"If you said it, I'd say it was true. I'd also say that it was a thing
the Texans had better consider. If I was usin' adjectives I'd call it
alarmin'."

"An' what would you say if I told you there wasn't a hundred Texan
soldiers in San Antonio to meet them seven thousand Mexicans comin'
under Santa Anna?"

"If you told me that I'd say it was true. I'd say also, if I was usin'
adjectives, that it was powerful alarmin'. For Heaven's sake, Mr.
Panther, the state of affairs ain't so bad as that, is it?"

"It certainly is," replied the Panther. "Ned Fulton here was all through
their camp last night. He can talk Mexican an' Spanish like lightnin'
an' he makes up wonderful--an' he saw their whole army. He saw old Santa
Anna, too, an' fifty or a hundred generals, all covered with gold lace.
If we don't get a lot of fightin' men together an' get 'em quick, Texas
will be swept clean by that Mexican army same as if a field had been
crossed by millions of locusts."

It was obvious that Crockett was impressed deeply by these blunt
statements.

"What do you wish us to do?" he asked the Panther.

"You an' your friends come with us. We've got some good men at a cabin
in the woods that we can reach to-night. We'll join with them, raise as
many more as we can, spread the alarm everywhere, an' do everything
possible for the defence of San Antonio."