The Lost Gold of the Montezumas: A Story of the AlamoStoddard, William O.
General
The Lost Gold of the Montezumas: A Story of the Alamo
Stoddard, William O.
Alamo (San Antonio, Tex.) -- Siege, 1836 -- Juvenile fiction
The Lipans and Comanches were not at peace with each other. They never
had been, and nothing but a prospect of fighting their common enemy,
the Mexicans, could have brought them together.
During all this time, however, one Lipan, and a proud one, had been
very busy. Red Wolf, with a name of his own that any Indian boy might
envy him, did not need a siesta. He had a whole fort to roam around
in, and there were all sorts of new things to arouse his curiosity.
The walls themselves, particularly those of the fort and the church,
were wonders. So were the cannon, and he peered long and curiously
into the gaping mouth of the solitary eighteen-pounder that stood in
the middle of the enclosure, ready to be whirled away to its embrasure.
It was a tremendous affair, and he remarked "heap gun" over it again
and again.
He was having a red-letter day. At last, however, he was compelled to
give up sightseeing, and he marched out through the sentried gate with
his father toward the place where their ponies had been picketed.
Great Bear and his chiefs also left the fort, but they went in an
opposite direction. If there had been any thought of a temporary
alliance between them and their old enemies, the Lipans, for Mexican
raiding purposes, it had disappeared in the up-stairs council. Of
course they parted peaceably, for even according to Indian ideas the
fort and its neighborhood was "treaty ground," on which there could be
no scalp-taking. Besides that, there were the rangers ready to act as
police.
As for Tetzcatl, he and his mule were nowhere to be seen.
Siestas were the order of the day inside the walls of the Alamo, but
one man was not inclined to sleep.
Out by the eighteen-pounder stood the tall form of Colonel Travis, and
he was glancing slowly around him with a smile that had anxiety in it.
Near a door of one of the lower rooms of the convent swung the hammock
that contained Davy Crockett. He was lazily smoking a Mexican
cigarette, but he was not asleep. He could see a great many things
through the open door, and he was a man who did a great deal of
thinking.
"What's the matter with Travis?" he asked. "What's got him out thar?
Reckon I'll go and find out if there's anything up."
In half a minute more the two celebrated borderers were leaning against
the gun, side by side, and there was a strong contrast between them.
Travis was not without a certain polish and elegance of manner, for he
was a man of education and had travelled. If, however, Crockett was
said to have killed more bears than any other man living, Travis was
believed to have been in more hard fights than any other, unless, it
might be, Bowie. Utterly fearless as he was, he nevertheless commanded
the Alamo, and he could feel his military burdens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account