"
"A Texas colonel rode out on the prairie with ninety men, and then rode
back again," said Obed.
"But we are not going back again!" cried Ned joyfully.
Bowie, who was in the lead, suddenly turned his horse away from the camp
and rode toward the river. The others followed him without a word, but
nearly every man in the company drew a long breath of satisfaction. Ned
knew and all knew that they were not going back to camp that night.
Ned eagerly watched the leader. They rode by the Mission Concepcion,
passed through a belt of timber and came abruptly to the river, where
Bowie called a halt, and sprang from his horse. Ned leaped down also,
and he saw at once the merits of the position into which Bowie had led
them. They were in a horseshoe or sharp bend of the river, here a
hundred yards in width. The belt of thick timber curved on one side
while the river coiled in a half-circle about them and in front of the
little tongue of land on which they stood, the bank rose to a height of
eighteen feet, almost perpendicular. It was a secluded place, and, as no
Mexicans had been following them in the course of the last hour, Ned
believed that they might pass a peaceful night there. But the Ring
Tailed Panther had other thoughts, although, for the present, he kept
them to himself.
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