They were not the only riders that night.  Men were carrying along the whole frontier the news that the war had begun, that the death struggle was now on between Mexico and Texas, the giant on one side and the pigmy on the other.

But the ride of the four in the trail of Castenada’s flying troop was peaceful enough.  About three hours after midnight they stopped under the shelter of some cottonwoods.  The Ring Tailed Panther took the watch while the other three slept.  Ned lay awake for a little while between his blankets, but he saw that Urrea, who was not ten feet away, had gone sound asleep almost instantly.  His olive face lighted dimly by the moon’s rays was smooth and peaceful, and Ned was quite sure that he would be a good comrade.  Then he, too, entered the land of slumber.

The Ring Tailed Panther stalked up and down, his broad powerful figure becoming gigantic in the moonlight.  Belligerent by nature and the born frontiersman, he was very serious now.

He knew that they were riding toward great danger and he glanced at the face of the sleeping boy.  The Ring Tailed Panther had a heart within him, and the temptation to make Ned go back, if he could, was very strong.  But he quickly dismissed it as useless.  The boy would not go.  Besides, he was skillful, strong and daring.

The Ring Tailed Panther tramped on.  Coyotes howled on the prairie, and the deeper note of a timber wolf came from the right, where there was a thick fringe of trees along a creek.  But he paid no attention to them.  All the while he watched the circle of the horizon, narrow by night, for horsemen.  If they came he believed that his warning must be quick, because they were likely to be either Mexicans or Indians.  He saw no riders but toward daylight he saw horses in the west.  They were without riders and he walked to the nearest swell to look at them.

He looked down upon a herd of wild horses, many of them clean and fine of build.  At their head was a great black stallion and when the Ring Tailed Panther saw him he sighed.  At another time, he would have made a try for the stallion’s capture, but now there was other business afoot.

The wind shifted.  The stallion gave a neigh of alarm and galloped off toward the south, the whole herd with streaming manes and tails following close behind.  The Ring Tailed Panther walked back to the cottonwoods and awoke his companions, because it was now full day.

“I saw some wild horses grazing close by,” he said, “an’ that means that nobody else is near.  Mebbe we can ride clean to San Antonio without anybody to stop us.”

“And gain great information for the Texans,” said Urrea quickly.  “Houston is to command the forces of Eastern Texas, and he will be glad enough to know just what Cos is doing.”

“And glad will we be to take such news to him,” said Ned.  “I’ve seen him and talked with him, Don Francisco.  He is a great man.  And I’ve ridden, too, with Jim Bowie and ‘Deaf’ Smith and Karnes.”