The colored
boy who had been walking stood by and did not say anything aloud, but
muttered rapidly: "Thank the Lord! Thank the Lord!"
Three of the five were veteran hunters, but they had never before found
such a singular party on the prairie. The woman sat down on the ground,
still holding the baby tightly in her arms, and shivered all over. The
Texans regarded her in pitying silence for a few minutes, and then Obed
White said in gentle tones:
"We are friends, ready to take you to safety. Tell us who you are."
"I am Mrs. Dickinson," she replied.
"Deaf" Smith looked startled.
"There was a Lieutenant Dickinson in the Alamo," he said.
"I am his wife," she replied, "and this is our child."
"And where is----" Smith stopped suddenly, knowing what the answer must
be.
"He is dead," she replied. "He fell in the defence of the Alamo."
"Might he not be among the prisoners?" suggested Obed White gently.
"Prisoners!" she replied. "There were no prisoners. They fought to the
last. Every man who was in the Alamo died in its defence."
The five stared at her in amazement, and for a little while none spoke.
"Do you mean to say," asked Obed White, "that none of the Texans
survived the fall of the Alamo?"
"None," she replied.
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