The papers were examined hastily, and presently John Sevier lighted upon the despatch I had carried and delivered.  Thereat the colonels put their heads together; and then my case was re-opened, with Sevier as spokesman.

“We have a letter here which appears to be the original order to Ferguson, Captain Ireton.  Can you repeat from memory the postscriptum which you say was added to it?”

I gave the gist of my old patriarch’s addendum as well as I could; and thereupon suspicion fled away and my late judges would vie with one another in hearty frontier hand-grasps and apologies, whilst the throng that ringed us in forgot caution and weariness and gave me a cheer to wake the echoes.

’Twas while this burst of gratulation was abuzz that Ephraim Yeates raised a cry of his own.

“Stop that there black-legged imp o’ the law!” he shouted, pushing his way out of the circle.  “He’s the one that ought to hang!”

There was a rush for the wagon barricade, a clatter of horse-hoofs on the hillside below, and Yeates’s rifle went to his face.  But the bullet flew wide, and the black-garbed figure clinging to the horse’s mane was soon out of sight among the trees.

“Ez I allow, ye’d better look out for that yaller-skinned little varmint, Cap’n John,” quoth the old man, carefully wiping his rifle preparatory to reloading it.  “He’s rank pizen, he is, and ye’ll have to break his neck sooner ’r later.  I ’lowed to save ye the trouble, but old Bess got mighty foul yestiddy, with all the shootings and goings on, and I hain’t got no lead-brush to clean her out.”

Now that I was fully exonerated I was free to go and come as I chose; nay, more, I was urged to cast in my lot with the over-mountain partizans.  As to this, I took counsel with Richard Jennifer whilst the colonels were setting their commands in order for the march and loading the prisoners with the captured guns and ammunition.

“What is to the fore, Dick?” I asked; “more fighting?”

The lad shook his head.  “Never another blow, I fear, Jack.  These fellows crossed the mountain to whip Ferguson.  Having done it they will go home.”

I could not forego a hearty curse upon this worst of all militia weaknesses, the disposition to disperse as soon as ever a battle was fought.

“’Tis nigh on to a crime,” said I.  “This victory, smartly followed up, might well be the turning of the tide for us.”

But the lad would not admit the qualifying condition. “’Twill be no less as it is,” he declared.  “Mark you, Jack; ’twill put new life into the cause and nerve every man of ours afresh.  And as for the redcoats, if my Lord Cornwallis gets the news of it in a lump, as he should, Gates will have plenty of time to set himself in motion, slow as he is.”

’Twas then I had an inspiration, and I thought upon it for a moment.

“What are your plans, Richard?”

He shook his head.  “I have none worth the name.”