Always they spoke very gently to one another, these wild spirits of the border.

The strange and softening shadow which Ned had noticed before was deepening over them all.
Bowie was again in the hospital, having been bruised severely in a fall from one of the walls, but his spirit was as dauntless as ever.
"The assault by the Mexicans in full force cannot be delayed much longer," he said to Ned.

"Santa Anna is impatient and energetic, and he surely has brought up all his forces by this time." "Do you think we can beat them off ?" asked Ned.
Bowie hesitated a little, and then he replied frankly: "I do not.

We have only one hundred and seventy or eighty men to guard the great space that we have here.

But in falling we will light such a flame that it will never go out until Texas is free." Ned talked with him a little longer, and always Bowie spoke as if the time were at hand when he should die for Texas.