campaign, and a complete victory. I hate these Texans. I shall be glad
to see them annihilated."

The young officer whom he called Ramon laughed.

"If what I hear be true, Francisco," he said, "you have cause to hate
them. There was a boy, Fulton, that wild buffalo of a man, whom they
call the Panther, and another who defeated some of your finest plans."

Urrea flushed, but controlled his temper.

"It is true, Ramon," he replied. "The third man I can tell you is called
Obed White, and they are a clever three. I hate them, but it hurts my
pride less to be defeated by them than by any others whom I know."

"Well spoken, Urrea," said a third man, "but since these three are
fighters and will stay to meet us, it is a certainty that our general
will scoop them into his net. Then you can have all the revenge you
wish."

"I count upon it, Ambrosio," said Urrea, smiling. "I also hope that we
shall recapture the man Roylston. He has great sums of money in the
foreign banks in our country, and we need them, but our illustrious
president cannot get them without an order from Roylston. The general
would rather have Roylston than a thousand Texan prisoners."

All of them laughed, and the laugh made Ned, lying in the shadow, shiver
once more. Urrea glanced his way presently, but the recumbent figure did
not claim his notice. The attention of his comrades and himself became
absorbed in the dice again. They were throwing the little ivory cubes