Then he told to them the same tale that Mrs. Dickinson had told to the Panther and his little party, adding also that a large Mexican force was undoubtedly very near.

“Then you’ve come just in time,” said the older man.  “We’ve heard that a big force under General Urrea was heading for the settlements near the coast, and Captain King and twenty-five or thirty men are now at Refugio to take the people away.  We’ll hurry there with your news and we’ll try to get you a saddle and bridle, too.”

“For which I’ll be thankful,” said Ned.

But he was really more thankful for human companionship than anything else.  He tingled with joy to be with the Texans again, and during the hours that they were riding to Refugio he willingly answered the ceaseless questions of the two men, Oldham and Jackson, who wanted to know everything that had happened at the Alamo.  When they reached Refugio they found there Captain King with less than thirty men who had been sent by Fannin, as Jackson had said, to bring away the people.

Ned was taken at once to King, who had gathered his men in the little plaza.  He saw that the soldiers were not Texans, that is, men who had long lived in Texas, but fresh recruits from the United States, wholly unfamiliar with border ways and border methods of fighting.  The town itself was an old Mexican settlement with an ancient stone church or mission, after the fashion of the Alamo, only smaller.

“You say that you were in the Alamo, and that all the defenders have fallen except you?” said the Captain, looking curiously at Ned.

“Yes,” replied the boy.

“And that the Mexican force dispatched against the Eastern settlements is much nearer than was supposed?”

“Yes,” replied Ned, “and as proof of my words there it is now.”

He had suddenly caught the gleam of lances in a wood a little distance to the west of the town, and he knew that the Mexican cavalry, riding ahead of the main army, was at hand.  It was a large force, too, one with which the little band of recruits could not possibly cope in the open.  Captain King seemed dazed, but Ned, glancing at the church, remembered the Alamo.  Every Spanish church or mission was more or less of a fortress, and he exclaimed: 

“The church, Captain, the church!  We can hold it against the cavalry!”

“Good!” cried the Captain.  “An excellent idea!”

They rushed for the church and Ned followed.  Old Jack did not get the saddle and bridle that had been promised to him.  When the boy leaped from his back he snatched off the halter of withes and shouted loudly to him:  “Go!”

It pained him to abandon his horse a second time under compulsion, but there was no choice.  Old Jack galloped away as if he knew what he ought to do, and then Ned, running into the church with the others, helped them to bar the doors.

The church was a solid building of stone with a flat roof, and with many loopholes made long ago as a defence against the Indians.  Ned heard the cavalry thundering into the village as they barred the doors, and then he and half a dozen men ran to the roof.  Lying down there, they took aim at the charging horsemen.