ephraim yeates was gone a full hour. when he returned he gave us cause to wonder at his lack of caution, since he filled his earthen indian pipe and coolly struck a light wherewith to fire it. but when the pipe was aglow he told us of his findings.

"'twas about ez i reckoned; them varmints waded in the shallows a spell to throw us off, and then came out and forded higher up."

"that will be a shrewd guess of yours, i take it, ephraim?" said i; for the night was black as erebus.

"ne'er a guess at all; i've had 'em fair at eyeholts," this as calmly as if we had not been for ten long days pinning our faith to an ill-defined trace of foot-prints. "ez i was a-going on to say, they're incamped on t'other bank ruther eenside o' two sights and a horn-blow from this. i saw 'em and counted 'em: seven redskins and the two gals."

"thank god!" says richard, as fervently as if our rescue of the women were already a thing accomplished. then he fell upon the scout with an eager question: "how does she look, ephraim?—tell me how she looks!"

"listen at him!" said the old man, cackling his dry little laugh. "how in tarnation am i going to know which 'she' he's a-stewing about? there's a pair of 'em, and they both look like wimmin ez have been dragged hilter-skilter through the big woods for some better 'n a week. natheless, they're fitting to set up and take their nourishment, both on 'em. they was perching on a log afore the fire, with ever' last idintical one o' them redskins a-waiting on 'em like they was a couple of injun queens. i reckon ez how the hoss-captain gave them varmints their orders, partic'lar."

dick was upon his feet, lugging out the great broadsword.

"show us the way, eph yeates!" he burst out impatiently. "we are wasting a deal of precious time!"

but the old man only puffed the more placidly at his pipe, making no move to head a sortie.

"fair and easy, cap'n dick; fair and easy. there ain't no manner o' hurry, ez i allow. whenst i've got to tussle with a wheen o' full redskins, and me with my stummick growed fast to my backbone, i jest ez soon wait till them same redskins are asleep. bime-by they'll settle down for the night, and then we'll go up yonder and pizen 'em immejitly, if not sooner. but there ain't no kind o' use to spile it all by rampaging 'round too soon."

there was wisdom undeniable in this, and, accordingly, we waited, taking turns at the hunter's terrible pipe in lieu of supper, and laying our plan of attack. this last was simple enough, as our resources, or rather our lack of them, would make it. at midnight we would move upon the enemy, feeling our way along the river till we should discover the ford by which the captive party had crossed. the stream safely passed, we would deploy and surround the camp of the indians, and at the signal, which was to be the report of yeates's rifle, we were to close in and smite, giving no quarter.

the old borderer dwelt at length upon the need for this severity, saying that a single cherokee escaping would bring the warriors of the erati tribe down upon us to cut off all chance of our retreat with the women.

"onless i'm mightily out o' my reckoning, this here spot we're a-setting on ain't more than a day's injun-running from the tuckasege towns. with them gals to hender us we ain't a-going to be in no fettle for a skimper-scamper race with a fresh wheen o' the redskins. therefore and wherefore, says i, make them chopping-knives o' your'n cut and come again, even to the dividing erpart of soul and marrer."

dick laughed, and, speaking for both of us, said between his teeth that we were not like to be over-merciful.

but now the old wolf of the border gave us a glimpse of an unsuspected side of him, taking jennifer sharply to task and reading him a homily on the sin of vengeance for vengeance's sake. in this harangue he evinced a most astonishing tongue-grasp of scripture, and for a good half-hour the air was thick with texts. and to cap the climax, when the sermon paused he laid his pipe aside, doffed his cap, and went upon his knees to pour forth such a militant prayer as brought my father's stories of the grim old fighting roundheads most vividly to mind.

here, being as good a place as any, i may say frankly that i never fully understood this side of ephraim yeates. like all the hardy borderers, he was a fighter by instinct and inclination; and i can bear him witness that when he smote the "amalekites," as he would call them—red skin or red coat—he smote them hip and thigh, and was as ruthless as that british captain turnbull who slew the wounded. yet withal, on the very edge of battle, or mayhap fair in the midst of it, he was like to fall upon his knees to pray most fervently; though, as i have hinted, his prayers were like his blows—of the biting sort, full of scriptural anathema upon the enemy.

richard jennifer, carelessly profane as all men were in that most godless day, would say 'twas the old borderer's way of swearing; that since he left out the oaths in common speech,—as, truly, he did,—he would fetch up the arrears and wipe out the score in one fell blast upon his knees. be this as it may, he was a good man and a true, as i have said; and his warlike supplication that our blades should be as the sword of the lord and of gideon in the coming onfall was no whit out of place.

it wanted yet a full hour of midnight when richard began again to plead piteously for instant action. yeates thought it still over-early; but when jennifer pressed him hard the old borderer left the casting vote to me.

"what say ye, cap'n john? your'n will be the next oldest head, and i reckon it hain't been turned plumb foolish rampaging crazy by this here purty gal o' gilbert stair's."

now you have read thus far in my poor tale to little purpose if you have not yet discovered the major weakness of an old campaigner, which is to weigh and measure all the chances, holding it to the full as culpable to strike too soon as too late. this weakness was mine, and in that evil moment i gave my vote for further waiting, arguing sapiently that my old field-marshal would never set a night assault afoot till well on toward the dawn.

jennifer heard me through and yielded, perforce, though with little good-will.

"i can not compass it alone, or, by the gods, i'd go!" he asserted, angrily. "mark you, john ireton, this delay is a thing you'll rue whilst you live. your cold-cut pros and cons mouth well enough, and i'm no soldier-lawyer to argue them down. but something better than your damnable reasons tells me that the hour has struck—that these very present seconds are priceless." whereupon he flung himself face down in the grass and would not speak again until the waiting time was fully over and yeates gave the word to fall in line for the advance.

having learned the lay of the land in his earlier reconnaissance, the old borderer shortened the distance for us by guiding us across the neck of a horseshoe bend in the stream; and a half-hour's blind groping through the forest fetched us out upon the river bank again, this time precisely opposite the indians' lodge fire on the other side.

here there was a little pause for three of us while ephraim yeates crept down the bank to try with his sounding-pole what chance we had of crossing.

measured by what could be seen from our covert, the narrow width of quick water seemed the last of the many obstacles.

lulled to security, as we guessed, by the apparent success of their ruse to throw us off the scent, six of the cherokees were lying feet to fire like the spokes of a wheel for which the fitful blaze was the hub. the seventh man was squatted before a small tepee-lodge of dressed skins, which, as we took it, would be the sleeping quarters of the captives. whilst all the others lay stiff and stark as if wrapped in soundest sleep, this sentry guard, too, it seemed, was scarcely more than half awake, for as we looked, his gun was slipping from the hollow of his arm and he was nodding to forgetfulness.

richard was a-crouch beside me in this peeping reconnaissance, and i could feel him trembling in impatient eagerness.

"it should be easy enough—what think you?" he whispered; and then, with a sudden grasp upon my wrist: "you are cool and steady-nerved, john ireton; i swear you do not love her as i do!"

"nay, i grant you that, dick," said i, making sure that his excitement would obscure the double meaning in the admission. and then i added, sincerely enough: "she has never given me the right to love her at all."

"god help her at this pass!" he said, more to himself than to me; and then he would go in a breath from blessing margery to cursing ephraim yeates for this fresh delay.

it was uncanoola who broke in upon the muttered malediction.

"wah! captain jennif' cuss plenty heap, like missionary medicine-man. look-see! uncanoola no can find white squaw horse yonder. mebbe captain jennif' see 'um, hey?"

at his word we both looked for the horses, marking now that they were nowhere to be seen within the circle lighted by the lodge fire. the catawba grunted his doubt that the enemy was as inalert as he appeared to be; then he set the doubt in words. "chelakee heap slick. sleep only one eye, mebbe, hey? injun warrior no hide horse and go sleep both eye on war-path!"

here our scout came gliding back, so noiselessly that he was within arm's reach before we heard him. dick had said i was over-cool, but the old man's ghostlike reappearance gave me such a start as made me prinkle to my fingers' ends.

"how will it be, eph?" dick queried, hotly eager to be at work. "we can make it across? never say we can't pass that bit of still water, man!"

but ephraim yeates did say so in set terms.

"i reckon ez how we've got to cross, but not jest here-away, cap'n dick. she ain't making any fuss about it, but she's a-slipping along like greased lightning, deep and mighty powerful. i ain't saying we mought n't swim her and come out somewheres this side o' dan'l boone's country; but we'll make it a heap quicker by projec'ing 'round till we find the ford where them varmints made out to cross."

"god!" said dick, deep in his throat; "more time to be killed! by—"

the old man was parting the bushes to have a better sight of the encampment opposite, but at dick's outbreak he fell back quickly and clapped a hand on the lips of cursing.

"hist! lookee over yonder, will ye!" he cut in. and then in a whisper meant for no ear but mine: "the lord be marciful to that little gal, cap'n john; we've fooled our chance away—the game's afoot, and we ain't in it!"

i looked and saw nothing save that the sentry guard had risen to throw a handful of dry branches on the dying fire. but on the instant the dry wood blazed up, and in the wider circle of firelight i saw what the keener eyes of ephraim yeates had descried the sooner. in the shadowy background of the surrounding forest a dozen horsemen were converging in orderly array upon the encampment, and at the blazing up of the dry branches their leader gave the command to charge.

what sham battle there was, or was meant to be, was over in the briefest space. the troopers galloped in with shouts and aimless pistolings, raising a clamor that was instantly doubled by the yells of the indians. as for resistance, the charging troop met with nothing worse than the yellings and a scattering fusillade in air. then the ring of horsemen narrowed in to closer quarters and there was some flashing of bare steel in the firelight, at which the cherokee kidnappers melted away and vanished as if by magic.

with the shouts and the firing margery and her maid had burst out of the sleeping-lodge to find themselves in the thick of the sham battle; and it was but womanlike that they should add their shrieks to the din, being as well terrified as they had a right to be. but now the leader of the attacking troop speedily brought order with a word of command; and when his men fell back to post themselves as vedettes among the trees, the officer dismounted to uncover courteously and to bow low to the lady.

"the hoss-captain!" muttered ephraim yeates, under his breath; but we did not need his word for it. 'twas but a child's pebble-toss across the barrier stream, and we could both see and hear.

"i give you joy of your escape, mistress margery," said the baronet, mouthing his words like a player who had long since conned his lines and got them well by heart and letter-perfect. "these slippery savages have given us a pretty chase, i do assure you. but you are trembling yet, calm yourself, dear lady; you are quite safe now."

i was watching her intently as he spoke. 'twas now hard upon two months since i had seen her last in that fateful upper room at appleby hundred, and the interval—or mayhap it was only the hardships and distresses of the captive flight—had changed her woefully. yet now, as when we had stood together at the bar of colonel tarleton's court, i saw her pass from mood to mood in the turning of a leaf, her natural terror slipping from her like a cast-off garment, and a sweet dignity coming to clothe her in a queenlier robe, making her, as i would think, more beautiful than ever.

"i thank you, sir francis—for myself and for poor jeanne," she said. "you have come to take us back to my father?"

he bowed again and spread his hands as a friend willing but helpless.

"upon my honor, my dear lady, nothing would give me greater pleasure. but what can i say? we are upon the king's business, as you well know, and our mission will not brook an hour's delay—indeed, we are here only by the good chance which led your captors to choose our route for theirs. i have no alternative but to take you and your woman with us to the west; but i do assure you—"

she stopped him with an impassioned gesture of dissent, and darting a despairing glance around that minded me of some poor hunted thing hopelessly enmeshed in the net of the fowler, she clasped her hands and wrung them, breaking down piteously at the last, and begging him by all that men hold sacred to send her and her maid back to her father, if only with a single soldier for a guard.

'twas then we had to drag my dear lad down and hold him fast, else he had flung himself into the torrent in some mad endeavor to spend his life for her. so i know not in what false phrase the baronet refused her, but when i looked again she was no longer pleading as his suppliant; she was standing before him in the martyr steadfastness of a true, clean-hearted woman at bay.

"then you will not by so much undo the wrong you have done me, captain falconnet?" she said.

"a wrong? how then; do you call it a wrong to rescue you from these brutal savages, mistress margery?"

she took a step nearer, and though the dry-stick blaze was dying down and i could no longer see her face distinctly, i knew well how the scornful eyes were whipping him.

"listen!" she said. "when you set tallachama and his braves upon us in the road that night, you were not cautious enough, captain falconnet. i saw and heard you. more than that, tallachama and the others have spoken freely of your plans in their own tongue, not knowing that my poor jeanne had been three years a captive among the telliquos."

the attack was so sudden-sharp and so completely a surprise that he was taken off his guard, else i made sure he would not at such a time have dropped the gentlemanly mask to stand forth the confessed ravisher.

"so ho? then you have been playing fast and loose with me as you did with the handsome young planter and that beggarly captain of austrians? 'twas a bold game, ma petite, but you have lost and i have won, for my game was still bolder than yours. what i need, i take, mistress madge, be it the body of a woman or the life of a man. savez-vous un homme désespéré, ma chérie? i am that man. you pique me, and i need the dowry you will bring. if i could have killed your lover out of hand, i might have been content to leave you for a time. since i could not, you go where i go; and when we return i shall do you the honor to make you lady falconnet!"

the effect of this fierce tirade, poured out in a torrent of hot words, was less marked upon his helpless captive than it was upon her four would-be defenders. it moved us variously, each after his kind; nevertheless, i think the same thought lighted instantly upon each of us. though we might not reach and rescue her, her sharpest peril would be blunted upon the quieting of this fiend-in-chief.

so ephraim yeates stretched himself face downward in the damp grass and brought his long rifle to bear, while the indian sprang up and poised his hatchet for the throw; but neither lead nor steel was loosed because the light was poor, and a hair's-breadth swerving of the aim might spare the man and slay the woman. as for the two of us who must needs come within stabbing distance, the same thought set us both to stripping coats and foot-clogs for a plunge into the barrier torrent. but when we would have broken cover, the old borderer dropped his weapon and gripped us with a hand for each.

"no, no; none o' that!" he whispered, hoarsely. "ye'd drown like rats, and we can't afford no sech foolish sakerfices on the altar o' baal. hunker down and lie clost; if there's any dying to be done, ye've got a good half o' the night ahead of ye, and there's all o' to-morrow that ain't teched yet."

it takes a pitiless avalanche of words to spread these interlinear doings out for you; but you are to conceive that the pause is mine and not the action's. while the old man was yet pulling us down, my fearless little lady had drawn back a pace and was giving the villain his answer.

"i am glad i know you now for what you are, captain falconnet," she said, coldly. and then: "you can take me with you, if you choose, having the brute strength to make good so much of your threat. but that is all. you can not take for yourself what i have given to another."

"can not, you say?" he clapped his hat on smartly and whistled for his horse-holder; and when the man was gone to fetch the mounts for the women, he finished out the sentence. "listen you, in your turn, mistress spitfire. i shall take what i list, and before you see your father's house again, you'll beg me on your knees, as other women have, to marry you for very shame's sake!"

it was then that uncanoola did the skilfulest bit of jugglery it has ever been my lot to witness. posturing like one of those old grecian discus-throwers, he sent his scalping-knife handle foremost to glide snake-like through the grass to stop at margery's feet. though i think she knew not how it got there, she saw it, and the courage of the sight helped her to say, quickly:

"when it comes to that, sir, i shall know how to keep faith with honor."

his laugh was the harshest mockery of mirth. "you will keep faith with me, dear lady; do you hear? otherwise—"

he turned to take the black mare from his man. at this my brave one set her foot upon the weapon in the grass.

"i have no faith to keep with you, captain falconnet," she said.

he struck back viciously. "then, by heaven, you'd best make the occasion. it has happened, ere this, that a lady as dainty as you are has become a plaything for an indian camp. it lies with me to save you from that, my mistress."

she stooped to gather her skirts for mounting, and in the act secured and hid the knife. so her answer had in it the fine steadfastness of one who may make desperate terms with death for honor's sake.

"i thank you for the warning, captain falconnet," she said, facing him bravely to the last. "when the time comes, mayhap the dear god will give me leave to die as my mother's daughter should."

"bah!" said he; and with that he whistled for his troopers; and while we looked, my dear lady and her tirewoman were helped upon their horses, and at the leader's word of command the escort formed upon the captives as a center. a moment later the little glade, with the smoldering embers of the lodge fire to prick out its limits in dusky red, was empty, and on the midnight stillness of the forest the minishing hoofbeats of the horses came fainter and fainter till the distance swallowed them.

then it was that my poor lad, famine-mad and frenzied, rose up to curse me bitterly.

"now may all the devils in hell drag you down to everlasting torments, john ireton, for your cold-hearted caution that made us lose when we had good hope to win!" he cried. "one little hour i begged for, and that hour had fought her battle and set her free. but now—"

he broke off in the midst, choking with what miserable despair i knew, and shared as well; and throwing himself down in the wet grass, he would eke out the bitter words with such ravings and sobbings as bubble up in sheer abandonment of rage and misery.