He was completely absorbed in the Alamo, and he utterly forgot himself.

Black specks were dancing before his eyes, and the blood was pounding in his ears, but he took no notice of such things.
The gray bar in the east broadened.

A thin streak of shining silver cut through it, and touched for a moment the town, the river, the army and the Alamo.

Ned leaned against an edge of the earthwork, and breathed heavily and painfully.

He had not known that his heart could beat so hard.
The same portentous silence prevailed everywhere.