officers, that the harassed commander had ventured to retain me for
field service, in spite of the fact that I was detailed to staff duty,
had borne dispatches up the Mississippi from General Gaines, and
expected to return again by the first boat.

The morning was one of deep-blue sky and bright sunshine, the soft
spring air vocal with the song of birds. As soon as early drill ended
I had left the fort-enclosure, and sought a lonely perch on the great
rock above the mouth of the cave. It was a spot I loved. Below,
extended a magnificent vista of the river, fully a mile wide from shore
to shore, spreading out in a sheet of glittering silver, unbroken in
its vast sweep toward the sea except for a few small, willow-studded
islands a mile or two away, with here and there the black dot of an
Indian canoe gliding across the surface. I had been told of a fight
amid those islands in 1814, a desperate savage battle off the mouth of
the Rock, and the memory of this was in my mind as my eyes searched
those distant shores, silent now in their drapery of fresh green
foliage, yet appearing strangely desolate and forlorn, as they merged
into the gray tint of distance. Well I realized that they only served
to screen savage activity beyond, a covert amid which lurked danger and
death; for over there, in the near shadow of the Rock Valley, was where
Black Hawk, dissatisfied, revengeful, dwelt with his British band,
gathering swiftly about him the younger, fighting warriors of every
tribe his influence could reach. He had been at the fort but two days
before, a tall, straight, taciturn Indian; no chief by birth, yet a
born leader of men, defiant in speech, and insolent of demeanor in
spite of the presence also at the council of his people's true
representative, the silent, cautious Keokuk.

Even with my small knowledge of such things it was plain enough to be