did, but we
+can't wait for Sam Houston.  We've got to depend on ourselves.  Well,
+now!  If this isn't curious!  Whoever heard of Greasers gittin' up
+early?  I didn't, but they're a-movin'.  Reckon we're goin' to have
+some fun right away."
+
+That was the opinion of Travis and two ranger officers up in the church
+tower.
+
+The camps of the Mexican infantry were pouring forth their bayonets,
+and everywhere the cavalrymen stood beside their horses, ready to mount
+at the word of command.  What was to be done with horsemen in an attack
+upon stone walls did not appear, but the telescope revealed much more
+ominous preparations.  Already out in front of the southerly camps were
+parties of men who were provided with ladders.  If the artillery as yet
+had made no breaches, the walls could be climbed over.  The cannon were
+to have their share in the day's work nevertheless, and at a given
+signal every battery began to speak.  A storm of iron pellets hurtled
+against the defences or flew over them.
+
+That part of the fortress which was mainly composed of the church and
+of the convent did not promise well for a climbing adventure.  The
+assaulting force was therefore massed for a rush against the lower
+walls around the plaza.  These were pierced for musketry as well as for
+cannon.  Every shot-hole had now its marksman, with two more standing
+behind him ready, each to take his place in turn while the others
+reloaded.
+
+"Let 'em come close up," was the order of Colonel Travis.  "Hit every
+man just below his belt."
+
+"And ef you do," added Crockett, "that thar Greaser 'll sit right down."
+
+Low voices passed from man to man, and the substance of the utterances
+was,--
+
+"Hit, boys!  Every shot is for life."
+
+An iron calmness grew harder in all their faces as the fire of the
+batteries ceased and the Mexican masses began to move steadily forward
+to the sound of their drums.  They came on as confidently as if the
+fort were already their own, for their officers were freely declaring
+the expectation that at the last moment the Gringos would give up so
+hopeless a defence and surrender.
+
+That is, the nerves of the rangers or of their commander, proof against
+the thunders of the artillery, were to fail at the prospect of being
+crushed by overwhelming numbers.  Perhaps the very silence that reigned
+around the fort did something to increase the delusion, and the
+foremost ranks advanced to within short rifle range.
+
+"Ain't I glad the grape-shot and canister got here in time!" growled
+Sergeant Daly, squinting along his gun.
+
+"Ready!" shouted Travis at that moment from the middle of the plaza.
+"All ready!  Let 'em have it!  Fire!"
+
+Every cannon of the fort which bore upon the enemy went off as if one
+hand had fired them all.  A storm of lead and iron swept through the
+advancing columns.  Then as the smoke-clouds cleared away a little the
+cracking of the rifles began, and the astonished Mexicans dropped
+rapidly, only too many of them smitten "just below the belt" or a few
+inches above it.
+
+The attempt to overawe the garrison by a sudden attack in force had
+signally failed.  It had become little better than a disastrous
+reconnoitring party.  Nothing had been really ready for so serious an
+undertaking as the storming of the Alamo.  The Mexican troops were
+marched back to their camps, while their officers made up very
+disagreeable lists of killed and wounded.
+
+The cannon of the fort had been very well handled and the accuracy of
+the rifle practice had been remarkable.  At the same time, not a man of
+the garrison had received so much as a scratch.  They could hardly
+believe that the battle was over.
+
+"Jim Bowie," shouted Crockett, as he saw his friend coolly at work with
+a rifle-wiper, "none o' that jest now.  Don't stop to clean your gun.
+Blaze away with it dirty and wipe it out by and by, after this butcher
+business is over.  It hasn't been exactly a fight, not yit, but it's
+p'isonous fun for Santy Anny."
+
+The Mexican general indeed was wild with rage and disappointment over
+the failure of his first ill-advised demonstration.  For the first time
+in his varied military experience he had witnessed the effects of
+sharp-shooting.
+
+He was not singular by any means.  At that date the best infantry of
+Europe were still armed with smooth-bore muskets and depended mainly
+upon volley-firing when in action.  The crack regiments of England,
+truly, had received a terrible lesson at New Orleans from the American
+riflemen under General Jackson, but neither the British nor any other
+military power had seemed willing to profit largely by it.
+
+All military operations were over for the day.  The batteries rested,
+and the commander-in-chief of the beaten army had not even the heart
+for his evening game of monte.
+
+"Men!" said Colonel Travis to his gallant garrison, drawn up for a kind
+of triumphant review in the plaza, "I don't mean to say much, but this
+is the kind of work that is going to save Texas."
+
+"You bet it is, and thar's got to be heaps of it done," came in a
+low-voiced snarl from Crockett.  "What they need is killing."
+
+"The enemy have received a sharp lesson," continued Travis, "but they
+won't give it up right away.  They can't afford to retreat after only
+one battle.  Santa Anna would be kicked out of power if he should fail
+to take the Alamo.  So if we can beat him completely we shall be
+setting both Texas and Mexico free from the old gambler's tyranny."
+
+A loud cheer responded, and on the heels of the last "hurrah" Crockett
+remarked,--
+
+"And we'll save our own throats, too, if that's any object.  Mine was
+feelin' a little kind o' sore this mornin', but it's all right jest
+now."
+
+The men went to their quarters and stations in very full accord with
+the feelings of the old bear hunter.
+
+"Bowie," said Travis, as soon as they were alone together, "it's almost
+better than I hoped for.  What do you think?"
+
+"There will be two or three days of cannonading," said Bowie.  "Then
+there will be another attack.  I reckon we can beat them off again.  We
+haven't provisions for a long siege.  They could starve us out."
+
+"If they give Houston time enough," replied Travis, "he'll be operating
+on the outside of 'em somehow.  They can't wait for too long a siege."
+
+"We are not to die of starvation," said Bowie.  "If it comes to that,
+we can walk out and die killing Mexicans.  I will for one."
+
+They were not at all deceived as to the desperate nature of their
+position.  As for their patriotic commander-in-chief, he was struggling
+with a sea of troubles.  Most of the money found in the old _adobe_ had
+gone to New Orleans for arms and ammunition, but it might be weeks
+before there would be any important returns.  He was using the
+remainder of the cash at home trying to get his hastily gathered
+volunteers into the shape of an army.  He and Austin had several bodies
+of men at points distant from each other, but not one of them could be
+marched for the relief of the Alamo, nor would all of them together
+have been a third in number of the force under Santa Anna.  Some of
+their commanders, to make the matter worse, seemed hardly to consider
+themselves under anybody's orders, so new and so unsettled was the
+authority of the Texan government.
+
+It was toward the close of the day of that first attempt to storm the
+fort that a party of thirty-two mounted riflemen were somewhat
+leisurely pursuing their way along a road the western end of which was
+known to reach the town of San Antonio de Bexar.  At their head rode a
+short, squarely built man, whose hat was pulled forward over his eyes.
+He was leaning a little, as if he were bent down by some weight or
+other.
+
+"They are all there," he muttered.  "The best men in Texas.  They'll
+never give up.  They'll die right whar they stand.  Ye-es, sir!  I'm
+goin'!  I am!  If it's only to go in and die alongside of Jim Bowie,
+and Travis, and old Davy!"
+
+A shout rang out behind him, and it was instantly answered by an Indian
+war-whoop in front.
+
+"Halt!" he promptly commanded as he raised his head, but he at once
+added, "Only one redskin.  Who cares?  What's up?"
+
+The one redskin was trying in vain to urge an exhausted pony to a
+gallop.
+
+"I'll ride forward and meet him," exclaimed the officer.  "He's got
+something.  I know Indians.  Hold on, boys."
+
+In a moment more he was listening to an eager voice that told him great
+news.
+
+"Red Wolf," he said.  "Heap Lipan.  Son of Castro.  Friend of Big
+Knife."
+
+"But what are you here for?" interrupted the white leader.  "I'm
+Colonel Smith."
+
+"Travis heap want more Texan!" said Red Wolf.  "Santa Anna come!  All
+Mexican at fort.  Heap big gun.  More Texan come or all ranger lose
+hair.  Castro great chief!  Tell young brave ride heap!  Bring many
+rifle!  Ugh!"
+
+"God bless you!" exclaimed Smith.  "Bully for Castro!  I know him."
+
+Then he turned to his men and shouted,--
+
+"Boys!  It's all right!  He's from the fort.  Santa Anna's whole army
+is marching upon the Alamo.  It's thar now!"
+
+"We ought to ha' come quicker," was the first response that came from
+any of the men.  Smith could speak Spanish, however, and Red Wolf was
+more at home in that tongue than in English.  He now gave the colonel a
+full account of the scout he and his father had made; of the arrival of
+the supply-train; of the condition of things at the fort; and of the
+estimated strength of the Mexican army.  All that he said was at once
+communicated to the men, but it did not seem to dismay them.  On the
+contrary, not one of them faltered when at last their commander
+addressed them with,--
+
+"Men!  Now you know just how it is, how many of you are ready to push
+right on with me to the Alamo?"
+
+"Git right along," came cheerily back from one of the riflemen.  "Thar
+ain't any white feathers a-flyin' in this crowd.  We're all with ye.
+Hurrah for Texas!"
+
+"Forward, march!" shouted the colonel.  "Every mile is worth blood.
+Boy, let 'em give you another mount.  That thar mustang o' your'n is
+played out."
+
+There was no more travel in him, at all events, and he was quickly
+turned loose to shift for himself, while all that had been on him was
+going westward upon a comparatively fresh and lively pony.
+
+"It 'll be about two days' riding," remarked Smith, "at the rate we'll
+have to go.  When we get thar, we'll have to take our chances for
+findin' our way into the fort."
+
+"We'll get in," they all agreed, but just how they expected to do it
+did not appear.  On they rode, and their camp that night had the
+appearance of a picnic rather than of the bivouac of a handful of
+adventurers who were on their way to cut a path for themselves through
+a hostile army to almost certain death.
+
+The Mexican general held a council of war that evening, and its session
+lasted late into the night, for there were ample refreshments upon the
+table in his marquee.
+
+It was not a cheerful council, for the reports of the army surgeons
+were rendered, and they were unpleasant reading.  So appeared to be
+several despatches which had but just arrived.
+
+"General," exclaimed General Cos, when his commander had announced
+their contents, "the sinking of that barge in the Nueces is a greater
+disaster to us than is to-day's repulse.  With those two heavy guns we
+could have made a breach in the wall in an hour."
+
+"We must make one somehow," replied Santa Anna, "since you all
+disapprove of a night assault.  Castrillon, mass your batteries
+to-morrow and play all your shot upon one point.  Make every shot tell.
+It's only a matter of time."
+
+"So!" replied the artillery officer.  "The breach can be made.  And all
+the while the garrison will be eating up its supplies."
+
+"So will we," laughed General Cos, "but we've a big drove of cattle
+coming.  We can live on beef and water till we have crushed this den of
+Gringo tigers."
+
+The tigers themselves in their fort-den were resting quietly, all but
+one, for the commander of the Alamo was pacing up and down slowly,
+thoughtfully, in the plaza.  No doubt it behooved him to be wakeful,
+but once, when he paused in his promenade, he said, half aloud,--
+
+"I hope Jim Carson got through.  Crockett feels pretty sure that he
+did.  Then my wife will get my last letter.  I want her to know that I
+did my duty and died like a man.  I had hoped to live in Texas and see
+it grow up to be something, but it's no use talking of that now.  Our
+time has come.  Not a man of us will ever get out of this place alive.
+And all because Sam Houston can't raise cash enough to feed his men on
+a march."
+
+He laughed satirically, and the sentry at the gate and the watchers at
+the loop-holes heard him.  It did them good to know that he was so
+merry.
+
+The night waned toward the dawn.  Just in the gray mist of the dark
+hour the riflemen under Colonel Smith had risen and they were busy
+around their camp-fires.  They had no idea of any enemy being near
+them, but suddenly they were startled by a loud "whoop!"
+
+"That redskin!" shouted Smith, snatching his rifle and dashing out of
+the camp.  "Come on, boys!  Something's up!"
+
+They were following fast, but he was well ahead, and he came out into
+the road in time to hear a shrill voice beyond him in the mist
+demanding,--
+
+"Jim heap halt!  Ugh!  Red Wolf!  Heap Texan!"
+
+"You young sarpent, are you here?" came back from a man on horseback.
+"Do you mean to say that some of our men are nigh around?"
+
+"Who goes thar?" shouted Smith.
+
+"Carson, from the Alamo," responded the messenger.  "Who are you?"
+
+"Friend of Big Knife," suggested Red Wolf to the colonel.  "Ranger."
+
+"All right!" shouted back Smith.  "Dismount and come in.  We're on our
+way to jine the garrison.  How are things?"
+
+"Well," replied Carson, as he came to the ground, "when I came away
+Santa Anna had just fairly got into position.  I had to snake it
+through his lines to carry despatches to Houston.  Jest you look here,
+though.  Don't you believe I left without orders.  Somebody had to
+come.  I'm coming right back to the fort soon as I've done my arr'nd."
+
+"Bully for you!" shouted a rifleman.  "That's what we're here for.
+Come along now and git yer rations."
+
+"I might ha' gone by ye if it hadn't been for Red Wolf," said Carson,
+as they went along.  "Bowie says he's the brightest chap of his age
+that he ever knew.  He can't say that he ever saw him asleep.  He can
+guide ye into the fort when you git thar."
+
+"We'll git in," replied Smith.  "I reckon Travis 'll be glad we met
+you.  Every rifle's going to count in such a fight as this promises to
+be."
+
+"You bet!" said Jim.  "I felt bad about coming away, but I gave up my
+chance there to please Travis.  You'll see me inside the walls before
+many days.  You will!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+NEARING THE END.
+
+The siege of the Alamo had lasted during eight long, terrible days.
+There had been a great deal of severe skirmishing, in which the
+Mexicans had suffered losses every time they drew too near the walls.
+The blockade, however, had become so close and vigilant that it was no
+longer possible for any bearer of despatches to get out or in.  Out of
+several that had been sent, it was understood that two only had escaped
+capture and immediate execution.  From those who had reached him
+General Houston was informed as to the condition of affairs at the
+fort.  The deepest sympathy was felt for the beleaguered patriots and
+preparations for their relief were going on.  Precious cargoes of army
+supplies had arrived from New Orleans in spite of Mexican war-vessels
+cruising in the Gulf.  Troops were getting ready.  One train of wagons
+accompanied by a force of riflemen was already a number of miles upon
+its way, with a vague idea that it might somehow evade the army of
+Santa Anna.  Men assured one another that if the garrison could only
+hold out a few days longer all would be well.
+
+Colonel Travis and his men had held their own remarkably.  They even
+seemed but little fatigued by their long watching, their readiness to
+be called to the shot-holes at any hour of day or night.  They were
+exceedingly tough and hardy men.  They would have been in good spirits
+if it had not been for two things.  One of these sombre considerations
+was the condition of about ten yards of the southerly wall of the
+plaza.  This was crumbling under the continual pelting of Castrillon's
+guns.  Most of it was nearly level with the ground, and the gap had
+been feebly filled with such pieces of timber and other materials as
+could be had.  Loose earth had been heaped upon them, but the slight
+barrier so constructed was at the mercy of cannon-balls.  The other
+point was even more important.
+
+"Colonel Travis," reported Sergeant Daly that morning, "thar's only
+half a dozen rounds for the cannon.  The last ounce of power and the
+last bullet have been sarved out to the men.  Thar isn't enough for an
+hour's shootin' if the next fight turns out a hot one."
+
+"Oh, God!  If Houston knew!" groaned the commander.  "Why doesn't help
+come?  Daly, don't say a word to the men.  It's possible that the
+Greasers may not make another attack----"
+
+"We've killed a heap of 'em," replied the brave artilleryman.  "But
+what on 'arth are guns good for without ammunition?"
+
+"We won't surrender, if we've nothing left to fight with but our
+knives!"
+
+"Colonel!" exclaimed Daly.  "The men wanted me to ask you that
+question.  They know just the fix we're in.  You won't surrender?"
+
+"I won't!" said Travis, firmly.
+
+"Thank God!" almost shouted Daly.  "We want to die like men, with arms
+in our hands.  We don't want to be led out and butchered."
+
+"The boys needn't be afraid that I'll go back on 'em," replied the
+colonel.  "I won't rob them of their last rights.  If we've got to die,
+we'll go down fighting."
+
+"That's all I wanted to know," said Daly, and away he strode to tell
+his comrades that they were in no danger of being betrayed unarmed into
+the hands of Santa Anna.
+
+Hardly had he gone before there came a hail and a response at the great
+gate, and two men stood before it.  One of them wore the uniform of the
+Mexican army and the other almost no uniform at all.
+
+"Jim Carson!  Castro!" had been loudly announced by the sentry.
+
+"Let 'em in, quick!" shouted Travis.  "You don't know who's behind 'em."
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed the chief as he stepped inside.  "Jim heap Mexican.
+Where Red Wolf?  Chief want him."
+
+"Colonel Smith!" instantly called out his companion, "I played Greaser
+to git through their lines.  How'd you do it?"
+
+"That young Lipan wolf did it," he said.  "He led us 'round to the
+west'ard, and we hadn't anything to do but to follow him.  They thought
+our party was one of their own patrols.  We didn't lose a man.  Colonel
+Bonham got in all alone."
+
+No more explanations could be given then and there, for Carson had made
+his daring experiment that he might bring encouraging despatches from
+the President and that he might not break his word about returning.
+
+Travis opened the letter handed him and he read it where he stood.
+
+"It's all right, men," he said.  "The whole state is rising.  If we can
+hold the fort a little longer the boys 'll come!"
+
+Hearty cheers responded, and Carson was at once taken possession of by
+his fellow-rangers that they might pump him of all the news he had
+gathered while away.
+
+"Ugh!  Heap boy!" said Castro.
+
+Before him stood Red Wolf, and during two or three minutes they talked
+rapidly in their own tongue.  As soon as the chief ceased speaking,
+Travis approached him and held out a hand.
+
+"Glad Travis no dead," said Castro, heartily.  "Where Big Knife?  Where
+Crockett?"
+
+"Here we are!" responded the latter from a little behind him.  "But
+what on all the 'arth fetched you into the fort jest now?  Did the
+Greasers say you might come a-visitin'?"
+
+The Lipan warrior turned on his heel and stalked away to the battered
+patch of the wall, followed by his white friends.  He stepped up upon
+the heap of ruins and studied it for a moment.
+
+"Castro see Mexican," he said.  "See Bravo.  Heap friend.  Lipans no
+fight 'em.  Tell 'em all Lipans lie down in lodge.  Tell Bravo walk
+through wall.  Come back.  Tell Mexican.  Bravo say, Castro go see
+fort.  Now!  Ugh!  Tell Travis, tell Big Knife, one sleep.  Mexican
+come take Texan hair."
+
+"Jest so," replied Crockett.  "They're goin' to try that hole to-morrow
+morning?  We'll pile it high with Greasers."
+
+"All right, chief," added Travis, "tell them all they want to know.
+It's a fair trade for letting us know they're coming.  You can't tell
+anything to hurt us."
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro.  "Chief take Red Wolf.  Go hide in Santa Anna camp.
+See fight.  Boy go tell Houston how Travis."
+
+"Good!" replied Travis.  "Just the thing.  Let him set out as soon as
+the fight is over.  I'd like to have old Sam know just how it turns
+out.  So far, we've beaten 'em every time."
+
+"Castro heap friend," said the chief, and took from under his blanket a
+deerskin-covered parcel closely tied.  "Big Knife want powder.  Take
+present.  Shoot heap."
+
+About two pounds of the best rifle powder, therefore, was his last
+contribution to the defence of the fort.
+
+"Now if that isn't just what we wanted!" shouted Crockett.  "I say,
+Bowie, divide fair.  I've only five charges myself.  Pistols empty."
+
+Some of the others were as badly off, and shortly afterwards it might
+have been noted that Bowie's belt fairly bristled with the
+short-barrelled but deadly weapons known as "Derringers," from the name
+of their manufacturer.
+
+"There is going to be a use for them," he quietly remarked to Travis.
+"If I'm not mistaken, every bullet 'll find a mark to-morrow."
+
+"Look out," returned Travis.  "Don't you go and get yourself only
+wounded."
+
+"No!" almost shouted Bowie.  "But what if I am?  Could I quit if there
+was a breath of life left in me?  Travis, they don't intend to take any
+prisoners."
+
+"There won't be any to take," he replied, but his friend drew him
+aside, farther out of any risk of being heard by others.
+
+"One thing more," said Bowie.  "I want to get together all the men that
+went down into Mexico with me.  Crockett, too.  The chief and his son
+are going.  They don't count just now.  They'll never tell anyhow, but
+somebody ought to live and keep that treasure-secret.  It must be found
+for Texas some day."
+
+"We might draw cuts for a man to get away with it," suggested Travis,
+"but he'd have no chance.  I don't see what we can do.  You and I are
+sure to go down."
+
+Castro and Red Wolf were standing by their ponies in the plaza.  They
+were not members of the garrison.  They were not white citizens of
+Texas.  There was no reason why they should remain to meet the last
+onset of Santa Anna's army.  Each of them had done all that he could
+for his personal friendships.
+
+"Ugh!" said Castro.  "No want more shake hand.  Come.  Go talk Bravo.
+Tell Mexican heap.  Great chief lose friend.  Ugh!"
+
+The gate had been opened for them and they mounted at once, but as they
+were passing through the portal Red Wolf turned and took a swift,
+earnest survey of the interior of the fort.  It was all quiet, all
+peaceful.  The cannon watched silently at their embrasures.  The
+rangers walked hither and thither unconcernedly.  The church front wore
+a calm and placid look.  The sun was shining brightly.  The one dark
+spot full of evil omen was the heap of rubbish in the breach of the
+wall.
+
+"Ugh!" said Red Wolf, mournfully.  "Big Knife fight a heap.  Great
+chief!"
+
+More than one demand for surrender had been sent in and had been
+rejected.  During several days, however, any other communication with
+the fort had been strictly forbidden.  The Mexican general,
+nevertheless, had not been unwilling to permit the visit of Castro, and
+when the chief returned now, he speedily found himself in front of
+Santa Anna's marquee.
+
+"Heap boy in fort," he replied to a question from General Sesma.
+"Great chief go get him.  Red Wolf no Texan.  Good!"
+
+There was no apparent importance in the presence or absence of one
+unarmed young Indian, and Santa Anna hardly looked at him while he
+questioned his father closely concerning the aspect of affairs in the
+fort.  There was no use to the garrison to be gained by Castro's
+concealment of anything that a telescope in the camp could discover,
+but the Mexican commander exhibited a deep interest in the exact
+character and dimensions of the hole his artillery had made in the wall.
+
+"_Caramba!_" exclaimed Castrillon.  "I'll pitch a few more shot into it
+in the morning.  How many of the rebels have we killed?"
+
+"Texan feel good!" replied Castro.  "Big gun no hurt him."
+
+Many and loud were the execrations uttered when he explained himself
+further and positively affirmed that all their cannonading and musketry
+had not disabled a solitary Texan.
+
+"We shall do better to-morrow," said Santa Anna, with a cynical grin.
+"How are their provisions?"
+
+"Little eat," said Castro.  "Texan lie in fort.  No make fire.  No
+kettle."
+
+"Short of rations, eh?" said General Cos.  "That's a point, general.
+We might starve 'em out.  We have lost a great many men----"
+
+"We had better lose twice as many," sharply interrupted his commander,
+"than to waste any more time here.  Houston is getting his volunteers
+in hand.  We must have the Alamo to-morrow if it costs us a thousand
+men!"
+
+"What Santa Anna say now to great chief?" asked Castro.  "What tell
+Lipan?"
+
+His inquiry was made somewhat haughtily, but the response came at once
+with extreme graciousness and courtesy.  The Lipans were to consider
+themselves the fast friends of the Mexican republic, their chief was to
+call himself the brother of its President, and Castro and Red Wolf were
+led away to a camp-fire where plentiful rations awaited them.  It was
+not a time when the invaders of Texas were willing to make additional
+enemies.
+
+It was not altogether a cheerful time for them.  Really, the greatest
+element of uncertainty of success in the proposed assault of the fort
+was the dispirited, defeated feeling that prevailed among the Mexican
+troops.  It was to obviate that defect in their fighting qualities that
+Colonel Campos, of the infantry, received orders that night to issue
+liberal rations of _aguardiente_, or Mexican whiskey, as soon as the
+several battalions should march into their respective positions.
+
+"Colonel," said Santa Anna, "their feathers are down a little.  Make
+them so drunk they won't know whether they are killed or not.  Who
+cares?  We have plenty to take their places if we win a victory."
+
+More _peones_ and _rancheros_ could be expended to any extent provided
+he could retain his autocratic grip upon the reins of power.
+
+There were one hundred and eighty-seven persons within the walls of the
+fort that night.  Six of these were non-combatants, including two
+American women, a Mexican woman, a negro slave, and two young children.
+
+The keepers of the secret of the cavern of Huitzilopochtli held their
+conference.  After it was concluded they selected, with careful
+deliberation, a number of trustworthy men, to whom, under oath, they
+communicated the precious information.  If any or all of them should
+survive, a full report was to be in like manner made to President
+Houston and other Texan patriots who were named.
+
+"That's all we can do," remarked Bowie, after his precautions had been
+taken.  "I don't want that expedition to die with me.  If any of these
+fellows are killed early in the fight, we must put in others in their
+places."
+
+"All right," replied Crockett.  "The Montezumas have stuck to that
+stuff long enough.  But, 'cordin' to Castro, we've been and gone and
+put a death-warrant on every one of those men.  I was thinking 'bout
+that."
+
+"You'd think!" exclaimed Bowie, "if you'd seen what I did.  Do you
+know, there was the queerest kind of roar coming up out of that chasm.
+I don't wonder the blood-thirsty heathen were superstitious about it."
+
+"I'd like to hear it some day," said Crockett.  "But thar's a kind of
+ringing in my ears, anyhow.  Perhaps it's from hearing so much cannon
+music."
+
+In the cavern of Huitzilopochtli that night, the treasure-chamber of
+the Montezumas, the voice from the lower deep was calling more loudly
+than usual.
+
+"The gods are disturbed," grumbled the old men before the altar.  "We
+have nothing to give them.  They grow angry.  What shall we do for the
+hunger of the gods?"
+
+Louder, at intervals, then seeming to die away and begin again, arose
+the mysterious reverberation, while the old devotees paused from their
+chanting to turn and glare into each other's ferocious faces.
+
+It was only a mute inquiry.  If no other supply should be provided, to
+which of them would belong the next voluntary plunge into the gulf?
+
+They were fewer than they once had been.  There might be none to take
+their places.  It would not do for the altar of Huitzilopochtli to be
+left without servitors and the treasure without guardians.  Some of
+them must remain until the return of the gods, for these were surely to
+come again to claim their own.
+
+Why, however, should they at this time feel so strong a hunger and send
+up so vehement an outcry?  Had they heard that sacrifices were about to
+come?  If so, where were the expected victims, and whose hand should
+bring them?
+
+It was a question to which no answer could be given, but the
+sacrificial fire was heaped with fuel until its radiance flickered like
+a smile of satisfaction upon the vast, dark face on the wall, and the
+priests chanted on with a croaking sound like that of many ravens.
+
+No morning ever came into that cavern, but it dawned brightly upon the
+outside world,--the morning of the 6th of March, 1836.
+
+The camp of the Mexican army was astir at an early hour and the
+artillery began its practice-work upon the shattered wall.  Every gun
+was aimed with care, for even Santa Anna was using up the last of his
+cannon-shot.
+
+There was apparently nothing doing in the fort.  It had a lazy look,
+and the rangers hardly spoke to one another as they went about their
+routine duties.  They all cleaned their rifles carefully, counted their
+bullets, measured their charges of powder, and now and then they would
+stroll to loop-holes for looks at the Mexican camp.
+
+"They are forming for the attack," was the word that passed from man to
+man, while the iron missiles, fairly well directed, fell fast upon the
+frail barrier which had been made at the breach.
+
+"There 'll a good many men drap in that thar gap," remarked Crockett.
+"But they won't all try to come in by that way."
+
+The Mexican commander had indeed learned something by experience.  His
+storming columns were four in number, and only one of them advanced
+toward the broken wall.  Another was evidently to approach by the
+front, where the ruins of the gate had been strongly propped up during
+the night.  The third and fourth formed in front of the convent yard
+wall and the church, and their ladders would be quite long enough to
+carry them over the former.
+
+"We've got to divide," said Travis.  "You hold the convent and church
+side, Bowie.  They could pick their way in, or blast a hole, if you'd
+let 'em.  We'll take care of the rest."
+
+Only a few men could be spared to any of the several posts of danger.
+
+The Mexican batteries ceased.  The half-drunken infantry came on at a
+run.  The last cartridges were rapidly and effectively fired from the
+Texan cannon.  Down went their enemies by scores, and it looked as if
+the previous results were to be repeated, but Sergeant Daly now stepped
+back from the gun he had been working and held up a hand.
+
+"All gone!" exclaimed Travis.  "Come on, men, this four-pounder is
+loaded yet.  Let's bring it to bear upon the breach and give it to them
+as they come through."
+
+The guns on the church, three in number, had also been busy, but they
+now ceased their thunder.  Down went the gate before the blows of the
+Mexican pioneers.  Fast fell the foremost assailants in the fatal
+breach, but just as Travis had swung around his cannon a musketeer from
+the gate was within twenty feet of him.  He did not miss.  The calm,
+courageous smile upon the face of the heroic commander died away, for
+the flying lead passed through his brain.
+
+Numbers counted now, for the enemy were within the walls, and the
+remaining struggle was hand-to-hand.
+
+Brave enough were the Mexicans, but they were learning terrible lessons
+of the superior personal prowess of their victims.  Not a man asked for
+quarter.  To be only wounded and to fall was to be bayoneted upon the
+ground.  Five who were disabled did indeed take refuge in the
+cook-room, barring its door and fighting still.
+
+Half-way between the convent and the church a thick group of swordsmen
+and lancers closed around the old bear hunter, but he did not die
+alone.  Near him lay half a dozen of his foemen, and just beyond them
+fell his old friends Smith and Bonham, hastening to die at his side.
+
+The last squad of riflemen stood in front of the main inside entrance
+of the fort building, plying their rifles steadily, but the surge of
+steel points poured towards them.
+
+"Boys!" exclaimed Bowie at their head, "I'm hurt in the leg.  I can't
+stand.  I must do the rest of it lying down."
+
+His empty rifle fell from his hand as he climbed a stairway near him.
+Bleeding and faint, he staggered on to the end of a passage, and he
+threw himself upon the couch in the end room, exclaiming,--
+
+"I saw them fall!  Not a man is left to tell the secret of the cavern!"
+
+It was but a moment, and then the passageway swarmed with furious
+Mexicans.  From room to room they went, plying their bayonets alike
+upon the living and the dead.  As they entered the corner room,
+however, a dark, stern, terrible shape half rose from a couch with a
+Derringer in its right hand.  Swift reports followed each other as
+rapidly as the tickings of a clock till Bowie's belt was empty.  The
+floor was strewn with corpses, and then, as yet more of his enemies
+poured in, he gained his feet with a last effort, knife in hand.  It
+was but for a moment.  It was the fierce agony of a dying hero.  The
+bayonets did their work, and as the stalwart form of the dead borderer
+sank heavily upon the floor, a low voice in the door-way exclaimed,--
+
+"Big Knife!  Heap brave!  Great chief!  Red Wolf go."
+
+[Illustration: A DARK, STERN, TERRIBLE SHAPE HALF ROSE FROM A COUCH]
+
+The Alamo had fallen!
+
+The five men in the cook-room surrendered to Castrillon when their last
+cartridge was gone on promise of protection, but they were sabred at
+once on being taken before Santa Anna, who now stood among his staff in
+the middle of the plaza.
+
+"_Caramba_!  Kill them!" was all the reply he made to the protests of
+Castrillon.
+
+The six non-combatants were spared to tell the story of the defence and
+the massacre, but the victory had been a costly one.  The army of Santa
+Anna had been so shattered that, when he met Sam Houston and his
+volunteers, not many days later, at San Jacinto, his eighteen hundred
+men were utterly defeated by about a third of their number of Texans,
+and he lost not only his army of invasion but his control of Mexican
+affairs, and Texas itself.
+
+Dark indeed, that day, was the cavern of Huitzilopochtli, and all
+through the early hours the moaning sound came up from the chasm.  Then
+it grew louder, stronger, and the worshippers fled from its brink to
+the altar.  They had no victims to offer.  Their chant was almost
+drowned by the ominous roar, and the hungry anger of the gods seemed to
+increase momentarily.  Then it began to die away,--away,--until at last
+a kind of shout came up, and there was a silence.  Excepting Red Wolf
+and his father, there were now no living persons, outside of the
+votaries of the old faith, who had any clue to the hidden treasure and
+the underground temple of the lost gods of Mexico.  The daring Texan
+who had learned the secret had fallen fighting to the end, the last man
+of the garrison of the Alamo.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lost Gold of the Montezumas, by
+William O. Stoddard
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