But my ears had caught another sound,--the distant noise of wheels; and I guessed that this was a waggon which the three horsemen should have escorted, but, feeling entirely secure, had let their horses take their own gait, and so had straggled on far ahead of the convoy with which they should have kept in touch. The waggon was far away. It approached slowly. Already the horsemen had ridden clear out o' sight; and we crept to the edge of the road and lay flat in the weeds, waiting, listening. Twice the approaching vehicle halted as though to rest the horses; the dragoons must have been a long way ahead by this time, for it was some minutes since the sound of their horses' hoofs had died away in the woods. And now, near and ever nearer, creeps the waggon; and now it seems close at hand; and now we see it far away down the road, slowly moving toward us. But it is no baggage-wain,--no transport cart that approaches us. The two horses are caparisoned in bright harness; the driver wears a red waistcoat and is a negro, and powdered. The vehicle is a private coach which lurches, though driven cautiously. "Good God!" said I, "that is Sir John's family coach! Tahioni, hold your Oneidas! For I mean to find out who rides so carelessly to Oneida Lake, confiding too much in the army which has passed this way!" Slowly, slowly the coach drew near our ambush. I recognized Colas as the coachman _pro tem_; I knew the horses and the family coach; saw the Johnson arms emblazoned on the panels as I rose from the roadside weeds. "Colas!" I said quietly. The negro pulled in his horses and sat staring at me, astounded. I walked leisurely past the horses to the window of the coach. And there, seated, I saw Polly Johnson and Claudia Swift. There ensued a terrible silence and they gazed upon me as though they were looking upon a dead man. "Jack Drogue!" whispered Claudia, "how--how come you here?" I bowed, my cap in my hand, but could not utter a word. "Jack! Jack, are--are you alone?" faltered Lady Johnson. "Good heavens, what does this mean, I beg of you?----" "Where are your people, Polly?" I asked in a dead voice. "My--my people? Do you mean my husband?" "I mean him.... And his troops. Where are they at this moment?" "Do you not know that the army is before Stanwix?" "I know it now," said I gravely. "Mercy on us, Jack!" cried Claudia, finding her voice shrilly; "will you not tell us how it is that we meet you here on the Oneida road and close to our own army?" I shook my head: "No, Claudia, I shall not tell you. But I must ask you how you came here and whither you now are bound. And you must answer." They gazed at my sombre face with an intentness and anxiety that made me sadder than ever I was in all my life. Then, without a word, Lady Johnson laid aside the silken flap of her red foot-mantle. And there my shocked eyes beheld a new born baby nursing at her breast.