Carolina militia.

_July 14th._--A ship arrived in the lower bay. Details later. In
Nassau Street, about noon, a tall fellow, clothed like a drover,
muttered a word or two as I passed, and I had gone on ere it struck
me that he had meant his words for my ear. To find him I turned
leisurely, retracing my steps as though I had forgotten something,
and as I brushed him again, he muttered, "Thendara; tell me where it
is."

At that moment Captain Enderley of the Fifty-fourth Foot greeted me,
linking his arm in mine, and I had no excuse to avoid him. More of
this to-night, when, if the message was truly for me, I shall
doubtless be watched and followed when I leave the house for a
stroll.

_July 15th._--Last night there was no chance, Enderley and Captain
O'Neil coming to take me to the theater, where the Thirty-eighth
Regiment gave a frolic and a play--the latter most indifferent, save
for Mrs. Barry's acting. I saw my drover in John Street, too, but
could not speak to him.

This morning, however, I met the drover, and he was drunk, or made
most marvelous pretense--a great six-foot, blue-eyed lout in smock
and boots, reeking of Bull's Head gin, his drover's whip a-trail in
the dust, and he a-swaggering down Nassau Street, gawking at the
shop-windows and whistling Roslyn Castle with prodigious gusto.

I made it convenient to pause before Berry and Roger's show of
jewels, and he stopped, too, swaying there gravely, balanced now on
hobnail heel, now on toe. Presently he ceased his whistling of
Roslyn Castle, and in a low but perfectly distinct voice he said,
"Where is the town of Thendara, Mr. Renault?" Without looking at
him or even turning my head, I answered, "Why do you ask me?"

He stared stupidly at the show-window. "Pro patria et gloria," he
replied under his breath; "why do you serve the land?"

"Pro gloria," I muttered. "Give your message; hasten."

He scratched his curly head, staring at the gewgaws. "It is this,"
he said coolly; "find out if there be a lost town in the north
called Thendara, or if the name be used to mask the name of Fort
Niagara. When you have learned all that is possible, walk some
evening up Broadway and out along Great George Street. We will
follow."

"Who else besides yourself?"

"A brother drover--of men," he said slyly; "a littl