A little look of fear crept into Urrea’s eyes, as the two antagonists stared at each other.  But it was only for a few minutes.  Then he looked away with a shrug and a laugh.

“Now I leave you,” he said to the men, “and may the saints bring you much happiness.  Do not forget that to-morrow is Palm Sunday, and that it is a good omen.”

He went out, taking the torchbearers with him, and although it was dark again in the vaulted church, the recruits sang a long time.  Ned sat down with his back against the wall, and he did not share in the general joy.  He remembered the look that had come into Urrea’s eyes, when they met the accusing gaze of his own.

After a while the singing ceased, and one by one the recruits fell asleep in the close, stifling air of the place.  Ned dozed an hour or two, but awoke before dawn.  He was oppressed by a deep and unaccountable gloom, and it was not lifted when, in the dusk, he looked at the rows of sleeping figures, crowded so close together that no part of the floor was visible.

He saw the first light appear in the east, and then spread like the slow opening of a fan.  The recruits began to awaken by and by, and their good spirits had carried over from the night before.  Soon the old church was filled with talk and laughter.

The day came fully, and then the guards brought food and water, not enough to satisfy hunger and thirst, but enough to keep them alive.  They did not complain, as they would soon be free men, able to obtain all that they wanted.  Presently the doors of the church were thrown open, and the officers and many soldiers appeared.  Young Urrea was foremost among the officers, and, in a loud voice, he ordered all the prisoners to come out, an order that they obeyed with alacrity and pleasure.

Ned marched forth with the rest, although he did not speak to any of those about him.  He looked first at Urrea, whose manner was polite and smiling, as it had been the night before, and then his glance shifted to the other officers, older men, and evidently higher in rank.  He saw that two, Colonels by their uniforms, were quite pale, and that one of them was biting savagely at his mustache.  It all seemed sinister to Ned.  Why was Urrea doing everything, and why were his superiors standing by, evidently a prey to some great nervous strain?

The recruits, under Urrea’s orders, were formed into three columns.  One was to take the road toward San Antonio, the second would march toward San Patricio, and the third to Copano.  The three columns shouted good-by, but the recruits assured one another that they would soon meet again.  Urrea told one column that it was going to be sent home immediately, another that it was going outside the town, where it was to help in killing cattle for beef which they would eat, and the third that it was leaving the church in a hurry to make room for Santa Anna’s own troops, who would reach the town in an hour.