These were raw recruits, but they knew how to shoot.  Their rifles flashed and four or five saddles were emptied.  The men below were also firing from the loopholes, and the front rank of the Mexican cavalry was cut down by the bullets.  The whole force turned at a shout from an officer, and galloped to the shelter of some buildings.  Ned estimated that they were two hundred in number, and he surmised that young Urrea led them.

He descended from the roof and talked with King.  The men understood their situation, but they were exultant.  They had beaten off the enemy’s cavalry, and they felt that the final victory must be theirs.  But Ned had been in the Alamo, and he knew that the horsemen had merely hoped to surprise and overtake them with a dash.  Stone fortresses are not taken by cavalry.  He was sure that the present force would remain under cover until the main army came up with cannon.  He suggested to Captain King that he send a messenger to Fannin for help.

King thought wisely of the suggestion and chose Jackson, who slipped out of the church, escaped through an oak forest and disappeared.  Ned then made a careful examination of the church, which was quite a strong building with a supply of water inside and some dried corn.  The men had brought rations also with them, and they were amply supplied for a siege of several days.  But Ned, already become an expert in this kind of war, judged that it would not last so long.  He believed that the Mexicans, flushed by the taking of the Alamo, would push matters.

King, lacking experience, leaned greatly on young Fulton.  The men, who believed implicitly every word that he had said, regarded him almost with superstition.  He alone of the defenders had come alive out of that terrible charnel house, the Alamo.

“I suspect,” said King, “that the division you saw is under General Urrea.”

“Very probably,” said Ned.  “Of course, Santa Anna, no longer having any use for his army in San Antonio, can send large numbers of troops eastward.”

“Which means that we’ll have a hard time defending this place,” said King gloomily.

“Unless Fannin sends a big force to our help.”

“I’m not so sure that he’ll send enough,” said King.  “His men are nearly all fresh from the States, and they know nothing of the country.  It’s hard for him to tell what to do.  We started once to the relief of the Alamo, but our ammunition wagon broke down and we could not get our cannon across the San Antonio River.  Things don’t seem to be going right with us.”

Ned was silent.  His thoughts turned back to the Alamo.  And so Fannin and his men had started but had never come!  Truly “things were going wrong!” But perhaps it was just as well.  The victims would have only been more numerous, and Fannin’s men were saved to fight elsewhere for Texas.

He heard a rattle of musketry, and through one of the loopholes he saw that the Mexican cavalry in the wood had opened a distant fire.  Only a few of the bullets reached the church, and they fell spent against the stones.  Ned saw that very little harm was likely to come from such a fire, but he believed it would be wise to show the Mexicans that the defenders were fully awake.