Their anxiety now made it necessary to watch for developments in the Cove as well as in the valley, and they scarcely found time to prepare their meals, which they ate as they moved about. All day the telescope was in transit from one side of the mountain to the other until there was a deep path trodden in the snow. From time to time one or another of the officers was seen near the cabin, and even if they had not been seen at all, the presence of Smith or one of the girls watching at the gate would have been sufficient evidence that the officers were still there. They might be waiting for a guide or the cover of night before going on. The day was unusually cold, and beyond the smoke from the chimneys, and here and there a woman in a doorway, there was no movement in the quiet valley. Late in the afternoon of this December 24--for it was Christmas eve, and not a very cheerful one on the mountain--Bromley, who was watching on the Cove side, spied a body of men at that very point in the road where the two horsemen had disappeared in the morning. He shouted so lustily for the telescope that both Philip and Coleman joined him with all haste. What they saw through the glass was a straggling column of mountaineers advancing in single file along the winding road, their steel rifle-barrels catching the last rays of the setting sun. There were thirteen men in the party, of whom about half wore some part of a Confederate uniform; but neither Shifless nor the Cove postmaster was with them. They had scarcely time to pass the glass from one to another, in their excitement, before the men left the road and turned up the mountain-side with a stealthy movement that made it plain they were going into temporary concealment. A few extracts from Lieutenant Coleman's diary at this point give a vivid picture of what was happening during the night on the mountain and about it. "I am writing by the light of the fire in our house on this Christmas eve, at 10:30 o'clock by my watch, powerless to warn our friends at the cabin of the impending calamity. Soon after dark, fire appeared on mountainside, and it is now burning brightly, as reported by Philip, who has just returned to the lookout. "12, midnight. Have just come in--fire still visible. "12:35. Philip reports that fire has just been extinguished on mountain-side. Sparks indicated fire was put out by beating and scattering the brands. We are all about to go to Point of Rocks--shall probably be up all night."