He saw
that two, Colonels by their uniforms, were quite pale, and that one of
them was biting savagely at his mustache. It all seemed sinister to Ned.
Why was Urrea doing everything, and why were his superiors standing by,
evidently a prey to some great nervous strain?
The recruits, under Urrea's orders, were formed into three columns. One
was to take the road toward San Antonio, the second would march toward
San Patricio, and the third to Copano. The three columns shouted
good-by, but the recruits assured one another that they would soon meet
again. Urrea told one column that it was going to be sent home
immediately, another that it was going outside the town, where it was to
help in killing cattle for beef which they would eat, and the third that
it was leaving the church in a hurry to make room for Santa Anna's own
troops, who would reach the town in an hour.
Ned was in the largest column, near the head of it, and he watched
everything with a wary eye. He noticed that the Mexican colonels still
left all the arrangements to Urrea, and that they remained extremely
nervous. Their hands were never quiet for a moment.
The column filed down through the town, and Ned saw the Mexican women
looking at them.
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