o
admit of the time to acquaint her with so hasty a departure--and yet
striving against his eagerness to go on this very errand, relying on the
superior wisdom of the officers even while rebelling against it. All
that he observed tended to confirm this reliance. How safe it was here!
How trebly guarded! Even to his callow experience it was most obvious
that whatever fate held in store for this garrison, whose lives were
intrusted to the wisdom and precaution of the commandant, surprise was
not among the possibilities. He remembered anew poor Sandy, far from
these stanch walls, the very citadel of security, within which he felt
so recreant; and as he thought again of the perils to which his brother
was exposed, and a possibly impending hideous fate, he felt a
constriction about his throat like the clutch of a hand. The tears rose
to his eyes--and through them as he looked toward the gate he saw Sandy
coming into the fort! In the extremity of the revulsion of feeling
Hamish gave a sudden shrill yell that rang through the woods like a
war-whoop. Even the Indians, still loitering in the diminishing shadow
of the block-house, started at the sound and gazed at him amazed, as he
dashed across the parade and flung his arms around his brother. Sandy,
who had had his own terrors to endure concerning the fate of his family,
was not altogether appreciative of their terrors for his sake. He felt
amply capable of taking care of himself, and if he were not--why, his
scalp was not worth saving! He extricated himself with unflattered
surprise from Hamish's frantic embrace that was like the frenzied hug of
a young bear and made his ribs crack.

"That's enough, Hamish; that's enough!" he said. "Of course I'm safe,
all right. That's enough."

He advanced with what grace he could command after such an exhibition to
shake hands with the two officers near the sally-port and thank them for
the shelter the fort had afforded his family.

And here was Odalie,--for a good-natured soldier, one of the boat's crew
of the previous evening, had instantly run to her cabin with the news of
the arrival--restored to her normal poise in an instant, in the
twinkling of an eye, by the shattering of her dismal forebodings in the
glad reality of MacLeod's safety. So composed was her manner, so calmly
happy, that Captain Stuart could not forbear to unmask the sham, and let
the poor man know how he had been bewept yesterday at even.

"We were very glad to tak