“John!  John!  We’re awful glad you’ve come ’cause there’s to be a lot of roarin’ an’ tearin’ an’ clawin’ to be done.”

The man smiled and replied in his quiet tones: 

“We know it and that’s why we’ve come.  Now, I suggest that while we leave ten men at each ford, we hold a meeting in the village.  Everything we have is at stake and as one Texan is as good as another we ought to talk it over.”

“Who is he?” asked Ned of Obed.

“That’s John Moore.  He’s been a great Indian fighter and one of the defenders of the frontier.  I think it likely that he’ll be our leader in whatever we undertake.  He’s certainly the man for the place.”

“Oyez!  Oyez!” roared the Ring Tailed Panther with mouth wide open.  “Come all ye upon the common, an’ hear the case of Texas against Mexico which is now about to be debated.  The gentlemen representin’ the other side are on the west shore of the river about a mile from here, an’ after decidin’ upon our argyment an’ the manner of it we’ll communicate it to ’em later whether they like our decision or not.”

They poured upon the common in a tumultuous throng, the women and children forming a continuous fringe about them.

“I move that John Moore be made the Chairman of this here meetin’ an’ the leader in whatever it decides to do, ’specially as we know already what it’s goin’ to decide,” roared the Ring Tailed Panther, “an’ wherever he leads we will follow.”

Ned said nothing, but his pulses were leaping.  Perhaps the silent boy appreciated more than any other present that this was the beginning of a great epic in the American story.  The young student, his head filled with completed dramas of the past, could look further into the future than the veteran men of action around him.

The debate was short.  In truth it was no debate at all, because all were of one mind.  Since the Mexicans had already fired upon them and would not go away they would cross the river and attack Castenada.  As Obed had predicted, Moore was unanimously chosen leader, the title of Colonel being bestowed upon him, and they set to work at once for the attack.

Ned and Obed walked together to the cluster of oaks in which the two had spent so much time.  Both were grave, appreciating fully the fact that they were about to go into battle.

“Ned,” said Obed, “you and I have been through a lot of dangers together and we’re not afraid to talk about dangers to come.  In case anything should happen to you is there any word you want sent anybody?”

“To nobody except Mr. Austin.  He’s been very good to me here and in Mexico.  I suppose I’ve got some relatives in Missouri, but they are so distant I’ve forgotten who they are, and probably they never knew anything about me.  If it’s the other way about, Obed, what word shall I send?”

“Nothing to nobody.  I had a stepfather in Maine, who didn’t like me, and my mother died five years after her second marriage.  I’m a Texan, Ned, same as if I were born on this soil, and my best friends are around me.  I’ll live and die with ’em.”