ce crimsoned, but in her
eyes the heavenly sweetness dawned like a star, dazzling me.

"Colonel Hamilton," she said, "in quieter days--when this storm
passes--we hope to welcome you and those who care to wait upon a wife
whose life is but a quiet study for her husband's happiness. Those whom
he cares for I care for. We shall be glad to receive those he counts as
friends."

"May I be one, Renault?" he said impulsively, offering both hands.

"Yes," I said, returning his clasp.

We stood silent a moment, Elsin's gloved fingers resting on my sleeve;
then we moved to the door, and I lifted Elsin to the saddle and
mounted, Hamilton walking at my stirrup, and directing me in a low
voice how I must follow the road to the river, how find the wharf, what
word to give to the man I should find there waiting. And he cautioned
me to breathe no word of my errand; but when I asked him where my
reports to his Excellency were to be sent, he drew a sealed paper from
his coat and handed it to me, saying: "Open that on the first day of
September, and on your honor, not one hour before. Then you shall hear
of things undreamed of, and understand all that I may not tell you now.
Be cautious, be wise and deadly. We know you; our four years' trust in
you has proved your devotion. But his Excellency warns you against
rashness, for it was rashness that made you useless in New York. And I
now say to you most solemnly that I regard you as too unselfish, too
good a soldier, too honorable a gentleman to let aught of a personal
nature come between you and duty. And your duty is to hold the
Iroquois, warn the Oneidas, and so conduct that Butler and his demons
make no movement till you and Colonel Willett hold the checkmate in
your proper hands. Am I clear, Mr. Renault?"

"Perfectly," I said.

He stepped aside, raising his cocked-hat; we passed him at a canter
with precise salute, then spurred forward into the star-spangled night.

CHAPTER IX

INTO THE NORTH

Head winds, which began with a fresh breeze off King's Ferry and
culminated in a three days' hurricane, knocked us about the Tappan Zee,
driving us from point to cove; and for forty-eight hours I saw our
gunboats, under bare poles, tossing on the gray fury of the Hudson, and
a sloop of war, sprit on the rocks, buried under the sprouting spray
below Dobbs Ferry. Safer had we been in the open ocean off the Narrows,
where the great winds drive bellowing from the Indies to the Pole; b