The horse whinnied ever so softly, and nuzzled Ned’s arm.  The understanding between them was complete.  Then Ned left him, intending to take a position by the bank of the creek as he was on the early watch.  On the way he passed Roylston, who regarded him attentively.

“I judge that your leader, Mr. Palmer, whom you generally call the Panther, is expecting an attack,” said the merchant.

“He’s the kind of man who tries to provide for everything,” replied Ned.

“Of course, then,” said Roylston, “he provides for the creek bed.  The Mexican skirmishers can come up it and yet be protected by its banks.”

“That is so,” said the Panther, who had approached as he was speaking.  “It’s the one place that we’ve got to watch most, an’ Ned an’ me are goin’ to sit there on the banks, always lookin’.  I see that you’ve got the eye of a general, Mr. Roylston.”

The merchant smiled.

“I’m afraid I don’t count for much in battle,” he said, “and least of all hampered as I am now.  But if the worst comes to the worst I can sit here with my back to this tree and shoot.  If you will kindly give me a rifle and ammunition I shall be ready for the emergency.”

“But it is your time to sleep, Mr. Roylston,” said the Panther.

“I don’t think I can sleep, and as I cannot I might as well be of use.”

The Panther brought him the rifle, powder and bullets, and Roylston, leaning against the tree, rifle across his knees, watched with bright eyes.  Sentinels were placed at the edge of the grove, but the Panther and Ned, as arranged, were on the high bank overlooking the bed of the creek.  Now and then they walked back and forth, meeting at intervals, but most of the time each kept to his own particular part of the ground.

Ned found an oak, blown down on the bank by some hurricane, and as there was a comfortable seat on a bough with the trunk as a rest for his back he remained there a long time.  But his ease did not cause him to relax his vigilance.  He was looking toward the north, and he could see two hundred yards or more up the creek bed to a point where it curved.  The bed itself was about thirty feet wide, although the water did not have a width of more than ten feet.

Everything was now quite dry, as the wind had been blowing all day.  But the breeze had died with the night, and the camp was so still that Ned could hear the faint trickle of the water over the sand.  It was a fair night, with a cold moon and cold stars looking down.  The air was full of chill, and Ned began to walk up and down again in order to keep warm.  He noticed Roylston still sitting with eyes wide open and the rifle across his lap.

As Ned came near in his walk the merchant turned his bright eyes upon him.

“I hear,” he said, “that you have seen Santa Anna.”

“More than once.  Several times when I was a prisoner in Mexico, and again when I was recaptured.”