* * * * *
Toward sundown, in the murky drizzle, the man who called himself Ord
brought Lieutenant colonel William Barrett Travis word that the Mexican
light cavalry had completely invested Bexar, and that some light guns were
being set up across the San Antonio River. Even as he spoke, there was a
flash and bang from the west, and a shell screamed over the old mission
walls. Travis looked worried.
[Illustration:]
"What kind of guns?" he asked.
"Nothing to worry about, sir," Ord said. "Only a few one-pounders, nothing
of respectable siege caliber. General Santa Anna has had to move too fast
for any big stuff to keep up." Ord spoke in his odd accent. After all, he
was a Britainer, or some other kind of foreigner. But he spoke good
Spanish, and he seemed to know everything. In the four or five days since
he had appeared he had become very useful to Travis.