All through the night intermittent firing went on.  The Mexicans increased their fortifications, preparing for a desperate combat on the morrow.  They threw up new earthworks, and they loopholed many of the houses that they held.  Cos, his dark face darker with rage and fury, went among them, urging them to renewed efforts, telling them that they were bound to take prisoners all the Texans whom they did not slay in battle, and that they should hang every prisoner.  Great numbers of the women and children had hidden in the Alamo on the other side of the river.  San Antonio itself was stripped for battle, and the hatred between Texan and Mexican, so unlike in temperament, flamed into new heat.

Ned was worn to the bone.  His lips were burnt with his feverish breath.  The smoke stung his eyes and nostrils, and his limbs ached.  He felt that he must rest or die, and, seeing two men sound asleep on the floor of one of the rooms, he flung himself down beside them.  He slept in a few minutes and Obed and the Ring Tailed Panther seeing him there did not disturb him.

“If any boy has been through more than he has,” said Obed, “I haven’t heard of him.”

“An’ I guess that he an’ all of us have got a lot more comin’,” said the Ring Tailed Panther grimly.  “Cos ain’t goin’ to give up here without the terriblest struggle of his life.  He can’t afford to do it.”

“Reckon you’re right,” said Obed.

Ned awoke the next morning with the taste of gunpowder in his mouth, but the Texans, besides finding food in the houses, had brought some with them, and he ate an ample breakfast.  Then ensued a day that he found long and monotonous.  Neither side made any decided movement.  There was occasional firing, but they rested chiefly on their arms.  In the course of the second night the Mexicans opened another trench, from which they began to fire at dawn, but the Texan rifles quickly put them to flight.

The Texans now began to grow restless.  Cooped up in two houses they were in the way of one another and they demanded freedom and action.  Henry Karnes suggested that they break into another house closer to the plaza.  Milam consented and Karnes, followed closely by Ned, Obed, the Ring Tailed Panther and thirty others, dashed out, smashed in the door of the house, and were inside before the astonished Mexicans could open an accurate fire upon them.  Here they at once secured themselves and their bullets began to rake the plaza.  The Mexicans were forced to throw up more and higher intrenchments.

Again the combat became intermittent.  There were bursts of rifle fire, and occasional shots from the cannon, and, now and then, short periods of almost complete silence.  Night came on and Ned, watching from the window, saw Colonel Milam, their leader, pass down the trench and enter the courtyard of the Veramendi house.  He stood there a moment, looking at the Mexican position.  A musket cracked and the Texan, throwing up his arms, fell.  He was dead by the time he touched the ground.  The ball had struck him in the center of the forehead.