The Black Jacks

Next it was the turn of the young war chiefs to speak, if they chose to do so. Two Eagles stood and addressed the council. He reiterated the apprehensions Tall Horses had earlier expressed to Gray Wolf. The Texans could not be trusted. Even if they gave their word they would not keep it. Look at what had happened to the Cherokees. They had agreed to a treaty of peace with the whites, and now the whites had attacked them and burned their lodges and driven them from their land.

When Two Eagles finished, Maguara's old eyes fastened expectantly on Gray Wolf, who rose to address the council.

"The Cherokees were the first to break their word," said Gray Wolf. "They made a pact with the Mexicans in which they promised to make war against the Texans. When they did that, did they not become the enemies of Texas? And does not Texas have the right to drive its enemies from its borders? Gray Wolf does not think it is fair to blame the Texans for what happened. The Cherokees brought it on themselves.

"Besides, we are Comanches, not Cherokees. There are many more of us, and we are better fighters. The Texans know this is true. They ca

"They want us to surrender our white captives before they will consent to sit down and talk peace. Who can blame them for that? The Penatekas and the Tanawas have been raiding their farms and villages for years. They have killed many Texans and taken many captives. Their young braves prove themselves in this way. Some of us do not trust the Texans. But tell me why they should trust us?

"The Quohadis have no white captives to surrender. We have never raided a Texas farm or village. We live too far away to do so even if we wanted to. So that condition is no hardship on us. And if we go in force into Bexar, the Texans will not dare attack us. Gray Wolf is a war chief of the Quohadis. He does not fear the Texans. But he does not want to war against them. The Quohadis are fighting the Utes and the Mescalero Apaches to the west. How can we continue to protect our villages from those enemies if we are fighting a new enemy in the east? It is in our best interests, too, to try to make a peace. Perhaps we will fail. But Gray Wolf is convinced we must try."

He sat down. Two Eagles shot to his feet again. "If we go into Bexar, we must not take our women and children. Two Eagles will not put his family in danger."

Gray Wolf got back up. "If we leave our women and children behind, the Texans will think we have come to fight, not talk. We must take the risk. We do not have to take our families into Bexar, but we must bring them to a camp near the town."

Maguara nodded. It was time for the council to make a decision. One by one, the council members were asked if they wished to continue to Bexar. All of the peace chiefs voted to proceed. Gray Wolf's well-reasoned arguments had swayed those who doubted the wisdom of going on. The war chiefs were not asked to vote. They could speak in council, but the old patriarchs were the ones who had to decide.

Gray Wolf was troubled as the crowd dispersed and he returned to his tepee. Immersed in thought, he walked slowly, his head down. What if Snow Dancer was right? What if they were being lured into a trap? Then he, Gray Wolf, would have sacrificed his wife and son on the altar of his convictions.

Chapter Seven

McAllen, Dr. Tice, and Joshua arrived in San Antonio three days before the peace talks were scheduled and two days before the first Comanches appeared.

The mission San Antonio de Valero had been established here in 1718, and by 1773 San Antonio de Bexar, the village which had grown up around the mission, became the official seat of Spanish government in Texas. Nestled in a bend of the river that bore the same name, the village of San Antonio had a population of twenty-five hundred on the eve of the Texas Revolution. Most of its buildings were constructed of adobe or stone and mortar, and were built in the flat-roofed Mexican style.

It was here, at the mission called the Alamo, that two hundred men under the joint command of William Barret Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett had delayed Santa A

Yancey Torrance had preceded them to San Antonio, and there were rooms reserved for them at a hotel near the main aqueduct, just off Calle Dolorosa, the Street of Sorrow, and an arrow's flight from the Plaza de Armes, near which stood the old governor's palace and the Council House.

Tension was ru

"I talked to the town sheriff," said Yancey. "Asked him if he was taking on any extra help, just in case. He said he wasn't. No need, since there was going to be two companies of Rangers here to keep the peace."

"The fool," said Tice, chewing on the tip of his corncob pipe. "Keeping the peace is not what Rangers do."

McAllen spent nearly every daylight hour roaming the streets, with Joshua his constant shadow, imprinting the layout of the town on his mind, for he had visited San Antonio only once before, and then briefly, and was not familiar with it. He prowled from the Santo Campo Cemetery at the western end of town to the La Villita in the east, and all the way north to the Old Mill. The Ranger company commanded by Henry Karnes was already in place, and McAllen ran into Rangers at every turn. He was well known, and before long Colonel Karnes had tracked him down. In asking what had brought him to San Antonio, Karnes was cordial enough, and McAllen gave him a straight answer.

"Sam Houston sent me."

Karnes nodded. "Thanks for being honest with me. Captain Wingate sent word to keep an eye peeled for you and your crew."

"I'm just here to help."

Karnes had the look of a man who hadn't slept in a week. "I feel like a feller tied to a keg of black powder in the middle of a burning house, Captain," he admitted.

"Any chance of me getting into the Council House?"

"I doubt it. Morris and Wingate will be ru

The next morning, news of the Comanche arrival spread like wildfire. McAllen saddled Escatawpa and rode north to see for himself. Overnight, a hundred tepees had sprung up a mile along the river from the Old Mill. Though he did not venture too near, the Comanches spotted him. But they did not ride out to challenge him.

Returning to the hotel, he told the anxious Dr. Tice and Yancey what he had seen. "Just one band," he said. "Maybe three hundred, with the women and children included. I think they're Quohadis."

"Way those first riders sounded, you'd have thought the whole Comanche nation was out yonder," said Yancey.