ght.

"Here, Shanter!" he said in a low whisper. "Come with me. Come along--
show black fellow."

There was no response for a moment or two, and then Rifle spoke.

"He isn't here, father."

"Not there?"

"No; he was lying down here just now, but while I was watching the trees
over there, he must have crept away."

"Crept away? But I want him to go with me to scout. Who saw him go?"

There was no reply, and feeling staggered by the ease with which these
people could elude observation, and applying it to the enemies' advance,
the captain looked sharply round for danger, half expecting at any
moment to see a dim-looking black form emerge from behind a bush, or
others rapidly darting from tree to tree, so as to get within throwing
distance with their spears.

"Well," he said, "I must go alone. Keep a sharp look-out, boys."

"What are you going to do, father?" said Norman.

"Scout," said the captain, laconically.

"No; let me go: I can run fast. I'll be very careful and shelter myself
behind trees. You can't leave here."

"He's quite right Ned," said Uncle Jack.

"I can run faster than Norman, uncle," cried Tim eagerly. "Let me go."

"No, me, father," cried Rifle, excitedly.

"Silence in the ranks!" cried the captain sternly. Then, after a moment
or two's pause, he said firmly, "Private Norman will go as far as the
ridge yonder, scouting. He will go cautiously, and keep out of sight of
the enemy, and as soon as he has made out whether they are advancing and
the direction they will take, he will return."

"Yes, father."

"Silence!--Now go.--Stop!"

The captain caught the boy by the arm, as he was creeping near the box,
and as all followed the direction in which the captain was gazing, they
saw a black figure darting from tree to tree some eighty or ninety yards
away and with his back to them.

"That's Shanter," whispered Norman.

"Yes: follow him, and try and keep him in sight. If he joins the enemy
come back at once. There, you need not creep over the space between us
and the trees; there can be no enemy there. Quick! How soon the
darkness is coming on!"

Norman stepped on to the great chest, leaped down, and ran off, as a low
piteous sigh--almost a sob--was heard from behind; but though it had an
echo in the captain's breast, he crouched there firm as a rock, and
steeling himself against tender emotions, for the sake of all whom he
had brought into peril and whom it was his duty to p