a quick flush.
"My gorge rises at the very sight of them."

"If a dog licks my hand, I must needs pat him on the head," said Stuart,
lounging easily among the soft rugs that covered the chair.

"But if a wolf licks your hand, sir, would you pat him on the head?"
asked the ensign.

"A wolf will not lick my hand," retorted the superior officer. "Besides,
my young friend, bear this in mind,--if this dog is not patted on the
head, he will fly not only at my throat, but at the throat of the
garrison and of the settlement as well."

There was silence for a time, while the flames of the great fire sprang
elastically upward in the strong draught with an impetuous roar. The
holly boughs and the banners stirred fitfully on the wall. The men's
heads were surrounded by tobacco smoke. Demere sat upright, meditative,
with one elbow on the table. Stuart was lolling far back in the soft fur
rugs that covered the great chair, his hat on the floor behind him,
where it had fallen off his dense, blond hair, which so much attracted
the curiosity and admiration of the swarthy Indians.

"And then," he said suddenly, drawing some official letter-books and
files from the table, and fluttering the pages with one hand while he
held the pipe-stem with the other, "were we not admonished to be
diplomatic in such matters? We had our orders to cultivate the graces of
our manners! The Earl of Loudon desired that we should," and he began to
read aloud, "'You can best retain our confidence by promoting, in every
way in your power, the preservation of peace with the Cherokees.'"

He shoved the papers away on the table, and laughing, put the stem of
his pipe between his teeth.

"Now," he said, "I am as much disposed toward peace as a man of war may
decently be. I only wish my lord could have won Oconostota to his
lordship's pacific way of thinking. A garrison of two hundred soldiers
is not likely to prove very overbearing to a neighbor who can muster
three thousand fighting men armed with British muskets. My lord's advice
was timely."

He glanced with raillery at Demere, and laughed again.

While the individual soldier is but a factor in a great machine, and
moves only as one motor element acts and reacts on another, making
naught of his own volition or intelligence, it being his "to do and
die," the courage and strength of character which make this abnegation
of will and mind possible are the greater from the fact that the
reasoning faculties