The rest had been good for both his horse and himself, and the blood felt warmer in his veins.

He moved for some time among trees and thickets that lined the banks, and after a while he recognized familiar ground.

He had been in some of these places in the course of the siege of San Antonio, and the town could not be far away.
It was probably two hours before daylight when he heard a sound which was not that of the Norther, a sound which he knew instantly.

It was the dull clank of bronze against bronze.

It could be made only by one cannon striking against another.