Why, the risin' an' fallin' of your chest was as reg'lar as
the tickin' of a clock."
Ned joined them at the table. He did not mind the jests of those men, as
they did not mind the jests of one another. They were now like close
blood-kin. They were a band of brethren, bound together by the
unbreakable tie of mortal danger.
Ned spent two-thirds of the night on the church wall. The Mexicans let
the cannon rest in the darkness, and only a few rifle shots were fired.
But there were many lights in San Antonio, and on the outskirts two
great bonfires burned. Santa Anna and his generals, feeling that their
prey could not escape from the trap, and caring little for the peons who
had been slain, were making a festival. It is even said that Santa Anna
on this campaign, although he left a wife in the city of Mexico,
exercised the privileges of an Oriental ruler and married another amid
great rejoicings.
Ned slept soundly when his watch was finished, and he awoke again the
next day to the thunder of the cannonade, which continued almost without
cessation throughout the day, but in the afternoon Travis wrote a
letter, a noble appeal to the people of Texas for help. He stated that
they had been under a continual bombardment for more than twenty-four
hours, but not a man had yet been hurt.
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