triking the cannon a smart tap
with the butt of the pistol he carried in his hand, while the metal
gave out a deep, hollow resonance. "Her unbridled ambition was always to
be the commanding officer!"

Both Stuart and Demere thought more seriously of the demonstration as
affecting the public weal than did the pioneers of the settlement. Still
hoping for the best, it seemed to them not unnatural that an abandoned
station should be fired as merely wanton mischief, and not necessarily
with the knowledge or connivance of the head-men of the Cherokees.

The next day, the hunters of the fort went out betimes as usual, and
Hamish found it agreeable to make one of the party. Corporal O'Flynn was
among the number, and several horses were taken to bring in the game; a
bright, clear day it was, of that sweet season when the spring blooms
gradually into the richness of summer. The wind was fresh; the river
sang; the clouds of a glittering whiteness, a flocculent lightness,
floated high in the blue sky. Suddenly the sentry at the gate called out
sharply for the corporal of the guard. The men, lounging about the
parade, turned to look and listen.

[Illustration: "Plunging through the gate and half across the parade
ground."]

The hoof-beats of a horse coming at frantic speed smote first upon the
ear; then across the open space to which the glacis sloped, with
snorting head and flying mane and tail, the frightened creature
galloped, plunging through the gate and half across the parade
ground; a soldier was on his back, leaning forward upon the animal's
neck, his arms clasped about it, the stirrups and his position alone
retaining him in the saddle; for he was dead--quite dead. Too dead to
answer any of the dozen questions hurled at him as the soldiers caught
the bridle; when the horse whirled he reeled out of the saddle, so
hopelessly dead that they asked him no more. The good sorrel would have
told much, if he might, as he stood, snorting and tossing his head, and
trembling in every fiber, his eyes starting out of their sockets, yet,
conscious he was among his friends, looking from one to another of the
soldiers as they handled him, with an earnest appeal for sympathy and
consolation which implied some terrible ordeal. Before an order could be
given the crack of rifles came from the woods, and a few of the hunters
were seen bursting from the forest, one by one, and coming at a
double-quick up the slope of the glacis.

Hamish and