from a stone here and there in the earth. At last, still
observing great care, they tramped the clay hard and level as a floor,
and spread again the ashes and cinders over the upturned ground, laying
the chunks of wood together, as they had burnt half out after the last
fire many weeks ago.

When Captain Stuart inveigled Captain Demere thither the next morning,
on some pretext concerning the removal of the troops, he was relieved to
see that although Demere was most familiar with the place he had not
even the vaguest suspicion of what lay under his feet, for this was the
best test as to whether the work had been well done. It was only at the
moment of departure, of rendering up the spare arms, and serving out
ammunition to the soldiers for the journey, that he was made aware how
mysteriously the warlike stores had shrunken, but Oconostota's beadlike
eyes glistened with rapture upon attaining the key of the magazine with
its hoard of explosives, unwitting that it had ever contained more.

The soldiers went out of the gates in column, in heavy marching order,
their flags and uniforms making a very pretty show for the last time on
the broad open spaces about Fort Loudon. For the last time the craggy
banks and heavily wooded hills of the Tennessee River echoed to the
beat of the British drums. Behind, like a train of gypsies, were the
horses purchased from the Indians, on which were mounted the women and
little girls, with here and there a sick soldier, unable to keep his
place in the ranks and guyed by his comrades with reviving jollity, in
the face of hope and freedom, as "a squaw-man." The more active of the
children, boys chiefly, ran alongside, and next in order came the
settlers, now in column as "fencibles," and again one or two quitting
the ranks to cuff into his proper place some irrepressible youngster
disposed to wander. In the rear were the Indian safe-guards through the
Cherokee nation, with their firelocks and feathers and scanty attire
that suggested comfort this hot day. For the August sun shone from a sky
of cloudless blue; a wind warm but fresh met them going the other way;
the dew was soon dried and the temperature rose; the mountains glimmered
ethereally azure toward the east with a silver haze amongst the domes
and peaks, and toward the west they showed deeply and densely purple, as
the summit lines stretched endlessly in long parallel levels.

And so these pioneers and the soldiers set forth on their