governor and House of Burgesses would not bear quietly
the project to leave our frontier open to the enemy. Well, read this,"
and he drew from his pocket a most formidable looking paper. I took it
with a trembling hand and carried it to the window, but the moon was
almost set, and I could not decipher it.

"What is it?" I asked, quivering with impatience.

"Here, give it to me," he said, with a light laugh, which reminded me of
the night I had seen him first in the governor's palace at Williamsburg.
"The House of Burgesses has just met. They ordered that a regiment of a
thousand men be raised to protect the frontier in addition to those
already in the field, and voted L20,000 for the defense of the colony."

"And that is your commission!" I cried. "Is it not so?"

"Yes," he said, scarce less excited than myself. "'Tis my commission as
commander-in-chief of all the Virginia forces."

I wrung his hand with joy unutterable. At last this man, who had done so
much, was to know something beside disappointment and discouragement.

"But you do not ask how you are concerned in all this," he continued,
smiling into my face, "or why I rode over myself to bring the news to
you. 'Tis because I set out to-morrow at daybreak for Winchester to take
command, and I wish you to go with me, Tom, as aide-de-camp, with the
rank of captain."

CHAPTER XXIV

A WARNING FROM THE FOREST

It was at Winchester that Colonel Washington established his
headquarters, maintaining a detachment at Fort Cumberland sufficient to
repel any attack the Indians were like to make against it, and to cut off
such of their war parties as ventured east of it. From Winchester he was
able more easily to keep in touch with all parts of the frontier, and
with the string of blockhouses which had been built years before as a
gathering-place for the settlers in the event of Indian incursions. By
the first of September his arrangements had been completed, but long
before that time it was evident the task was to be no easy one.

Already, from the high passes of the Alleghenies, war parties of
Delawares and Shawanoes had descended, sweeping down upon the frontier
families like a devastating whirlwind, and butchering men, women, and
children with impartial fury. The unbounded forest, which covered hill
and valley with a curtain of unbroken foliage, afforded a thousand
lurking-places, and it was well-nigh impossible for an armed force to get
within striking d