“I will admit, gentlemen,” he said in his precise English, “that I seem always to be absent when anything important happens, but it is owing to the nature of the service that I can best render the Texans.  Being of the Mexican race and knowing the country so thoroughly, I am of most value as a seeker after information.  I had gone off on a long scout about San Antonio, and I have news which I have given to Mr. Austin.”

“Spyin’ is a dangerous business, but it’s got to be done,” said the Ring Tailed Panther.  Ned saw that he again looked with disfavor upon Urrea, but he ascribed it as before to racial aversion.

Obed was right.  Despite the brilliant victory of Bowie, Houston and Austin still held back, and the Ring Tailed Panther roared long and loud.  But his roaring was cut short by an order for him, Obed, Ned and Urrea to ride eastward to some of the little Texan towns in search of help.  The leaders were anxious that their utmost strength be gathered when they should at last make the attack upon San Antonio.  Since he could not have just what he wished, the Panther was glad to get the new task, and the others were content.

They rode away the next morning, armed and provisioned well.  Their horses, having rested long and fed abundantly, were strong and fresh, and they went at a good pace, until they came to the last swell from which they could see San Antonio.  The town was distant, but it was magnified in the clear Texas sunlight.  It looked to Ned, sitting there on his horse, like a large city.  It had come to occupy a great place in his mind and just now it was to him the most important town in the world.  He wondered if they would ever take it.  Urrea, who was watching him, smiled.

“I know what you are thinking,” he said, “and I will wager that it was just the same that I was thinking.”

“I was trying to read the future and tell whether we would take San Antonio,” said Ned.

“Exactly.  Those were my thoughts, too.”

“I reckon you two wasn’t far away from my trail either,” said the Ring Tailed Panther, “‘cause I was figgerin’ that we’d take it inside of a month.”

“Count me in, too,” said Obed.  “Great minds go in bunches.  I was calculating that we would capture it some day, but I left out the limit of time.”

They turned their horses, and when they reached the crest of the next swell San Antonio was out of sight.  Before them stretched the prairies, now almost as desolate as they had been when the Indians alone roamed over them.  They passed two or three small cabins, each built in a cluster of trees near a spring, but the occupants had gone, fled to a town for shelter.  One seemed to have been abandoned only an hour or two ago, as the ashes were scarcely cold on the hearth, and a bucket of water, with its gourd in it, still stood on the shelf.  The sight moved the Ring Tailed Panther to sentiment.

“Think of the women an’ children havin’ to sleep out on the prairie,” he said.  “It ain’t right an’ fittin’.”