“Hooray! Hooray!” cheered all, riding, running, and firing.
The Mexicans were dropping; some of the fallen were picked up and carried on; others were left; the retreat became a rout, and helter-skelter the survivors gained, just in nick of time, the shelter of the town. It was estimated that they had lost fifty killed, and as many wounded. No one was killed, on the Texan side, and only two wounded.
“Who says we can’t take Bejar if we want to?” bragged Leo, as his company joined with Jim’s and Ernest’s, and the horses puffed together.
“Toler’ble easy, toler’ble easy,” grinned Jim. “Reckon you and I and Ernest and Sion could take it ourselves, some day when we were feeling right pert.”
“But I didn’t see Ugartechea; did you?” demanded Ernest.
“No, Well see what’s in those mule panniers, though, I’d surely admire to get a few pesos to spend. Need it more than those Mexican soldados.”
Hopes ran high, for the mule panniers (pairs of wicker baskets) looked bulky. But when they were felt, by the officers, they felt suspiciously soft; and when they were “hefted,” they felt suspiciously light. And when one was opened, on the spot, it contained only freshly cut grass.
At camp was it found that they all contained nothing but grass—forage for the Cos horses. So the “Grass Fight” was this “scrimmage” dubbed, and many were the jokes levelled at Deaf Smith.
“Shows that Cos is getting mighty hard up for fodder, anyhow,” commented Leo, when the boys met in camp. “First he tried to get rid of thirty horses, to save feed, and now he’s having to send out and cut grass.”
Despite such proof of the straits of the garrison in Bejar, the Texan army continued rather disgruntled. The excitement over the Grass Fight soon passed. Dr. James Grant headed a scheme to march down to Matamoros in Mexico across the Rio Grande, and capture it, and continue on. Over 200 of the men agreed to enlist under him; they said that 150 others were coming from the United States to join them on the way, and that several thousand Mexican patriots were waiting to help. Jim and Ernest talked the matter over, and decided that they’d “stick,” just the same. Sion and Leo said they’d stick, too. But the Grant plan looked very inviting.