l view.

Beverley stood apart. A rush of sensations affected him so that he
shook like one whose strength is gone. His vision was blurred. Fort and
town swimming in a mist were silent and still. Save the British flag
twinkling above Hamilton's headquarters, nothing indicated that the
place was not deserted. And Alice? With the sweet name's echo
Beverley's heart bounded high, then sank fluttering at the recollection
that she was either yonder at the mercy of Hamilton, or already the
victim of an unspeakable cruelty. Was it weakness for him to lift his
clasped hands heavenward and send up a voiceless prayer?

While he stood thus Oncle Jazon came softly to his side and touched his
arm. Beverley started.

"The nex' thing'll be to shoot the everlastin' gizzards outen 'em,
won't it?" the old man inquired. "I'm jes' a eetchin' to git a grip
onto that Gov'nor. Ef I don't scelp 'em I'm a squaw."

Beverley drew a deep breath and came promptly back from his dream. It
was now Oncle Jazon's turn to assume a reflective, reminiscent mood. He
looked about him with an expression of vague half tenderness on his
shriveled features.

"I's jes' a thinkin' how time do run past a feller," he presently
remarked. "Twenty-seven years ago I camped right here wi' my
wife--ninth one, ef I 'member correct--jes' fresh married to 'r; sort
o' honey-moon. 'Twus warm an' sunshiny an' nice. She wus a poorty
squaw, mighty poorty, an' I wus as happy as a tomtit on a sugar-trough.
We b'iled sap yander on them nobs under the maples. It wus glor'us. Had
some several wives 'fore an' lots of 'm sence; but she wus sweetes' of
'm all. Strange how a feller 'members sich things an' feels sort o'
lonesome like!"

The old man's mouth drooped at the corners and he hitched up his
buckskin trousers with a ludicrous suggestion of pathos in every line
of his attitude. Unconsciously he sidled closer to Beverley, remotely
feeling that he was giving the young man very effective sympathy, well
knowing that Alice was the sweet burden of his thoughts. It was thus
Oncle Jazon honestly tried to fortify his friend against what probably
lay in store for him.

But Beverley failed to catch the old man's crude comfort thus flung at
him. The analogy was not apparent. Oncle Jazon probably felt that his
kindness had been ineffectual, for he changed his tone and added:

"But I s'pose a young feller like ye can't onderstan' w'at it is to
love a 'oman an' 'en hev 'er quit ye for 'n