“Maybe,” said Obed.

They rode to the camp on the Salado without interruption, and found that indecision still reigned there.  The blockade of San Antonio was going on, and the men were eager for the assault, but the leaders were convinced that the force was too small and weak.  They would not consent to what they considered sure disaster.  The recruits that the three brought were welcomed, but Ned noticed a state of depression in the camp.  He found yet there his old friends, Bowie, Smith, Karnes, and the others.  His news that Urrea was a spy and traitor created a sensation.

Ned was asked by “Deaf” Smith the morning after his arrival to go with him on a scout, and he promptly accepted.  A rest of a single day was enough for him and he was pining for new action.

The two rode toward the town, and then curved away to one side, keeping to the open prairie where they might see the approach of a superior enemy, in time.  They observed the Mexican sentinels at a distance, but the two forces had grown so used to each other that no hostile demonstration was made, unless one or the other came too close.

Smith and Ned rode some distance, and then turned on another course, which brought them presently to a hill covered with ash and oak.  They rode among the trees and from that point of vantage searched the whole horizon.  Ned caught the glint of something in the south, and called Smith’s attention to it.

“What do you think it is?” he asked after Smith had looked a long time.

“It’s the sun shining on metal, either a lance head or a rifle barrel.  Ah, now I see horsemen riding this way.”

“And they are Mexicans, too,” said Ned.  “What does it mean?”

A considerable force of mounted Mexicans was coming into view, and Smith’s opinion was formed at once.

“It’s reinforcements for Cos,” he cried.  “We heard that Ugartchea was going to bring fresh troops from Laredo, and that he would also have with him mule loads of silver to pay off Cos’ men.  We’ll just cut off this force and take their silver.  We’ll ride to Bowie!”

They galloped at full speed to the camp and found the redoubtable Georgian, who instantly gathered together a hundred men including the Ring Tailed Panther and Obed and raced back.  The Mexican horsemen were still in the valley, seeming to move slowly, and Bowie at once formed up the Texans for a charge.  But before he could give the word a trumpet pealed, and the Mexicans rode at full speed toward a great gully at the end of the valley into which they disappeared.  The last that the Texans saw were some heavily-loaded mules following their master into the ravine.

The Ring Tailed Panther burst into a laugh.

“Them’s not reinforcements,” he cried, “an’ them’s not mules loaded with silver.  They’re carryin’ nothin’ but grass.  These men have been out there cuttin’ feed in the meadow for Cos’ horses.”

“You’re right, Panther,” said “Deaf” Smith, somewhat crestfallen.