erstition of the race now fell far short of the fantasy of liberating
a British prisoner at this crisis under the influence of any spectral
manifestation whatsoever. The council was obviously steeled against this
proposition, as MacVintie shortly perceived, and equally determined that
the ada-wehi must needs exert phenomenal and magical powers indeed to
avoid yet making good the nation's pledge of his death to the British
government, and becoming a ghost in serious earnest. MacVintie's heart
sank within him as he noted the hardening of the lines of their grave
harsh faces and the affirmative nodding of the feather-crested heads,
conferring together, as the decision was reached.

It accorded, however, with their ancient custom to postpone over a night
the execution of any sentence of special weight, and therefore the
council adjourned to the next day, the two prisoners being left in the
deserted building, each securely bound with a rope to a pillar of the
series which upheld the roof of the strange circular edifice. This
colonnade stood about four feet from the wall, and the interval between
was occupied by a divan, fashioned of dexterously woven cane, extending
around the room; and as the prisoners could seat themselves here, or lie
at full length, they were subjected to no greater hardship than was
consistent with their safe custody.

A sentinel with his musket on his shoulder stood at the door, and the
sun was going down. Kenneth MacVintie could see through the open portal
the red glow in the waters of the Tennessee River. Now and then a flake
of a glittering white density glided through it, which his eyes,
accustomed to long distances, discriminated as a swan. Thunder-heads,
however, were gathering above the eastern slopes and the mountains were
a lowering slate-toned purple, save when a sudden flash of lightning
roused them to a vivid show of green.

The dull red hue of the interior of the council-house darkened
gradually; the embers of the council-fire faded into the gray ash, and
the night came sullen and threatening before its time.

The young Highlander sought to bend his mind to the realization that his
days on earth were well-nigh ended, and that it behooved him to think on
the morrow elsewhere. He had an old-fashioned religious faith presumed
to be fitted for any emergency, but in seeking to recall its dogmas and
find such consolation in its theories as might sustain a martyr at the
stake, he was continual