He wrapped his useful serape closely about his body and the lower part of his face in order to protect himself from the cold and wet, and the broad brim of his sombrero was drawn down to meet it.

The other Texans on guard were protected in similar fashion, and in the flitting glimpses that Ned caught of them they looked to him like men in disguise.
The time went on very slowly.

In the look backward every hour in the Alamo seemed to him as ten.

He walked back and forth a long time, occasionally meeting other sentinels, and exchanging a few words with them.

Once he glanced at their cattle, which were packed closely under a rough shed, where they lay, groaning with content.