s of the
red cape of the calash with a verisimilitude that seemed almost profane.

Admonished by Stuart to have heed of long steps, and the dashing swing
of his habitual gait, he was leaning on Sandy's arm, as they went out,
in an imitation of Odalie's graceful manner. The young sentry, Daniel
Eske,--no one else was permitted at these times to stand guard in this
block-house tower,--noted this, with the usual maneuver of Mrs.
MacLeod's escape through the embrasure, and he was filled with ire. He
had fancied that her husband did not know of this recklessness, as he
was half inclined to think it, although evidently some fine-spun scheme
of Captain Stuart's; it seemed especially futile this evening, so near
sunset, and the odd circumstance of the cannonade having sufficed to
clear every Indian out of the forest and the range of the guns. Mrs.
MacLeod could not speak to Choo-qualee-qualoo now, he argued within
himself; the girl would not be there in the face of this hot fire! How
rapidly Mrs. MacLeod walked; only once she paused and glanced about her
as if looking for the Cherokee girl,--what folly!--for with a flash of
fire and a puff of white smoke, and a great sweeping curve too swift to
follow with the eye, each successive ball flew from the cannon's mouth
over her head and into the woods beyond.

From the opposite bank of the river an Indian, crouched in the cleft of
a rock, yet consciously out of the range, watched her progress for one
moment, then suddenly set off at a swift pace, doubtless to fetch the
young squaw, so that when the firing should cease she could ascertain
from the French woman what the unusual demonstration of the cannonade
might signify.

It was only for a moment that the sentry's attention was thus diverted,
but when he looked again the gray gown, the red calash, the swiftly
moving figure had disappeared. The gunners had been ordered to cease
firing, and the usual commotion of sponging out the bore, and reloading
the guns, and replacing all the appliances of their service, was
interrupted now and again by the men looking anxiously through the
embrasure for Mrs. MacLeod's return. They presently called up an inquiry
to the sentinel in the tower, presuming upon the utility of the secret
service to excuse this breach of discipline. "Why," said the soldier, "I
took my eye off her for one minute and she disappeared."

"You mean you shut your eyes for five minutes," said Corporal O'Flynn,
gruffly, hav