You passed my sentry in the road?"
"Yes."
"He is the padlock of a chain that reaches round the house. Let's have
your news, Captain."
"As I was saying, the Indians are at one with us. 'Twas all fair sailing
in the council at Echota; the Chelakees being to a man fierce enough to
dig the hatchet up. But I did have the devil's own teapot tempest with
my Lord Charles. He says we have more friends than enemies in the border
settlements, and these our redskins will tomahawk them all alike."
I made a mental note of this and wondered if my Lord Cornwallis had met
with some new change of heart. He was not over-squeamish as I had known
him. Then I heard the baronet say:
"But yet the thing is done?"
"As good as done. The Indians are to have powder and lead of us, after
which they make a sudden onfall on the over-mountain settlements. And
that fetches us to your part in it, Sir Frank; and to yours, Mr. Stair.
Your troop, Captain, will be the convoy for this powder; and you, Mr.
Stair, are requisitioned to provide the commissary."
There was silence while a cat might wink, and then Gilbert Stair broke
in upon it shrilly.
"I can not, Captain Stuart; that I can not!" he protested, starting from
his chair. "'Twill ruin me outright! The place is stripped,--you know it
well, Sir Francis,--stripped bare and clean by these thieving rebel
militia-men; bare as the back of your hand, I tell you! I--"
But the captain put him down in brief.
"Enough, Mr.
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