e costume. Now and then a ball flew from the cannon
to the woods, to clear the forest of too close observers,--whatever risk
there was must needs be dared. The cannoneers summoned to this queer
duty looked at "Mrs. MacLeod" curiously, as she slipped through the
embrasure and made her way with a swinging agility down the slope
amongst the fraises and then off through the gloaming at a fresh, firm
pace. Then they gazed at Stuart, who presently bade them cease firing,
and they had no excuse to wait to see her return. A queer move, they
thought it, a very queer move!

Hope had grown so inelastic because of the taut tension to which its
fine fibers had been subjected, that Stuart felt a thrill of merely
mechanical apprehension when the next day Daniel Eske, the young
soldier, came in, desiring to make a special report to him. While on
guard duty he had heard a deep subterranean explosion, which had been
reported to the officer of the day. Later, Choo-qualee-qualoo had come,
waving her flag of truce, and after waiting vainly for Mrs. MacLeod, she
had ventured up the slope of the scarp, knowing full well that she was
safe under that white flag. She had brought a bag of beans, which she
had given him,--he bit his lip and colored with vexation, consciously
ridiculous in speaking of his feminine admirer to his superior
officer,--and he had taken the opportunity to ask some questions about
affairs outside the fort, upon which she detailed that an Indian--it was
Savanukah--had seen Mrs. MacLeod, as he thought, enter the subterranean
passage that used to lead to MacLeod Station. At first he had considered
it a slight matter, since the Carolinian's French wife had come so often
to talk to Choo-qualee-qualoo. But it somehow flashed into his mind how
this woman had walked,--with what a long stride, with what strength, and
how fast! And suddenly he realized that it was a man, despite the full
skirts and flutterings of capes and calash. So Savanukah ran swiftly to
his boat and pulled down the river, and made MacLeod Station just in
time to see a youth, arrayed in buckskins, issue from the cave and mount
a tethered horse. Savanukah fired at him, but without effect, and the
young man wheeled in his saddle and returned the fire with such accuracy
that even at the distance and in the twilight the ball, although nearly
spent, struck Savanukah in the mouth with such force as to knock out a
tooth. Then the boy made off with a tremendous burst of