The night was star-light, and it was cool, as is common to this region of country.  There being neither lamp nor candle on the exterior of the house, even the loops being darkened, there was little danger in moving about within the stockades.  The sentinels were directed to take their posts so near the palisades as to command views of the open lawn without, a precaution that would effectually prevent the usual stealthy approach of an enemy without discovery.  As the alarm had been very decided, these irregular guardians of the house were all at their posts, and exceedingly watchful, a circumstance that enabled the captain to avoid them, and thus further remove the danger of his son’s being recognised.  He accordingly held himself aloof from the men, keeping within the shadows of the sides of the Hut.

As a matter of course, the first object to which our two soldiers directed their eyes, was the rock above the mill.  The Indians had lighted fires, and were now apparently bivouacked at no great distance from them, having brought boards from below with that especial object.  Why they chose to remain in this precise position, and why they neglected the better accommodations afforded by some fifteen or twenty log-cabins, that skirted the western side of the valley in particular, were subjects of conjecture.  That they were near the fires the board shanties proved, and that they were to the last degree careless of the proximity of the people of the place, would seem also to be apparent in the fact that they had not posted, so far as could be ascertained, even a solitary sentinel.

“This is altogether surprising for Indian tactics,” observed the captain, in a low voice; for everything that was uttered that night without the building was said in very guarded tones.  “I have never before known the savages to cover themselves in that manner; nor is it usual with them to light fires to point out the positions they occupy, as these fellows seem to have done.”

“Is it not all seeming, sir?” returned the major.  “To me that camp, if camp it can be called, has an air of being deserted.”

“There is a look about it of premeditated preparation that one ought always to distrust in war.”

“Is it not unmilitary, sir, for two soldiers like ourselves to remain in doubt on such a point?  My professional pride revolts at such a state of things; and, with your leave, I will go outside, and set the matter at rest by reconnoitring.”

“Professional pride is a good thing, Bob, rightly understood and rightly practised.  But the highest point of honour with the really good soldier is to do that for which he was precisely intended.  Some men fancy armies were got together just to maintain certain exaggerated notions of military honour; whereas, military honour is nothing but a moral expedient to aid in effecting the objects for which they are really raised.  I have known men so blinded as to assert that a soldier is bound to maintain his honour at