“Knows how to say it, all right,” commented Leo. “I could just sit and listen to that man all day. He’s got a voice, hasn’t he! Some man, some man.”
“Austin and General Jack speechified considerable, too,” continued Jim. “Oh, we’ve got things all planned out, now. The council of war’s heard that the people are rising beyond the Rio Grande in favor of the republic under the constitution of ’24, and General Santa Anna’s kept too busy to fool with Bejar; so we’re going to march on it _pronto_ and cut it off and besiege it. General Austin’s made arrangements with the _paisanos_ and _rancheros_ [ranchers] ’round here to sell us plenty corn and stuff, and we’ll have bread and horse-feed. He’s pledged his own money to pay for it with. Don Antonio Padilla, a big _ranchero_, and Colonel Juan Seguin of the Mexican army have joined us, with some Mexicans; and Seguin’s been made a captain in the Texas army and’ll raise a company of native volunteers. All the Redlanders and other East Texans are on the way and liable to arrive any minute, and Dr. Asa Hoxey’s sending on some twelve-pounders from San Felipe. The general consultation’s going to meet at San Felipe, where it left off when its members came to the army, and fix up a temporary government, to provide for laws and the army and look out after the rights of the settlers; and it’ll issue an official appeal to the United States to help us, too. And already there’s a couple of companies of Texas Volunteers being enlisted in New Orleans――isn’t that so, Leo?――to march out here and throw in with the Texas cause.”
“That’s what we hear,” agreed Leo. “But the best thing that’s happened is _bread_! Think of that! Real bread, made out of corn flour! I’m so blamed sick of jerked meat and bacon slivers that I can’t hardly swallow. But bread! Wait till I set my teeth in a slab of bread!”
“I don’t know,” mused Jim. “Bread’ll be mighty good, but what I liked to hear was about the cannon and reinforcements. I reckon we’ll need ’em, at Bejar, if Cos has fortified it the way Jim Bowie says he has. There are eight hundred men at Bejar and we’ve got less’n five hundred.”
“Do we have to wait till those New Orleans companies get here?” asked Ernest.