Juan Seguin (7 page)

A man ran out of Travis’s office and mounted a horse. He rode up to the gate and said something to the man on guard. The man opened the gate and the messenger galloped away.

Juan pointed to the rider. “See. There goes the messenger. In a few days we should see men coming to help us.”

The men watched the messenger ride out of view. They didn’t say anything, but I could tell that they were not as sure as Juan that help would come. Juan stood and brushed the dirt from his pants.

“I must go talk with Travis. I’ll check with you later. Keep your heads down.”

Juan and I walked toward Travis’s room. I looked back at the men. They were watching us. I turned toward Juan.

“Do you think the men will stay?”

Juan took a deep breath. “I think so. They’re good men. I know they love Texas. It’s not unusual for them to be asking questions now. They can see what’s happening. But in a few days, when the others come, they’ll feel better.”

We reached Travis’s room. Juan walked in. I stopped and turned to look at the men across the courtyard. They were still watching us. A cannonball hit the wall and the men ducked. Rocks and dirt flew over the men. I watched as they brushed the dirt from their clothes. I hoped that more men would come soon.

The weather turned cold. A norther swept across the prairies and dropped the temperature. A howling wind blew over the walls where the men huddled as much for protection against the cold as for protection from the enemy cannonballs. Juan and I spent a lot of time walking around the walls checking on the men. Some of them had blankets and some built small fires to try and keep warm.

The enemy still received reinforcements, and we watched every day as new troops marched into San Antonio. Travis scanned the horizon, watching for signs of men marching to reinforce the Alamo. Surely the messengers had reached the government by now. Surely Colonel Fannin was marching toward San Antonio with his army. Travis sent out more messengers, and we all settled down to wait.

One day Travis called us to his office. It felt good to get out of the cold wind.

Travis motioned us to sit in some chairs. “Juan, our situation here is becoming serious. I thought by now that we would have received some more men. I hope that Fannin and Houston are on their way.”

He paused and looked at the ceiling. “Of course, there is the chance that none of the messengers got through the enemy lines. I thought I would have heard something from them by now.”

“Maybe we’ll hear something today,” Juan said. “It takes a few days to get to Fannin and Houston.”

Travis sighed and nodded. “That’s what I’ve been telling myself. I hope that’s the case. Still, I need to send out another messenger. This time I want it to be someone who knows the area well and who speaks Spanish. Someone who can pass as a local rancher if the enemy stops them.”

“I have several men who can do that,” Juan said. “I’ll ask for volunteers.”

Travis shook his head. “You don’t understand, Juan. I’ve already picked the man I want to carry the message.”

“Who is it?” Juan asked.

Travis took a deep breath and looked at Juan. “It’s you.”

Juan sat up straight in surprise. “Me? You can’t be serious. I can’t go off and leave my men.”

Travis stood up and walked over to Juan. He put his hand on Juan’s shoulder. “It has to be you, Juan. Nobody knows this country better than you. You speak Spanish well. And you and your father are well known to the leaders of the government. They’ll listen to you. You must be the messenger.”

Juan looked up at Travis. “Would you go, and leave the men you brought into the Alamo?”

“Juan, what I’m asking you to do is to take a message to the government, tell them how badly we need more men, then lead these men back here. I’m not asking you to abandon your men. You’d be helping them and all of us by bringing us more troops.”

Juan shook his head. “I can’t go. My horse was wounded by a cannonball that landed in the corral. He can’t carry me right now.”

“We can fix that,” Travis said. “Jim Bowie has a fine horse. That horse is well and strong. Bowie won’t be needing it. Let’s go ask him if you can borrow his horse.”

Juan stood up. “If I go, I want Pablo to go with me. At least one of us should make it through the enemy lines.”

“All right,” Travis said. “Let’s go see Bowie. I want you to leave tonight.”

We walked across the courtyard to Bowie’s room. Davy Crockett was there watching one of Bowie’s sisters-in-law wipe his head with a wet rag.

“How’s he doing, Davy?” Juan asked.

Davy shook his head. “Not too good. His fever won’t come down. I’m not sure he knows I’m here.”

Travis stood back as Juan walked over to Bowie’s bed. “Jim, it’s Juan. I need to ask you something.”

Bowie opened his eyes. They were red and he blinked as sweat ran into them. He stared at Juan.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Juan. Juan Seguin.”

Slowly Bowie recognized the man standing in front of him. “Juan. Good to see you. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine, Jim. I need to ask a favor of you. Colonel Travis wants me to deliver a message to the government. My horse is hurt. Can I borrow your horse?”

Bowie blinked his eyes as he listened to Juan. “Sure you can, Juan. He’s a good, strong horse. He’ll get you there fast.”

Bowie closed his eyes and soon he was asleep. Crockett followed us as we walked outside.

“Well,” Travis said. “Let’s get your horse ready. I have the message for you. You can leave as soon as it gets dark.”

Juan looked at the wall where his men huddled together against the wind. “I’ll be ready, but first I need to talk to my men.”

I followed Juan as he walked away from Travis and Crockett. I looked up at the sky. It would be dark soon.

The men were sitting against the wall, eating beef roasted over their small fire, as we walked up to them. Juan and I sat down and warmed our hands.

“Do you want some food?” Andres asked.

I took a piece of meat and blew on it to cool it. Juan shook his head.

“I have something to tell you,” he said. “Colonel Travis is afraid that none of his messengers have reached the government or Colonel Fannin. He wants to send a messenger who is familiar with the country and who speaks Spanish.”

The men looked at Juan. “Is he asking for a volunteer?” one of them asked.

Juan smiled. “No. He’s already picked the man he wants to go.” Juan paused. “He wants me to take the message.”

The men sat silently. Some slowly chewed their food. Juan took a deep breath and said, “I told him I didn’t want to go. I don’t want to leave you. You came to the Alamo because of me. I don’t want you to think I’m running away and leaving you here.”

Andres wiped his hands on his pants. He looked at the other men, then turned to Juan. “We’ve discussed the possibility that none of the messengers have made it through the enemy lines. We’ve seen the enemy army grow larger each day. We know that if more men don’t come we can’t hold off Santa Anna. We believe that you can make it through. We have faith in you, Juan. And don’t worry. We’re here because we want to be. Because we want Texas to be free. So take the message. Bring more men back to us so we can defeat Santa Anna and make Texas free. We’ll be watching for you.”

I watched Juan’s face. I thought I saw tears fill his eyes. He ducked his head for a moment, then stood up. He walked over and shook each man’s hand.

“Good-bye, my friends. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” We walked back across the courtyard. Travis had our horses saddled and waiting for us. Davy Crockett was standing next to Travis. He smiled at us as we walked up. Colonel Travis handed Juan some saddlebags.

“Here are the messages I want you to take to Houston or Fannin or the government. Find the first one you can and let them know how badly we need more men. Tell them I’ll fire the cannon three times a day to let them know we are still holding out. Tell them to bring food and ammunition. Good luck, Captain Seguin.”

Juan took the saddlebags and tied them onto his saddle. We climbed into our saddles and looked down at Davy Crockett. He shook my hand then turned to Juan. Juan took his outstretched hand.

“Now, Juan, you get back here soon. We still have to decide who’s the best shot.”

Juan grinned at Davy. “Don’t worry, Davy. I’ll be back before you know it. I’m going to feel bad about beating you in the shooting contest. I guess people will have to change all the stories they’ve been telling about you as being the world’s best shot.”

“We’ll just have to see, Juan. Another reason you need to get back soon is, John MacGregor and I are tired of listening to the enemy band all night. He’s going to get his bagpipes and I’m going to get my fiddle and we’re going to have a contest to see who can play the loudest. I know you don’t want to miss that.”

Juan smiled. “I can’t wait to hear that, Davy.”

Travis walked over to Juan. “Go over by the gate. Davy and some men are going to slip out on the other side and fire at the enemy to get their attention. When you hear the shooting start, you can slip out of the gate and hopefully the enemy will be too busy shooting at Davy to see you leave.”

Juan nodded. “I’ll see you soon, my friends.”

We walked our horses over to the gate. We watched as Davy and a few men slipped out of the Alamo. Time seemed to stop as we waited for the shooting to start. Finally we heard shots from the other side of the Alamo. Men were yelling and we heard the enemy firing back at Davy. The sentry opened the gate and we rode out of the Alamo.

We rode toward the Gonzales road. The night was dark. Clouds covered the moon and there were no stars in the sky. We found the road and rode away. We heard the shooting fade away as the men ran back into the Alamo. Our horses’ hooves sounded loud in the night.

Suddenly up ahead we saw a fire. We knew it was an enemy position. It was too late to turn off the road. We stopped our horses and looked at the fire glowing in the night.

“What are we going to do, Juan?” I asked.

“Just stay close to me. Be ready and do what I do. We are ranchers out looking for stray cattle. Be calm and it will be all right.”

We rode slowly toward the fire. As we got near the camp a voice called out.

“Halt! Who goes there?”

I could see several dark shapes stand up beside the fire. As we stopped our horses I could see the shapes were enemy soldiers. Each one held a rifle that was pointed right at us.

Juan and I sat on our horses watching as the enemy soldiers pointed their guns at us.

“Who are you?” one of the men shouted.

“We’re friends,” Juan answered. “We have a small ranch not far from here. Some of our cattle wandered off and we were looking for them. It got dark and we got lost. We were nearly shot by the rebels in the Alamo. We’re just going home.”

“We heard the firing. We wondered what was happening.”

We saw the soldiers lowering their guns. One of them waved to us.

“Come on in. Sit by the fire and warm yourselves. It’s cold tonight.”

We rode slowly toward the fire. We had our hats pulled low across our faces, and we wore serapes to keep out the cold wind and to hide our guns. We looked around the camp. There were no horses. That was good. The men sat down by the fire and laid their rifles beside them. We were now getting near to the fire. I could feel its heat.

One of the soldiers looked at us and smiled. “Get off your horses and visit awhile. Tell us of the news you have heard about the Texas army.”

I looked at Juan. He rode straight for the fire. One of the soldiers moved over to make room for his horse. Juan looked at me and nodded. He kicked his horse with his spurs and the horse leaped over the fire and disappeared into the darkness on the other side of the camp. I was right behind Juan. I could hear the soldiers yelling. Suddenly I heard a shot. I ducked and the rifle ball flew above my head. Other shots rang out in the night. I could see Juan leaning low in his saddle as his horse galloped away from the camp.

Soon we were back on the Gonzales road. We rode as fast as we could for several miles. Finally we stopped to let our horses catch their breath. We listened for the sounds of horses running after us, but all we heard was our horses’ heavy breathing.

“That was close,” I said.

Juan patted his horse on the neck. “Too close. I’m glad they didn’t have any horses. I think we’re all right now. Jim was right. This horse is strong and fast. I’m glad I have him.” He turned his horse and began to ride away. “Let’s get going. We have a long way to go.”

Several days later we rode into the camp of the Texas army. We were both disappointed to see that the army was much smaller than we had expected. Several tents were standing at the far end of the camp. We rode toward the tents and got off our horses in front of the largest one. We walked up to the man who was standing guard in front of the tent.

“Is General Houston here?” Juan asked.

“Who wants to know?” the sentry said.

“I’m Captain Juan Seguin. This is my friend, Pablo. We’ve just come from the Alamo with a message from Colonel Travis for General Houston.”

The sentry turned and walked into the tent. We could hear the sound of voices as he spoke with someone. At last he came back out.

“Go on in, Captain.”

We walked inside the tent and saw Sam Houston sitting on a small bed, writing on a little table. Houston looked up as we walked in. He smiled and stood up. Houston was a tall man. He seemed to fill up the tent as he walked toward Juan.

“Good to see you, Captain Seguin. What news have you brought me?”

Juan handed Houston the saddlebags.

“Colonel Travis sent this letter to you. I haven’t read it.”

Houston took the saddlebags and sat back down on the bed. He opened them and took out the letter. He read the letter and then placed it on the table next to the bed.

“Travis wants more men. I’ve received several letters from him asking for more men. You’ve seen the army outside. I don’t have any men to send him right now. I’m recruiting men as fast as I can, but it’ll be a while before I have enough to march to the Alamo.”