‘I was hoping that he wouldn’t be,’ Ole Devil Hardin admitted, and touched his bruised left cheek with a careful forefinger. ‘With any luck, I’ll have time to tidy myself up again before he comes to fetch us.’ ‘I’m going to stick with you this time, cousin,’ Blaze declared with a sleepy grin. That way you’ll maybe keep out of mischief.’ On their arrival at General Samuel Houston’s headquarters that morning, Hardin and Blaze had delivered the report of the scouting mission which they had carried out. They had been told that the General would not be able to see them for some time, but wished to do so eventually. Wanting to look their best, and having an aversion to being dirty, for longer than was necessary, they had left the third member of their party at the headquarters’ building and gone to try and make themselves more presentable. Visiting the livery barn where they had already left their horses, the cousins had asked advice of its owner. An old friend of their clan, Allen Shelby, had told them to go to his home and make use of his toilet facilities.
