Men protected by heavy
planking or advancing along trenches were seeking to erect a battery
within less than three hundred yards of the entrance to the main plaza.
They had already thrown up a part of a breastwork. Meanwhile the Texan
sharpshooters were waiting for a chance.
Ned took no part in it except that of a spectator. But Crockett, Bowie
and a dozen others were crouched on the wall with their rifles.
Presently an incautious Mexican showed above the earthwork. It was
Crockett who slew him, but Bowie took the next. Then the other rifles
flashed fast, eight or ten Mexicans were slain, and the rest fled. Once
more the deadly Texan rifles had triumphed.
Ned wondered why Santa Anna had endeavored to place the battery there in
the daytime. It could be done at night, when it was impossible for the
Texans to aim their rifles so well. He did not know that the pride of
Santa Anna, unable to brook delay in the face of so small a force, had
pushed him forward.
Knowing now what might be done at night, Ned passed the day in anxiety,
and with the coming of the twilight his anxiety increased.
CHAPTER X
CROCKETT AND BOWIE
Unluckily for the Texans, the night was the darkest of the month.
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