Obed nodded toward Ned.
"He"s the one who saw it all," he said, "and he"s the one who brings the warning."
Ned was a little abashed by the presence of Houston and the other important Texans, but he told the tale once more rapidly and succinctly.
Every one listened closely. They were the chief members of the temporary Texan government, but the room in which they met was all of the frontier. Its floor was of rough boards. Its walls and ceilings were unplastered. There was not a single luxury and not all of the necessities.
When Ned finished, Houston turned to the others and said quietly:
"Gentlemen, we all know that this is war. I think there need be no discussion of the point. It seems necessary to send out more messengers gathering up every Texan who will fight. Do you agree with me?"
All said yes.
"I think, too," said Houston, "that Santa Anna may now send Mr. Austin back to us. He does not know how well informed we are, and doubtless he will believe that such an act will keep us in a state of blindness."
"And you, my brave and resourceful young friend, what do you want to do?"
"Fight under you."
Houston laughed and put his hand affectionately on the boy"s shoulder.
"I see that there is something of the courtier in you, too," he said.
"It is not a bad quality sometimes, and you shall have the chance that you ask, later on. But meanwhile, you and Mr. White would better rest here, a while. You may have some scouting and skirmishing to do first.
We must feel our way."
Ned and Obed now withdrew, and received the hospitality of the little town which was great, at least so far as food was concerned. They longed for action, but the rest was really necessary. Both body and spirit were preparing for greater deeds. Meanwhile, Houston, the scouts and the Texan government went away, but Ned and Obed stayed, awaiting the call.
They knew that the signals had now pa.s.sed through all Texas and they did not think that they would have to remain there long.
They heard soon that Houston"s prediction in regard to Austin had come true. Santa Anna had released him, and he had arrived in Texas. But he had not been cajoled. His eyes had been opened at last to the designs of the dictator and immediately upon his return to Texas he had warned his countrymen in a great speech. Meanwhile, the army of Cos was approaching San Antonio, preceded by the heralds of coming Texan ruin.
Ned and Obed sat under the shade of some live oaks, when a horseman came to the little village. He was a strange man, great in size, dressed in buckskin, very brown of countenance and with long hair, tied as the western Indians would wear it. He was something of a genial boaster, was this man, and he was known up and down the Texas border as the Ring Tailed Panther although his right name was Martin Palmer. But he had lived long among the Osage, Kiowa and p.a.w.nee Indians, and he was renowned throughout all the Southwestern country for his bravery, skill and eccentricity. An Indian had killed a white man and eaten his heart.
He captured the Indian and compelled him to eat until he died. When his favorite bear dog died he rode sixty miles and brought a minister to preach a sermon over his body. A little boy was captured on the outskirts of a settlement by some Comanche Indians. He followed them alone for three hundred miles, stole the boy away from them in the night, and carried him back safely to his father and mother.
Such was the Ring Tailed Panther, a name that he had originally given to himself and which the people had adopted, one who boasted that he feared no man, the boast being true. He was heavily armed and he rode a black and powerful horse, which he directed straight toward the place where Ned and Obed were sitting.
"You are Ned Fulton an" Obed White, if report tells no lie?" he said in a deep growling voice.
"We are," said Ned, who did not know the ident.i.ty of their formidable visitor.
"So I knew. I just wanted to see if you"d deny it. Glad to meet you, gentlemen. As for me, I"m the Ring Tailed Panther."
"The Ring Tailed Panther?"
"Exactly. Didn"t you hear me say so? I"m the Ring Tailed Panther, an" I can whip anything livin", man or beast, lion or grizzly bear. That"s why I"m the Ring Tailed Panther."
"Happy to know you, Mr. Ring Tailed Panther," said Ned, "and having no quarrel with you we don"t wish to fight you."
The man laughed, his broad face radiating good humor.
"And I don"t want to fight you, either," he said, ""cause all of us have got to fight somebody else. See here, your name"s Obed an" yours is Ned, and that"s what I"m goin" to call you. No Mistering for me. It don"t look well for a Ring Tailed Panther to be givin" handles to people"s names."
"Ned and Obed it is," said Ned with warmth.
"Then, Ned an" Obed, it"s Mexicans. I"ve been fightin" Indians a long time. Besides bein" a Ring Tailed Panther, I"m three parts grizzly bear an" one part tiger, an" I want you both to come with guns."
"Is it fighting?" asked Ned, starting up.
"It"s ridin" first an" then fightin". Our people down at Gonzales have a cannon. The Mexicans are comin" to take it away from them, an" I think there"s goin" to be trouble over the bargain. The Texans got the gun as a defense against the Indians an" they need it. Some of us are goin"
down there to take a hand in the matter of that gun, an" you are goin"
with us."
"Of course we are!" said Ned and Obed together. In five minutes they were riding, fully armed, with the Ring Tailed Panther over the prairie.
He gave them more details as they rode along.
"Some of our people had been gatherin" at San Felipe to stop the march of Cos if they could," he said, "but they"ve been drawn off now to help Gonzales. They"re comin" from Bastrop, too, an" other places, an" if there ain"t a fight then I"m the Ring Tailed Panther for nothing. If we keep a good pace we can join a lot of the boys by nightfall."
"We"ll keep it," said Ned. The boy"s heart was pounding. Somehow he felt that an event of great importance was at hand, and he was glad to have a share in it. But the three spoke little. The Panther led the way. Ned saw that despite his boasting words he was a man of action. Certainly he was acting swiftly now, and it was quite evident that he knew what he was doing. At last he turned to Ned and said:
"You"re only a boy. You know what you"re goin" into, of course?"
"A fight, I think."
"And you may get killed?"
"I know it. One can"t go into a fight without that risk."
"You"re a brave boy. I"ve heard of what you did, an" you don"t talk much. I"m glad of that. I can do all the talkin" that"s needed by the three of us. The Lord created me with a love of gab."
The man spoke in a whimsical tone and Ned laughed.
"You can have all my share of the talking, Mr. Palmer," he said.
"The Ring Tailed Panther," corrected the man. "I told you not to be Misterin" me. I like that name, the Ring Tailed Panther. It suits me, because I fit an" I fight till they get me down, then I curl my tail an"
I take another round. Once in New Orleans I met a fellow who said he was half horse, half alligator, that he could either claw to death the best man living, stamp him to pieces or eat him alive. I invited him to do any one of these things or all three of them to me."
"What happened?" asked Ned.
A broad smile pa.s.sed over the man"s brown face.
"After they picked up the pieces an" put him back together," he said, "I told him he might try again whenever he felt like it, but he said his challenge was directed to human beings, not to Ring Tailed Panthers. Him an" me got to be great friends an" he"s somewhere in Texas now. I may run acrost him before our business with the Mexicans is over, which I take it is goin" to last a good while."
It was now late in the afternoon, and dismounting at a clump of trees the Panther lighted the end of a dead stick and waved the torch around his head many times.
"Watch there in the west for another light like this," he said.
Ned, who sat on his horse, was the first to see the faint circling light far down under the horizon. It was so distant that he could not have seen it had he not been looking for it, but when he pointed it out the Panther ceased to whirl his own torch.
"It"s some friends," he said, "an" they"re answerin". They"re sayin"
that they"ve seen us an" that they"re waitin". When they get through we"ll say that we understan" an" are comin"."