Why should they guard a boy when everybody else was
getting ready to be merry?
They went toward the Main Plaza, and came to the Zambrano Row, where the
Texans had fought their way when they took San Antonio months before.
Ned looked up at the buildings. They were still dismantled. Great holes
were in the walls and the empty windows were like blind eyes. He saw at
once that their former inhabitants had not yet returned to them, and
here he believed was his chance.
When they stood beside the first house he called the attention of his
guards to some Mexican women who were decorating a doorway across the
street. When they looked he darted into the first of the houses in the
Zambrano Row. He entered a large room and at the corner saw a stairway.
He knew this place. He had been here in the siege of San Antonio by the
Texans, and now he had the advantage over his guards, who were probably
strangers.
He rushed for the staircase and, just as he reached the top, one of the
guards, who had followed as soon as they noticed the flight of the
prisoner, fired his musket. The discharge roared in the room, but the
bullet struck the wall fully a foot away from the target. Ned was on the
second floor, and out of range the next moment.
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