They drank from the stream, ate of their cold food, and rested.

Ned and some others left the wood and scouted upon the prairie.
They saw no human being and returned to their own people, feeling sure that they were safe from pursuit for the present.
Yet the Texans felt no exultation.

They had been compelled to retreat before the Mexicans, and they could not forget King and his men, and those whom they had left behind in the church.

Ned, in his heart, knowing the Mexicans so well, did not believe that a single one of them had been saved.
They walked the whole day, making for the town of Victoria, where they expected to meet Fannin, and shortly before night they stopped in a wood, footsore and exhausted.

Again their camp was pitched on the banks of a little creek and some of the hunters shot two fine fat deer further up the stream.
Seeking as much cheer as they could they built fires, and roasted the deer.