The night was at hand when they reached four men sitting on horseback and waiting for them.  They greeted the Ring Tailed Panther with few words but with warmth.  They gave to Ned and Obed, too, the strong handclasp which men in danger give to friends who come.  Ned thrilled once more with pride that he should be associated with heroes in great deeds.  Such they undoubtedly were to him.

“The Mexicans will be at Gonzales to-morrow,” said one of the men.  “The place, as you know, has refused to give up its cannon and has defied them, but it’s almost bare of men.  I don’t think they have a dozen there.”

“The battle is generally to the strong if they get there in time,” said Obed, “and here are seven of us on good horses.”

“Not countin’ the fact that one of us is a Ring Tailed Panther with claws a foot long an’ two sets of teeth in his mouth,” said Palmer.  “Ride on, boys, an’ ride hard.”

They urged their horses into a gallop and sped over the prairie.  At midnight they clattered into the tiny village of Gonzales on the Guadalupe River, where everybody except the little children was awake and watching.  Lights flared from the cabins, and the alarm at first, lest they were Mexicans, changed to joy when they were disclosed as Texans.

But the armed force of the place, though stout of heart, was pitifully small.  They found only eleven men in Gonzales capable of bearing arms, and no more help could be expected before the Mexicans came the next day.  But eleven and seven make eighteen, and now that they were joined, and communicating spirit and hope to one another, the eighteen were more than twice as strong as the eleven had been.  The Ring Tailed Panther poured forth a stream of cheer and encouragement.  He grew more voluble at the approach of danger.  Never had his teeth and claws been longer or sharper.

“I’m afraid of nothin’ except that they won’t come,” he said.  “If they don’t, my health will give way.  I’ll be a-droopin’ an’ a-pinin’ an’ I’ll have to go off an’ fight the Comanches an’ Lipans to get back my strength.”

But he was assured that his health would not suffer.  Mexican cavalry, a hundred strong, were coming under a captain, Castenada, sent by Ugartchea, the Mexican commander at San Antonio de Bexar.  Scouts had brought that definite news.  They were riding from the west and they would have to cross the Guadalupe before they could enter Gonzales.  There were fords, but it would be a dangerous task to attempt their passage in face of the Texan rifles.

The ferryboat was tied safely on the Gonzales side, and then the eighteen, every one a fine marksman, distributed themselves at the fords.  Ned, Obed and the Ring Tailed Panther stayed together.  They did not anticipate the arrival of the Mexican forces before dawn, but Castenada might send spies ahead, and the Mexican scouts were full of wiles and stratagems.

“At any rate,” said the Panther, “if we catch any Mexican prowling around here we’ll throw him into the river.”