the wing of the cross, was the plaza
of the convent, about thirty yards square, with its separate walls more
than fifteen feet high and nearly four feet thick.

Ned noted all these things rapidly and ineffaceably, as he and Crockett
took a swift but complete survey of their fortress. He saw that the
convent and hospital, each two stories in height, were made of adobe
bricks, and he also noticed a sallyport, protected by a little redoubt,
at the southeastern corner of the yard.

They saw beyond the convent yard the great plaza into which they had
driven the cattle, a parallelogram covering nearly three acres, inclosed
by a wall eight feet in height and three feet thick. Prisons, barracks
and other buildings were scattered about. Beyond the walls was a small
group of wretched jacals or huts in which some Mexicans lived. Water
from the San Antonio flowed in ditches through the mission.

It was almost a town that they were called upon to defend, and Ned and
Crockett, after their hasty look, came back to the church, the strongest
of all the buildings, with walls of hewn stone five feet thick and
nearly twenty-five feet high. They opened the heavy oaken doors, entered
the building and looked up through the open roof at the sky. Then
Crockett's eyes came back to the arched rooms and the covered sacristy.

"This is the real fort," he said, "an' we'll put our gunpowder in that
sacristy. It looks like sacrilege to use a church for such a purpose,
but, Ned, times are goin' to be very hot here, the hottest we ever saw,
an' we must protect our powder."

He carried his suggestion to Travis, who adopted it at once, and the
powder was quickly taken into the rooms. They also had fourteen pieces
of cannon which they mounted on the walls of the church, at the stockade
at the entrance to the plaza and at the redoubt. But the Texans,
frontiersmen and not regular soldiers, did not place much reliance upon
the cannon. Their favorite weapon was the rifle, with which they rarely
missed even at long range.

It took the Texans but little time to arrange the defence, and then came
a pause. Ned did not have any particular duty assigned to him, and went
back to the church, which now bore so little resemblance to a house of
worship. He gazed curiously at the battered carvings and images over the
door. They looked almost grotesque to him now, and some of them
threatened.

He went inside the church and looked around once more. It was old, very