Roylston was the most patient of them all, or at least he said the least.

“I think,” he said about the fourth or fifth day, “that it does not hurt to linger here.  The Mexican power has not yet gathered in full.  As for me, personally, it suits me admirably.  I can walk a full two hundred yards now, and next week I shall be able to walk a mile.”

“When we are all ready to depart, which way do you intend to go Mr. Roylston?” asked Ned.

“I wish to go around the settlements and then to New Orleans,” replied Roylston.  “That city is my headquarters, but I also have establishments elsewhere, even as far north as New York.  Are you sure, Ned, that you cannot go with me and bring your friend Allen, too?  I could make men of you both in a vast commercial world.  There have been great opportunities, and greater are coming.  The development of this mighty southwest will call for large and bold schemes of organization.  It is not money alone that I offer, but the risk, the hopes and rewards of a great game, in fact, the opening of a new world to civilization, for such this southwest is.  It appeals to some deeper feeling than that which can be aroused by the mere making of money.”

Ned, deeply interested, watched him intently as he spoke.  He saw Roylston show emotion for the first time, and the mind of the boy responded to that of the man.  He could understand this dream.  The image of a great Texan republic was already in the minds of men.  It possessed that of Ned.  He did not believe that the Texans and Mexicans could ever get along together, and he was quite sure that Texas could never return to its original position as part of a Mexican state.

“You can do much for Texas there with me in New Orleans,” said Roylston, as if he were making a final appeal to one whom he looked upon almost as a son.  “Perhaps you could do more than you can here in Texas.”

Ned shook his head a little sadly.  He did not like to disappoint this man, but he could not leave the field.  Young Allen also said that he would remain.

“Be it so,” said Roylston.  “It is young blood.  Never was there a truer saying than ‘Young men for war, old men for counsel.’  But the time may come when you will need me.  When it does come send the word.”

Ned judged from Roylston’s manner that dark days were ahead, but the merchant did not mention the subject again.  At the end of a week, when they were amply supplied with everything except horses, the Panther decided to take Ned and Obed and go on a scout toward the Rio Grande.  They started early in the morning and the horses, which had obtained plenty of grass, were full of life and vigor.

They soon left the narrow belt of forest far behind them, maintaining an almost direct course toward the southeast.  The point on the river that they intended to reach was seventy or eighty miles away, and they did not expect to cover the distance in less than two days.