sound as of many sounds.

"Charge with--Cartridge!"

The watchful eyes of the Indians narrowed.

"Draw--Rammer!"

Once more the loud, sharp, clash of metal rising to a menace of emphasis
with the succeeding,--

"Ram down--Cartridge!"

"Return--Rammer!"

And as hard upon the clatter of the ramrods, slipping back into their
grooves, came the orders--

"Shoulder--Firelock!"

"Advance--Arms!" the Cherokees drew a long breath as of the relief from
the tension of suspense. They were evidently seeking to discern the
utility of these strange military gyrations. This the Indians, although
always alert to perceive and adopt any advantage in arms or military
method, despite their characteristic tenacity to their ancient customs
in other matters, could not descry. They had, even at this early day,
almost discarded the bow and arrow for the firelock, wherever or however
it could be procured, but the elaborate details of the drill baffled
them, and they regarded it as in some sort a mystery. Their own
discipline had always sufficed, and their military manoeuvres, their
march in single file or widely extended lines, their skulking approach,
stalking under cover from tree to tree, were better suited, as even some
of their enemies thought, for military movements, than tactical
precision, to the broken character of the country and the dense forest
of the trackless wilderness.

They noticed with kindling eyes a brisk reprimand administered to
Corporal O'Flynn, when Lieutenant Gilmore called attention to the fact
that one of the men had used three motions instead of the prescribed two
motions in charging with cartridge, and two motions, instead of one, in
ramming down cartridge. Corporal O'Flynn's mortification was painted in
a lively red on his fresh Irish cheek, for this soldier was of a squad
whose tuition in the manual exercise had been superintended by no less a
tactician than himself.

"Faith, sir," he said to his superior officer, "I don't know what ails
that man. He has motion without intelligence. Like thim windmills, ye'll
remember, sir, we seen so much on the Continent. He minds me o' thim in
the way he whur-r-ls his ar-rms."

The lieutenant--they had served together in foreign countries--laughed a
trifle, his wrath diverted by the farcical suggestion, and the instant
the command to break ranks had been given, Corporal O'Flynn, with the
delinquent under close guard, convoyed him to the scene of the exploits
of t