Ned, keen of ear and so intent that he missed nothing, could now separate the two fires.  The crackle of the rifles which came from the Alamo dominated.  Rapid, steady, incessant, it beat heavily upon the hearing and nerves.  Pyramids and spires of smoke arose, drifted and arose again.  In the intervals he saw the walls of the church a sheet of flame, and he saw the Mexicans falling by dozens and scores upon the plain.  He knew that at the short range the Texan rifles never missed, and that the hail of their bullets was cutting through the Mexican ranks like a fire through dry grass.

“God, how they fight!” he heard one of the generals—­he never knew which—­exclaim.

Then he saw the officers rushing about, shouting to the men, striking them with the flats of their swords and urging them on.  The Mexican army responded to the appeal, lifted itself up and continued its rush.  The fire from the Alamo seemed to Ned to increase.  The fortress was a living flame.  He had not thought that men could fire so fast, but they had three or four rifles apiece.

The silence which had replaced the shrill shouting in the town continued.  All the crash was now in front of them, and where they stood the sound of the human voice would carry.  In a dim far-away manner Ned heard the guards talking to one another.  Their words showed uneasiness.  It was not the swift triumphal rush into the Alamo that they had expected.  Great swaths had been cut through the Mexican army.  Santa Anna paled more than once when he saw his men falling so fast.

“They cannot recoil!  They cannot!” he cried.

But they did.  The column led by Colonel Duque, a brave man, was now at the northern wall, and the men were rushing forward with the crowbars, axes and scaling ladders.  The Texan rifles, never more deadly, sent down a storm of bullets upon them.  A score of men fell all at once.  Among them was Duque, wounded terribly.  The whole column broke and reeled away, carrying Duque with them.

Ned saw the face of Santa Anna turn purple with rage.  He struck the earthwork furiously with the flat of his sword.

“Go!  Go!” he cried to Gaona and Tolsa.  “Rally them!  See that they do not run!”

The two generals sprang from the battery and rushed to their task.  The Mexican cannon had ceased firing, for fear of shooting down their own men, and the smoke was drifting away from the field.  The morning was also growing much lighter.  The gray dawn had turned to silver, and the sun’s red rim was just showing above the eastern horizon.

The Texan cannon were silent, too.  The rifles were now doing all the work.  The volume of their fire never diminished.  Ned saw the field covered with slain, and many wounded were drifting back to the shelter of the earthworks and the town.

Duque’s column was rallied, but the column on the east and the column on the west were also driven back, and Santa Anna rushed messenger after messenger, hurrying up fresh men, still driving the whole Mexican army against the Alamo.  He shouted orders incessantly, although he remained safe within the shelter of the battery.