The captain paused, but not a soul answered.  A common sentiment of loyalty seemed to bind every one of the listeners to his duty.  The dark eyes of the negroes rolled along the short rank to see who would be the first to desert their master, and grins of delight showed the satisfaction with which they noted the effect of the appeal.  As for Mike, he felt too strongly to keep silence, and he muttered the passing impressions aloud.

“Och!”—­growled the county Leitrim-man—­“Is it a good journey that I wish the runaways?  That it isn’t, nor many a good male either, as they trudge alang t’rough the woods, with their own consciences forenent their eyes, pricking them up to come back, like so many t’ieves of the wor-r-ld, as they are, every mother’s son of ’em, women and all.  I’d nivir do that; no, not if my head was all scalp, down to the soles of my fut, and an Injin was at every inch of it, to cut out his summer clothes of my own skin.  Talk of religion amang sich crathures!—­Why, there isn’t enough moral in one of thim to carry him through the shortest prayer the Lord allows a Christian to utter.  Divil burn ’em say I, and that’s my kindest wish in their behalf.”

The captain waited patiently for this soliloquy to terminate; then he dismissed the men, with a few more words of encouragement, and his thanks for the fidelity they, at least, had shown.  By this time the night had got to be dark, and the court was much more so, on account of the shadows of the buildings, than places in the open air.  As the captain turned aside to give his last instructions to Joyce, he discovered, by the light of the lantern the latter held, a figure standing at no great distance, quite dimly seen on account of its proximity to the walls of the Hut.  It was clearly a man; and as all the males able to bear arms, a single sentinel outside the court excepted, were supposed to be in the group that had not yet separated, the necessity of ascertaining the character of this unlooked-for visiter flashed on the minds of both the old soldiers at the same instant.  Joyce raised the lantern, as they moved quickly towards the motionless form, and its light glanced athwart a pair of wild, glowing, dark eyes, and the red visage of an Indian.

“Nick!” exclaimed the captain, “is that you?—­What has brought you here again, and how have you entered the palisades?—­Do you come as a friend, to aid us, or as an enemy?”

“Too much question, cap’in—­too much like squaw; ask all togeder.  Go to book-room; Nick follow; tell all he got to say.”

The captain whispered the serjeant to ascertain whether the watch without was vigilant, when he led the way to the library, where, as he expected, he found his wife and daughters, anxiously waiting his appearance.

“Oh!  Hugh, I trust it is not as bad as we feared!” cried the mother, as the captain entered the room, closely attended by the Tuscarora; “our men cannot be so heartless as to desert us at such a moment!”