sly as if the
walls of his mill had ears. "At any rate we can try it, you know, and if
the thing should take a wrong turn, you can only stay at home; and we
may, at the worst, make another venture at night."

"I have the letter in my bosom," said Mary, "and will be ready
immediately after breakfast."

When the appointed time arrived, things went as favorably as Mary could
have wished. Her good spirits had returned; and she plied her household
duties with a happy cheerfulness in her looks that completely disarmed
all suspicion. She received the banter of Macdonald, as to the cause of
her restlessness on the preceding night, with perfect good nature; and
when Christopher announced to the commanding officer his purpose of
going out upon a purveying ride, and invited his cousin to accompany
him, she accepted the proposal with such a tone of laughing pleasure, as
put it on the footing of a pastime.

The horses were brought to the door, and the maiden and her escort rode
cheerily forth. They were not long in accomplishing the five or six
miles that brought them to David Ramsay's cabin. I need not tell the
affectionate concern with which Mary Musgrove met her lover, John
Ramsay; nor how she upbraided him as a silly fellow, for tramping and
trudging about the mill, and whistling his signals, when he ought to
have known, by her not coming to meet him, that there was good reason
for it. Nor is it important to detail the circumstances of Horse Shoe's
and John's fruitless expedition, and their disappointment at not seeing
Mary; and how shrewdly, last night, Robinson guessed the true cause of
it; and how entirely he agreed with the maiden, beforehand, in thinking
John a venturesome, harebrained fool, to put himself in danger, when he
might have been certain it would have ended as it did, in a run from
"the rascally red coats," as John had to run to get out of the clutches
of the patrole. My story requires that I should pass these things by,
and go to the business in hand.

Horse Shoe and Ramsay had grown exceedingly impatient, both because they
were in hourly danger of being surprised by casual parties of the enemy,
and because the time for useful action was fast gliding away. They had
used every precaution to keep their visit to David Ramsay's a profound
secret to the neighborhood; and had, with that object, lain perdue in
one of the small cabins, from which they might watch the approach of
visitors, and, if need required, secu