Not a Mexican soldier had been sighted; but now, slightly to the southeast, across the bayou, lay Harrisburg. It had been burned, for a veil of smoke from its smouldering rafters hung low over the bayou timber, marking the site.
So there, between the bayou and the coast, a short stretch of timber-dotted prairie and swamp country, was Santa Anna with his army.
However, the other army were almost too tired to talk. During the forced march of fifty-five miles from McCurley’s, in two and a half days of rain and mud, Jim and Ernest had scarcely seen Leo and Sion. As soon as the camps had been located, and supper eaten, everybody had gone to sleep. Now the word was passed that a half day’s rest would be given, to freshen the army up for a battle.
Deaf Smith and Henry Karnes, the chief scouts, took two or three of the Deaf Smith Spies, and swimming their horses, crossed the rapid bayou on a raft, to reconnoitre. Otherwise it was a lazy afternoon. But about dusk Deaf Smith returned, driving two prisoners before them. He made them row the raft, and followed them in to camp, a pair of leather saddle-bags in his hand, his rifle in the other. There was no use yelling questions. But――――
“I know that one fellow, and so do you!” exclaimed Ernest, to Jim. “That little fellow. Remember him? He’s a _paisano_ from Bejar. He was in Captain Seguin’s Mexican company, too, before San Antonio.”
“Well, you never know which way those _paisanos_ are going to jump,” quoth Jim.
The two prisoners were conducted to headquarters by Deaf Smith. The “little fellow” proved to be a guide for Santa Anna; and the other prisoner was a captain in the Mexican army, who had been carrying dispatches from General Filisola the Italian to Santa Anna. Deaf Smith had caught both of the men on the main road for Harrisburg.
The guide told General Houston that the Santa Anna army numbered 500 infantry and 100 cavalry. As for the dispatches in the leather bags――――
“Jiminy!” cried Sion, who with Leo sought out the other boys, after having skirmished for the true news. “Deaf Smith says those dispatches were so fresh that the ink on ’em was hardly dry yet. Those were Travis’s deerhide saddle-bags――had his name on ’em. The dispatches told us just what we want to know. Santa Anna’s ahead, all alone, with only six hundred men. Urrea’s clear down at Matagorda. Gaona’s away back up north, toward Bastrop. He got lost. Filisola and Sesma are at the Brazos, near Fort Bend below San Felipe; and the only thing that’s liable to interfere is Cos the parole-breaker. Filisola’s hurrying him forward with five hundred men.”