ere still imprisoned at Fort Loudon
until they could be ransomed, measures for which Stuart intended to set
on foot immediately. So the half-king of the Cherokees went his way back
to his native wilds, loaded by Stuart with presents and commendations,
and in no wise regretting the radical course he had taken.[14] Stuart
had instantly sent off messengers to apprise the commandant of Fort
Prince George of the threatened attack, and to acquaint the governor of
South Carolina with the imminence of its danger and the fall of Fort
Loudon, for Governor Bull had expected Virginia to raise the siege of
Loudon, unaware that that province had dropped all thought of the
attempt, finding its means utterly inadequate to march an army thither
through those vast and tangled wildernesses carrying the necessary
supplies for its own subsistence. Provisions for ten weeks were at once
thrown into Fort Prince George, and a report was industriously
circulated among the Indians that the ground about it on every side had
been craftily mined to prevent approach.[15]

Stuart found that Hamish MacLeod, after performing his mission and
setting out for his return to the beleaguered fort with the responsive
dispatches, had succumbed to the extreme hardship of those continuous
journeys throughout the wild fastnesses, many hundred miles of which
were traversed on foot and at full speed under a blazing summer sun, and
lay ill of brain-fever at one of the frontier settlements. There Stuart
saw him--still so delirious that, although recognizing the officer in
some sort, he talked wildly of pressing dispatches, of the inattention
and callous hearts of officials in high station, of delays and long
waitings for audience in official anterooms, of the prospect of any
expedition of relief for the fort, of Odalie, and red calashes, and
Savanukah, and rifle-shots, and Fifine, and "top-feathers," and
Sandy--Sandy--Sandy; always Sandy!

Later, Stuart was apprised that the boy was on the way to recovery when
he received a coherent letter from Hamish, who had learned that Stuart
was using every endeavor--moving heaven and earth as the phrase went--to
compass the ransom of the survivors of the garrison still at Fort Loudon
or the Indian villages in its neighborhood. Hamish had heard of the fall
of the fort and the massacre of the evacuating force, and still
staggering under the weight of the blow, he reminded Stuart peremptorily
enough of the services which Odalie ha