went up to greet
Stuart. For one moment he stood silent while their eyes met--a moment
fraught with feeling too deep for words. Then his voice rang out and he
spoke to the point. He wanted to remind them, he said, how the action of
the garrison had forced the surrender and left the officers no choice,
no discretion; however the event would have fallen out, it would not
have happened thus. "But I did not come here to mock your distress," he
protested. "I wish to urge you to rely upon me now. I have hopes of
securing the ransom of the garrison by the government,"--again a pitiful
cheer,--"and as I may never be allowed to see you again this is my only
chance. _Be sure of this_,--no man need hope for ransom who affords the
Cherokees the slightest assistance in any enterprise against Fort Prince
George, or takes up arms at their command."

He smiled, and waved his hat in courteous farewell, and stepped backward
out of the door, apparently guarded by Atta-Kulla-Kulla, while that
quavering huzza went up anew, the very sound almost breaking down his
self-control.

The next day Stuart, accompanied by Atta-Kulla-Kulla, the warrior's
wife, his brother, the armorer, and the artillery-man,--the
supposititious hunting party,--set gayly and leisurely forth. But once
out of reach of espionage they traveled in a northeastern direction
with the utmost expedition night and day through the trackless
wilderness, guided only by the sun and moon. What terrors of capture,
what hardships of fatigue, what anxious doubt and anguish of hope they
endured, but added wings to the flight of the unhappy fugitives. Nine
days and nights they journeyed thus, hardly relaxing a muscle.

On the tenth day, having gained the frontiers of Virginia, they
fortunately fell in with a party of three hundred men, a part of Bird's
Virginia regiment, thrown out for the relief of any soldiers who might
be escaping in the direction of that province from Fort Loudon, for
through Hamish's dispatches its state of blockade and straits of
starvation had become widely bruited abroad. With the succor thus
afforded and the terror of capture overpast, the four days' further
travel were accomplished in comparative ease, and brought the fugitives
to Colonel Bird's camp, within the boundaries of Virginia.

Here Stuart parted from Atta-Kulla-Kulla, with many a protestation and
many a regret, and many an urgent prayer that the chief would protect
such of the unhappy garrison as w