"Jest what I want to do," said Davy. "Now, Bowie, whar have you been?"
"Let go, Crockett," said Bowie, "and I"ll tell you. But some of the men are hurt----"
"The boys are "tending to "em," replied Travis. "How about Tetzcatl?"
"Not a word of him now!" burst from Bowie, vehemently. "Travis! I"ve found cash enough to pay for all the ammunition we need to whip Mexico.
I"ll tell you as we go along. Where"s Sam Houston?"
"He"s to be at the fort to-day," said Crockett. "But whar on earth did you pick up any dollars?"
The first answer was Bowie"s finger on his lips. Then they three mounted and rode on together.
As for the rest of the rangers, they were indeed caring for the wounded, and even for the dead, but the story of the cash found in the ruined _adobe_ house was travelling fast from man to man.
That was followed, of course, by an account of the raid into Mexico with Tetzcatl, but that part of the story was defective. As it was related it did not contain any intimation of the mountain pa.s.s, the cavern, or the treasure of the Montezumas. It did not, and yet one ranger after another said to the man next him, in varied forms of speech,--
"Tell you what, those fellows that went with Bowie are keeping back something. They"ve learned more than they"re willin" to tell. We must get it out of "em."
As for Red Wolf, he and his father had been lost sight of for a few minutes, but in the last part of that close, terrible fight they had been plying their bows incessantly, and now they were out on the prairie. They were Indians, Lipans, an old warrior and a young brave, and they were following the custom of their race, for they were taking trophies.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ARMY OF SANTA ANNA.
"Houston? You here? I"ve something to show you. Hurrah for Texas!"
The commander-in-chief had been sent for days earlier, and he had come in haste, for a fast-riding courier had brought him word that Santa Anna and his army were already across the Rio Grande.
"Bowie! Thank G.o.d!" almost roared the old hero, springing forward.
"Oh, Bowie! I"d begun to believe you were dead."
"Not a bit of it!" shouted back Bowie. "I"ve won a pot of money for our side. Here it comes."
A train of horses was filing through the gate-way of the Alamo. They were not the worn-out animals which had travelled so fast and so far, for Crockett had made the rangers give up as many quadrupeds as were necessary for the wounded men and the money-packs. Three horses, indeed, bore sadder burdens, for the dead also had been brought in.
These had halted outside the walls and a burial party was at work.
"It costs us something to win freedom," was the sombre comment of General Houston. "Many another brave fellow must go down before we clean out the Greasers and the redskins. Now, Bowie, come in and tell me what this means."
They walked on into an inner room of the fort, but not even to Houston did Bowie as yet unfold the secret of the cavern.
"Too many know it already, or half know it," was the thought he did not put into words. He told all about the Spanish dollars and doubloons, however. In turning them over to the state, less the small sums agreed upon as the allowance of his men, he stipulated that the first use made of any money should be for provisions, powder and ball, for the defence of the Alamo.
"Houston," he said, with emphasis, "my notion is that it can"t get here any too quick. Travis is wrong. Santa Anna will march straight for the Alamo."
"He may. He may," replied the general. "At all events, I must set out with the cash. I must send you all the help I can right away. Then I must raise troops and march to meet the Mexicans. It"s a blue time for Texas, but this is a ray of light."
It was only one ray, for in all other directions the prospect seemed dark. His own preparations for departure were made at once, and in the gloom of that very evening he rode away.
"We must go all night," he said, "and not a soul outside the fort must know what we"re taking with us."
About an hour later, eleven men sat together in the upper corner room of the convent building, and every man of them bound by an oath and by his word of honor to keep secret all he might hear.
"Boys," said Bowie to his own men, "if Travis and Crockett are let in and no more, the secret is just as safe. I don"t feel as if they were outsiders."
"Just the same as ourselves," replied Jim Cheyne. "They"re to help us git up the expedition. But what about the gold bars we fetched this time? They"d tell it all if we showed "em now."
"Keep "em for expenses when we are ready for business," said Bowie. "I didn"t say a word of them to Houston. We can hole them right here in the corner of this room. Safe as a bank."
"And if Santa Anna captures the fort, what then?" asked Joe.
"n.o.body "ll ever hear of any gold he got here," replied Bowie, grimly.
"If one of his men found it, he"d take it away from him and have him shot for desertion."
The bars belonging to the men were brought, and they made only a small pile, after all, when packed in a corner, under the couch, with old saddles stuffed in front of them. Red Wolf"s prizes, of course, were not included.
"Ugh!" said Castro, after watching the operation. "Big Knife kill Travis. Kill Crockett. No kill all Texan. Heap shut mouth.
Montezuma talk, all bad medicine."
"All right, Castro," said Bowie. "When my time comes I shall die."
"What does he mean?" asked Travis.
"You couldn"t root it out of him," said Bowie. "He believes that every white man who meddles with this stuff is bound to go under. It"s poison."
"Out with your yarn, then," said Crockett. "I"ll take my chances. You kin name the day for my funeral."
Steadily, from step to step, the colonel told the story of his raid into Mexico. Not a word was uttered by anybody else until he came to the description of the cavern.
"Ugh!" exclaimed Castro. "Heap bad medicine. Now Travis go under.
Crockett lose hair."
He evidently did not wish to hear any more himself, but curiosity is a strong tether, and, after all, he was an Indian, and upon him the mysterious peril might not have so much power. Red Wolf knew the secret already, and nothing evil had as yet happened to him. The chief remained, therefore, in silence, while Bowie told of the human sacrifices, the fate of Tetzcatl, and the heaps of ingots, tons and tons of them.
"Go for it?" shouted Travis. "Of course we will. As soon as we"ve beaten the Greasers I"ll raise the men that can ride across Mexico to get the stuff out of that cave. It"s a wonderful thing to know, but when you come to think of it, it"s the most natural thing in the world.
Montezuma and Guatamoczin did exactly what you and I would have done, both before Cortez came and afterwards. We wouldn"t have given it up neither, and they didn"t."
"Thar"s heaps of human natur" in this world," remarked Crockett. "I"d ha" bet they"d ha" done just exactly what they did do. There"s nothing curious about it."
"No more there is about their idols," added Travis. "They kept them just as all the other heathen do in Asia and Africa. Hundreds of millions of idol-worshippers go it right along, with the missionaries among "em. They kill the missionaries, too, now and then. Some eat "em, and these fellows cut their throats and pitch "em into a hole."
It seemed as if every trace of anything mysterious or improbable departed from the old legend of the Aztec gold and silver the moment the truth concerning it came out to be studied by such matter-of-fact men as these. Their hard common sense took it like any other business affair, and they were almost ready to name beforehand the men they meant to take with them on the expedition they planned to secure the treasure.
After telling the story, however, Bowie grew silent and moody. He looked around him upon the bare walls of the room. He pa.s.sed a hand over the low couch upon which he was sitting. He hardly seemed to listen to what the others were saying. When at last there was a pause and a silence, he arose to his feet, and a shadow, darker than usual, was on his face.
"Travis," he said, "I want to get out of this room. It"s close and hot. I somehow don"t like it. It keeps me thinking of Tetzcatl, too, and of all he said when we talked with him here. He was a kind of devil, he was. I"m glad he went down into that chasm. If it"s good and deep he "ll stay there."