And even should they miss, what chance do you think you have here ?" He swept his right hand in a circle, and, in the clear morning air, Ned saw batteries and troops everywhere.

He knew that the circle of steel about the Alamo was complete.

Perhaps he would have failed in his errand even had he got by.

It would require an unusually strong force to cut through an army as large as that of Santa Anna, and he did not know where Roylston could have found it.

He started, as a sudden suspicion smote him.