When all was settled, the old man gave us a supper of his humble fare, after which we went into the open again to sit out the hours of waiting.  The rain had ceased, but the night was cloudy and the darkness a soft black veil to shroud the nearest objects.  High overhead the autumn wind was sighing in the tree-tops, and now and again a sharper gust would bring down a pattering volley of lodged rain-drops on the fallen leaves.

Uncanoola sat apart in stoical silence, smoking his long-stemmed pipe.  The old man and I talked in low tones, or rather he would tell me of his past whilst I sat and listened, holding the little maid in my arms.

After a time the child fell asleep, and I craved permission to put her in the little crib bed in the chimney corner.  The flickering light of the fire fell upon her innocent face when I loosed the clasp of the tiny hands about my neck and laid her down.  Again the wave of softness submerged me and I bent to leave a kiss upon the sweet unconscious lips.

Ah, my dears, you may smile again, if you will; but at that moment I had a far-off glimpse of the beatitude of fatherhood; I was no longer the hard old soldier I have drawn for you; I was but a man, hungering and thirsting for the love of a wife and trusting, clinging little children like this sweet maid.

I rose, turning my back upon the chimney corner and its holdings with a sigh.  For now the time was come for action, and I must needs be a man of blood and iron again.

Lacking the Catawba to guide us, I doubt if either the old man or I could have found my rearguard’s bivouac near the trail I had left.  But Uncanoola led us straight through the pitchy darkness; and when we were come upon the three soldiers we found them all asleep around the handful of camp-fire.

’Twould have been murder outright to kill them thus; and now I think the old patriarch forgot his wrongs and was as merciful as I. But not so the Catawba.  He had armed himself with a stout war-club, and before I was free to stop him he had knocked two of the three sleepers senseless, and would have battered out their brains but for the old man’s intervention.

As for the officer, I had flung myself upon him in the rush and was having a pretty handful of him.  But though he was broad in the shoulders, and as agile as a cat, he was taken at a sleeping man’s disadvantage, and so I presently had the better of him.

“Enough, man! ’tis as good as a feast!” he cried, when I had him fast pinioned; and thereupon I let him have breath and freedom to sit up.  In the act he had his first good sight of me, as I had mine of him.  ’Twas Tybee and no other.

“Gad! my Captain,” he said, feeling his throat.  “If you have a grip like that for your friends, I’m damned glad I’m not your enemy.”

“But you are,” I rejoined, rather shamefacedly, yet thankful to the finger-tips that I had not consented to a massacre.  “I am for the Congress and the Commonwealth, Lieutenant, and you are my prisoner.  May I trouble you for the despatches you carry?”