and nuts there were the delicious amber
persimmons, and the sprightly frost grapes, and walnuts and hickory-nuts
and chestnuts galore.

The march was far swifter now than the rate that the settlers had
maintained before the Indians had joined the party, and the little girl
was added to the burden of one of the packhorses, but Odalie, light,
active, with her native energy tense in every nerve, and with every
pulse fired by the thought that each moment carried her nearer to the
cannon of Fort Loudon and safety, kept step valiantly with the
pedestrians. Willinawaugh sat at his ease on his horse, which was
somewhat jaded by long and continuous marches, or perhaps his patience
would not have sufficed to restrain him to the pace of the pioneers and
his own unmounted followers. A grave spirit of amity still pervaded the
party, but there was little talk. Odalie relegated herself to the
subservient manner and subordinate silence befitting a squaw; MacLeod,
restricted to the French language and his bit of Cherokee, feared that
his interest might lead him beyond the bounds of the simulation their
safety required; Hamish was silent, too, partly tamed by the halt which
they now and then made on rising ground, when the chief would turn his
keen, high-nosed profile, distinct upon the faint tints of the blue
mountains beyond, his eagle feathers on his scalp-lock blowing back
against the sky, and cast a sharp-eyed glance over the landscape to
discern if perchance the search party, from which they had separated,
was now coming to rejoin them. These frequent halts were discontinued
after two days, when the Indian saw fit to change his proposed line of
march, and the rest of his party, if following, could hardly be expected
to also deviate from the agreed plan and overtake them.

They had hitherto proceeded down a valley, between clifty mountain walls
on the one hand, and a high, steep, frowning ridge on the other, running
with the same trend in unbroken parallelism. Now it suited Willinawaugh
to turn his horse's head straight up these seemingly inaccessible
slopes; and without exchanging a glance or venturing a comment his
fellow-travelers obediently followed his lead, conscious of the sly and
furtive observation of his tribesmen and even of Willinawaugh himself,
for the suspicion of the Indian never seems quite allayed but only
dormant for a time. He noted naught that could excite it afresh,
although it was only by the toil of hours tha