THE TEXANS

Late in the afternoon Ned’s nerves began to affect him again.  Once more, the old longing for action took such strong hold upon him that he could not cast it off for a long time.  But he hid his face from Obed.  He did not want his older comrade to see that he was white and trembling.  Finally, he took some food from his pack and bit fiercely upon it, as he ate.  It was not for the food that he cared, but it was a relief to bring his teeth together so hard.  Obed looked at him approvingly.

“You’re setting a good example, Ned,” he said, “and I’ll follow it.”

He too ate, and then took a satisfactory drink from his water bottle.  Meanwhile the sun was setting in a cloudless sky, and both noticed with satisfaction that it would be a clear night.  Eyes, trained like theirs, could see even in the dusk an enemy trying to creep upon them.

“Do you think you could sleep a while, Ned?” said Obed, persuasively.  “Of course, I’ll awake you at the first alarm, if the alarm itself doesn’t do it.  Sleep knits us up for the fray, and a man always wants to be at his best when he goes into battle.”

“How could a fellow sleep now?”

“Only the brave and resolute can do it,” replied Obed, cunningly.  “Napoleon slept before Austerlitz, and while no Austerlitz is likely to happen down here in the wilderness of Northern Mexico there is nothing to keep those who are able from copying a great man.”

The appeal to Ned’s pride was not lost.

“I think I’ll try it,” he said.

He lay down behind the log with his rifle by his side, and closed his eyes.  He had no idea that he could go to sleep, but he wished to show Obed his calmness in face of danger.  Yet he did sleep, and he did not awaken until Obed’s hand fell upon his shoulder.  He would have sprung up, all his faculties not yet regained, but Obed’s hand pressed him down.

“Don’t forget where you are, Ned,” said the Maine man, “and that we are still besieged.”

Yet the night was absolutely still and Ned, from his recumbent position, looked up at a clear sky and many glittering stars.

“Has anything happened?” he asked.

“Not a thing.  No Lipan has shown himself even among the trees.”

“About what time do you think it is?”

“Two or three hours after midnight, and now I’m going to take a nap while you watch.  Ned, do you know, I’ve an idea those fellows are going to sit in the woods indefinitely, safe, beyond range, and wait for us to come out.  Doesn’t it make you angry?”

“It does, and it makes me angry also to think that they have our horses.  Those were good horses.”

Obed slept until day, and Ned watched with a vigilance that no creeping enemy could pass.  The Lipans made no movement, but the siege, silent and invisible, went on.  Ned had another attack of the nerves, but, as his comrade was sleeping soundly, he took no trouble to hide it, and let the spell shake itself out.