Save for the little
scouting parties that always kept a watch at a safe distance they
remained within their intrenchments. But Bowie and Fannin were able to
take a look at the fortifications, confirming in every respect all that
Ned and his comrades had told them.
They ate in the saddle at noon, having provided themselves with rations
when they started, and then rode back on their slow half circle about
the town, Mexican scouts riding parallel with them on the inner side of
the circle, five hundred yards away. The Texans said little, but they
watched all the time.
It made a powerful appeal to Ned, who had been a great reader, and whose
mind was surcharged with the old romances. It seemed to him that his
comrades and he were like knights, riding around a hostile city and
issuing a formal challenge to all who dared to meet them. He was proud
to be there in such company. The afternoon waned. Banks of vapor, rose
and gold, began to pile up in the southwest, their glow tinting the
earth with the same colors. But beauty did not appeal just then to the
Ring Tailed Panther, who began to roar.
"A-ridin', an' a-ridin'," he said, "an' nothin' done. Up to San Antonio
an' back to camp, an' things are just as they were before.
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