I seemed to myself like a midge lost in a monstrous net. The
dank, dripping trees and the misty hills seemed to muffle and deaden
the world. I could not believe that they ever would end; that anywhere
there was a clear sky and open country. And I had always the feeling
that in those banks of vapour lurked deadly enemies who any moment
might steal out and encompass us.

But about four o'clock the weather lightened, and from the cock's-comb
on which we moved we looked down into the lower glens. I saw that we
had left the main flanks of the range behind us, and were now fairly on
a cape which jutted out beyond the other ridges. It behoved us now to
go warily, and where the thickets grew thin we moved like hunters, in
every hollow and crack that could shelter a man. Ringan led, and led
well, for he had not stalked the red deer on the braes of Breadalbane
for nothing. But no sign of life appeared in the green hollows on
either hand, neither in the meadow spaces nor by the creeks of the
growing streams. The world was dead silent; not even a bird showed in
the whole firmament.

Lower and lower we went, till the end of the ridge was before us, a
slope which melted into the river plains. A single shaft of bright
sunshine broke from the clouds behind us, and showed the tumbled
country of low downs and shallow vales which stretched to the Tidewater
border. I had a momentary gleam of hope, as sudden and transient as
that ray of light. We were almost out of the hills, and, that
accomplished, we were most likely free of the Indian forces that
gathered there. I had come to share the Rappahannock men's opinion
about the Cherokees. If we could escape the strange tribes from the
west, I looked for no trouble at the hands of those common raiders.

The thicket ended with the ridge, and there was a quarter-mile of
broken meadow before the forest began. It was a queer place, that patch
of green grass set like an arena for an audience on the mountain side.
A fine stream ran through it, coming down the glen on our right, and
falling afterwards into a dark, woody ravine. I mistrusted the look of
it, for there was no cover, and 'twas in full view of the whole flanks
of the hills.

Ringan, too, was disturbed. "Twould be wiser like to wait for darkness
before trying that bit," he said. "We'll be terrible kenspeckle to the
gentry we ken of."

But I would not hear of delay. Now that we were all but out of the
hills I was mad to get forward. I