passageway, and they had
to move with caution for fear of striking their heads. The light grew
clearer and clearer as they advanced, until Stover announced that he
could see the river bank ahead, with some roots of trees and bushes
hanging down in the passageway.

"Keep back, and I'll take a look out," he whispered, and drew slowly to
the end of the opening. He was gone several minutes, during which time
Dan supported himself by clinging to a jagged rock sticking out from
overhead.

"Come on back; we can't escape jest yet," whispered Poke Stover, on his
return. "Come," and he led the way up the passageway again.

"But why can't we escape?" asked Dan, impatiently.

"Because there is a whole company of Mexican soldiers encamped at the
very spot where this passageway leads into the stream," was the answer
that filled the youth with dismay.

CHAPTER XXXI.

SOMETHING ABOUT GENERAL SAM HOUSTON.

The Alamo had fallen, and now it was necessary to figure up results. As
said before, all of the Texans, about one hundred and eighty in number,
had been slaughtered, while the loss to the Mexicans was variously
estimated at from three to five hundred. The sights about the mission
were truly horrible, and never forgotten by those who witnessed them.

It must be said, in all frankness, that the defence of the Alamo was a
mistake, for those gallant men must have known that they could not hold
out against the overwhelming forces of Santa Anna. And they did not
remain there because all escape was cut off, for they could have gotten
away just as easily as the reinforcements from Gonzales got in. It was
not until the final days of the siege that the Mexicans drew around
them closely.

Why, then, did they remain?

The answer is one that every American boy and man ought to remember
with pride. They remained because of the _principle_ involved. They had
staked their lives for liberty or death, and they waged the contest to
the bitter end.

The slaughter of the Alamo garrison thrilled the hearts of the Texans
as they had never been thrilled before. Those who had been doubtful
before were now doubtful no longer. "We must be independent," they
said, "absolutely independent. We must raise a regular army. We must
not be divided into factions, but must fight as one man, and under one
leader." And then they prepared to strike one grand blow from which
Santa Anna should never be able to recover.

But of none of these things did