heat, as they stood shouldering their firelocks and
anxiously watching from the loop-holes of the block-house towers, the
roofs of which, blistering in the sun, smelled of the wood in a close,
breathless, suffocating odor which their nerves, grown sensitive by
suffering, discriminated like a pain. The men off duty lay in the shadow
of the block-houses, for the rows of trees had vanished to furnish fuel
for the kitchen, or on the porches of the barracks, and panted like
lizards; the officers looked at one another with the significance of
silent despair, and believed Stuart distraught. Demere could not forgive
himself that he had been persuaded to agree that Stuart should appear.
Beyond the out-works, however, they had had no dream of his adventuring.
To try the effect of a personal appearance and invitation to a
conference was the extent of the maneuver as it was planned. There was
scant expectation in Fort Loudon that he would be again seen alive.

When the tension of the sun began to slacken and the heat to abate; when
the wind vaguely flapped the folds of the flag with a drowsing murmur,
as if from out of sleep; when the chirr of the cicada from the woods
grew vibratory and strident, suggestive of the passing of the day's
meridian, and heralding the long, drowsy lengths of the afternoon to
come, the little boat, with that bright touch of scarlet, shot out from
behind the wooded bend of the river, and in a few minutes was beached on
the gravel and Stuart was within the gates of Fort Loudon.

He came with a face of angry, puzzled excitement that surprised his
brother officers, whose discrimination may have been blunted in the joy
of his safe and unexpected return and the fair promises of the terms of
capitulation he had secured. Never had a vanquished enemy been more
considerately and cordially entreated than he at Chote. Oconostota and
Cunigacatgoah had come down to the river-bank on the news of his
approach and had welcomed him like a brother. To the great council-hall
he was taken, and not one word would Oconostota hear of his mission till
food was placed before him,--fish and fowl, bread, and a flask of wine!

"And when Oconostota saw that I had been so nearly starved that I could
hardly eat--Lord!--how his eyes twinkled!" cried Stuart, angrily.

But Oconostota had permitted himself to comment on the fact. He said
that it had grieved him to know of the sufferings from famine of his
brother and the garrison--for we