“Now, Major Craven,” my lord continued, “will you detail for us the nature of the country as you remember it, and as precisely as you can. We have other information, of course, but I wish to see if it tallies with yours. Your return to-day is a piece of good fortune.” I explained with the map before me the main features, as I remembered them. My former journey had been made at some risk just before Gates’s advance to Camden and with a view to an advance on our side. What I detailed seemed to confirm the information already in our possession as well as the report of Sumter’s position. Wemyss, who was naturally the most deeply concerned, and who followed my explanation with great care on another map, put a number of questions to me; and in this he was seconded by Webster. When I had answered these questions to the best of my power, Wemyss addressed the man on my right—the same who had risen and sat down again. I should explain that Webster, the Brigadier, was on my left hand, sitting at the end of the table. I could apprehend by this time who were there. There were seven altogether, five soldiers and two civilians. “What I want to know is this, Mr. Burton,” Wemyss asked. “Are you sure that Triggs and Clarke, with the southern rebels, have not joined Sumter? This is a point of the utmost importance. It is life or death to us. Are you clear about it?” “Yes, Mr. Burton, let us hear you on that,” my lord said. The question was put at an unlucky moment for my neighbor had just taken a pinch of snuff which set him sneezing. With difficulty he managed to say that—tishoo! on that point he was—tishoo! clear—quite clear, my lord! “And just one point more, my lord,” Wemyss insisted. “Are you sure, Mr. Burton, that Triggs and Clarke are not near enough to join Sumter to-day? Before the time of my attack, sir, do you see? Because that is just as important.” “Yes, we want no more mistakes,” my lord chimed in. “Let us be certain this time. What do you say to that, Mr. Burton?” Mr. Burton, a stoutish man in brown, with a neat well-floured head—I could see so much of him, but little more, as he was next to me—sneezed again and violently. It was all he could do to answer in a half-strangled voice that—’tishoo! he was sure of that also—quite sure, my lord! One or two laughed at his predicament, but my lord was not pleased. “If you can’t take snuff without sneezing,” he said sharply, “why, the devil, man, do you take it! Why do you take it? Now, Wemyss, have you all the information you need, do you think? Are you sure? Don’t be hurried. You must not let Sumter get the better of you, as Marion did.”