Indians, and he was renowned throughout all the Southwestern country for his bravery, skill and eccentricity.  An Indian had killed a white man and eaten his heart.  He captured the Indian and compelled him to eat until he died.  When his favorite bear dog died he rode sixty miles and brought a minister to preach a sermon over his body.  A little boy was captured on the outskirts of a settlement by some Comanche Indians.  He followed them alone for three hundred miles, stole the boy away from them in the night, and carried him back safely to his father and mother.

Such was the Ring Tailed Panther, a name that he had originally given to himself and which the people had adopted, one who boasted that he feared no man, the boast being true.  He was heavily armed and he rode a black and powerful horse, which he directed straight toward the place where Ned and Obed were sitting.

“You are Ned Fulton an’ Obed White, if report tells no lie?” he said in a deep growling voice.

“We are,” said Ned, who did not know the identity of their formidable visitor.

“So I knew.  I just wanted to see if you’d deny it.  Glad to meet you, gentlemen.  As for me, I’m the Ring Tailed Panther.”

“The Ring Tailed Panther?”

“Exactly.  Didn’t you hear me say so?  I’m the Ring Tailed Panther, an’ I can whip anything livin’, man or beast, lion or grizzly bear.  That’s why I’m the Ring Tailed Panther.”

“Happy to know you, Mr. Ring Tailed Panther,” said Ned, “and having no quarrel with you we don’t wish to fight you.”

The man laughed, his broad face radiating good humor.

“And I don’t want to fight you, either,” he said, “’cause all of us have got to fight somebody else.  See here, your name’s Obed an’ yours is Ned, and that’s what I’m goin’ to call you.  No Mistering for me.  It don’t look well for a Ring Tailed Panther to be givin’ handles to people’s names.”

“Ned and Obed it is,” said Ned with warmth.

“Then, Ned an’ Obed, it’s Mexicans.  I’ve been fightin’ Indians a long time.  Besides bein’ a Ring Tailed Panther, I’m three parts grizzly bear an’ one part tiger, an’ I want you both to come with guns.”

“Is it fighting?” asked Ned, starting up.

“It’s ridin’ first an’ then fightin’.  Our people down at Gonzales have a cannon.  The Mexicans are comin’ to take it away from them, an’ I think there’s goin’ to be trouble over the bargain.  The Texans got the gun as a defense against the Indians an’ they need it.  Some of us are goin’ down there to take a hand in the matter of that gun, an’ you are goin’ with us.”

“Of course we are!” said Ned and Obed together.  In five minutes they were riding, fully armed, with the Ring Tailed Panther over the prairie.  He gave them more details as they rode along.

“Some of our people had been gatherin’ at San Felipe to stop the march of Cos if they could,” he said, “but they’ve been drawn off now to help Gonzales.  They’re comin’ from Bastrop, too, an’ other places, an’ if there ain’t a fight then I’m the Ring Tailed Panther for nothing.  If we keep a good pace we can join a lot of the boys by nightfall.”