Ned was on the second floor, and out of range the next moment.

He knew that the soldiers would follow him, and he passed through the great hole, broken by the Texans, into the next house.
Here he paused to listen, and he heard the two soldiers muttering and breathing heavily.

The distaste which they already felt for their task had become a deep disgust.

Why should they be deprived of their part in the festival to follow up a prisoner?
What did a single captive amount to, anyhow?
Even if he escaped now the great, the illustrious Santa Anna, whose eyes saw all things, would capture him later on when he swept all the scattered Texans into his basket.
Ned went from house to house through the holes broken in the party walls, and occasionally he heard his pursuers slouching along and grumbling.

At the fourth house he slipped out upon the roof, and lay flat near the stone coping.
He knew that if the soldiers came upon the roof they would find him, but he relied upon the mescal and their lack of zeal.