James Town. I did not think that Nicholson, forewarned and prepared,
could stem the torrent; and if it caught him unawares the proud
Tidewater would break like a rotten reed.

I had been sent to scout. Was I to be false to the word I had given,
and let any risk to myself or others deter me from taking back the
news? The Indian army tarried; why, I did not know--perhaps some mad
whim of their soothsayers, perhaps the device of a wise general; but at
any rate they tarried. If a war party could spend a night in baiting us
and slaying our horses, there could be no very instant orders for the
road. If this were so, a bold man might yet reach the Border line. At
that moment it seemed to me a madman's errand. Even if I slipped past
the watchers in the woods and the glens, the land between would be
strewn with fragments of the Cherokee host, and I had not the Indian
craft. But it was very seriously borne in upon me that 'twas my duty to
try. God might prosper a bold stroke, and in any case I should be true
to my trust.

But what of Elspeth? The thought of leaving her was pure torment. In
our hideous peril 'twas scarcely to be endured that one should go. I
told myself that if I reached the Border I could get help, but my heart
warned me that I lied. My news would leave no time there for riding
hillward to rescue a rash adventure. We were beyond the pale, and must
face the consequences. That we all had known, and reckoned with, but we
had not counted that our risk would be shared by a woman. Ah I that
luckless ride of Elspeth's! But for that foolish whim she would be safe
now in the cool house at Middle Plantation, with a ship to take her to
safety if the worst befell. And now of all the King's subjects in that
hour we were the most ill-fated, islanded on a sand heap with the tide
of savage war hourly eating into our crazy shelter.