es of the information of the officers and the
descriptions of the Indians; to make out reports and the accounts of the
post. Writing materials were kept in readiness here for these
purposes--a due array of quills, paper, inkhorn, wafers, sealing-wax,
sand-box, and lights. As the door was opened the candles flickered in
the sudden draught, bowed to the wicks grown long and unsnuffed, and in
another moment were extinguished, leaving the place in total darkness,
with the papers on which hung such weighty interests of life and death,
of rescue or despair, unread in his hand.

"The tinder-box--the flint--where are they? Cannot you strike a spark?"
he demanded, in agitated suspense, of Stuart, who made more than one
fruitless effort before the timorous flame was started anew on the old
and drooping wicks, which had to be smartly snuffed before they would
afford sufficient light to discern the hasty characters, that looked as
if they might have been written on a drumhead--as in fact they were.

"Here--read them, John--I can't," said Demere, handing the package to
Stuart, and throwing himself into a chair to listen.

Although the suspense had been of the kind that does not usually herald
surcease of anxiety, he was not prepared for the face of consternation
with which Stuart silently perused the scrawled lines.

"From Montgomery!" he exclaimed. "But our dispatches evidently have
never reached him."

For in the bold strain of triumph Colonel Montgomery acquainted the
commandant of Fort Loudon with the successful issue of his campaign,
having lost only four men, although he had burned a number of Indian
towns, destroyed incalculable quantities of provisions, killed and
wounded many braves, and was carrying with him a train of prisoners,
men, women, and children. He was now on the march to the relief of Fort
Prince George, which the savages had invested, where the garrison was in
much distress, not for the want of provisions but for fuel to cook food,
since the enemy was in such force that no sortie could be made to the
woods to procure a supply. Two of his prisoners he had set at liberty,
Fiftoe, and the old warrior of Estatoe, that they might acquaint the
nation of his further intentions, for, if the Indians did not
immediately sue for peace and deliver up the principal transgressors to
justice, he would sally forth from Fort Prince George on another foray,
and he would not hold his hand till he had burned every Cherokee tow