only weary and dishevelled and ill at
ease, but on me seemed to have fallen the burden of the cares of the
whole earth.

Shalah had disappeared for a little, and came back with the word that
the near forests were empty. So I summoned a council, and talked as we
breakfasted. I had looked into the matter of the food, and found that
we had sufficient for three days. We had boucanned a quantity of deer's
flesh two days before, and this, with the fruit of yesterday's
trapping, made a fair stock in our larder.

Then I announced my plan. "I am going to try to reach Lawrence," I
said.

No one spoke. Shalah lifted his head, and looked at me gravely.

"Does any man object?" I asked sharply, for my temper was all of an
edge.

"Your throat will be cut in the first mile," said Donaldson gruffly.

"Maybe it will, but maybe not. At any rate, I can try. You have not
heard what Shalah and I found in the hills yesterday. Twelve miles
south there is a glen with a plateau at its head, and that plateau is
as full of Indians as a beehive. Ay, Ringan, you and Lawrence were
right. The Cherokees are the least of the trouble. There's a great army
come out of the West, men that you and I never saw the like of before,
and they are waiting till the Cherokees have drawn the fire of the
Borderers, and then they will bring hell to the Tidewater. You and I
know that there's some sort of madman in command, a man that quotes the
Bible and speaks English; but madman or not, he's a great general, and
woe betide Virginia if he gets among the manors. I was sent to the
hills to get news, and I've got it. Would it not be the part of a
coward to bide here and make no effort to warn our friends?"

"What good would a warning do?" said Ringan. "Even if you got through
to Lawrence--which is not very likely--d'you think a wheen Borderers in
a fort will stay such an army? It would only mean that you lost your
life on the South Fork instead of in the hills, and there's little
comfort in that."

"It's not like you to give such counsel," I said sadly. "A man cannot
think whether his duty will succeed as long as it's there for him to do
it. Maybe my news would make all the differ. Maybe there would be time
to get Nicholson's militia to the point of danger. God has queer ways
of working, if we trust Him with honest hearts. Besides, a word on the
Border would save the Tidewater folk, for there are ships on the James
and the York to flee to if they hear in time. L