There before us, and less than three hundred yards distant, was the fortification over which was floating the flag made from Capt. Abraham Swartwout's cloak, and because we were on high ground it was possible to see the Americans moving about within, bent on this task or that duty. After one hasty glance we crept back into the middle of the thicket, and there, surrounded by hundreds of enemies, we two held a whispered conversation regarding the situation. It was only natural we should first congratulate each other on our good fortune in having come unwittingly to the very spot we most desired to gain, and then I said, simply giving words to the thoughts which had entered my mind as I gazed upon the fortification: "He who crosses the clearing between here and the fort, even though it be in the night, needs to wriggle along like a snake, else will one of Thayendanega's painted beauties lift his scalp." "It is a bit open jest in front of here; but I took note that further to the westward was a little more of green," Sergeant Corney said, half to himself, and I knew he was picturing in his mind the two of us making the attempt where was not a blade of grass to give shelter, for the "green" of which he spoke was nothing more than the fragment of a bush near the stockade. "How are we to attract their attention, providin' we succeed in creepin' up under the wall?" I asked, after a long pause, and he replied, grimly: "I'll answer that question after you've told me how we're goin' to stop 'em shootin' at us while we're tryin' to get across." Then it was I understood that even though the enemy did not see us while we were making our way over the plain, the sentinels in the fort were doubtless on the alert against just such an attempt on the part of the Indians, and there was little question but that they would fire at any moving thing which came within their line of vision. "It seems to me that we'll be between two fires," I said, with a feeble attempt to speak in a jovial tone, and Sergeant Corney's reply was much like a bucket of cold water full in my face. "That's exactly the case, lad, an' I'm countin' that betwixt 'em we'll be peppered in fine shape, else there are some mighty poor marksmen hereabouts." "Why didn't you tell the general that we couldn't carry his message? Didn't you think of all this at the time?" "Ay, lad, it was pictured in my mind much as we see it now; but he said we were to do the job, an' it wasn't for me to point out the danger." "Why not, if you felt certain we would be shot?" I cried, angrily. "Because a soldier has good reason when he enlists to expect he'll stop a bullet, else what would be the need of powder an' ball?" Having said this, the old man relapsed into silence, as if he was trying to figure out how the work might be done with less of danger, and I sat staring at him in a rage, for to my mind he had much the same as compassed his own death and mine by not speaking of all the perils in our path.