k of his lies getting him past the guard, with a sword and a
bellyfull into the bargain!"

"Why didn't you report instantly upon our arrival?" asked Habershaw.

"Bless you," replied the lieutenant, "I never suspicioned him, more than
I did you. The fellow laughed so naturally that I would never have
thought him a runaway."

"There it is," said Habershaw; "that's the want of discipline. The
service will never thrive till these loggerheads are taught the rules of
war."

Butler had heard enough to satisfy him on one material point, namely,
that Robinson had secured his escape, and was in condition to take
whatever advantage of circumstances the times might afford him. It was a
consolation to him also to know that the sergeant had taken this route,
as it brought him nearer to the scene in which the major himself was
likely to mingle. With this dawn of comfort brightening up his doubts,
he addressed himself more composedly to sleep, and before daylight, the
sounds of riot having sunk into a lower and more drowsy tone, he
succeeded in winning a temporary oblivion from his cares.

CHAPTER XX.

"What ho! What ho!--thy door undo:
Art watching or asleep?"--_Burger's Leonora._

On the banks of the Ennoree, in a little nook of meadow, formed by the
bend of the stream which, fringed with willows, swept round it almost in
a semicircle, the inland border of the meadow being defined by a gently
rising wall of hills covered with wood, was seated within a few paces of
the water, a neat little cottage with a group of out-buildings,
presenting all the conveniences of a comfortable farm. The
dwelling-house itself was shaded by a cluster of trees which had been
spared from the native forest, and within view were several fields of
cultivated ground neatly inclosed with fences. A little lower down the
stream and within a short distance of the house, partially concealed by
the bank, stood a small low-browed mill, built of wood. It was near
sundown, and the golden light of evening sparkled upon the shower which
fell from the leaky race that conducted the water to the head gate, and
no less glittered on the spray that was dashed from the large and slowly
revolving wheel. The steady gush of the stream, and the monotonous clack
of the machinery, aided by the occasional discordant scream of a flock
of geese that frequented the border of the race, and by the gambols of a
few children, who played about the confines of the mill,