Keep down, Ned! Keep down!" From a point sixty or seventy yards away Mexicans, lying among the trees or in the undergrowth, suddenly opened a heavy fire upon the rocky fort.
The Mexicans were invisible but jets of smoke arose in the brush.
Bullets thudded on the log or stones, or upon the stone wall above the two, but both Ned and Obed were sheltered well and they were not touched.

Nevertheless it was uncomfortable.

The impact of the bullets made an unpleasant sound, and there was always a chance that one of them might angle off from the stone and strike a human target.

Obed however was cheerful.
"They're wasting good ammunition," he said.

"They'll need that later on when they attack the Texans.