He looked after her helplessly as she went into the house, dazed by the consciousness that he had lost her forever. He knew then that she had never forgotten his failure to go up-stream with Ronald the night the Indians had been at Lee's, even though she had asked him to forgive her. "I have lost her," he said to himself, over and over again,--"I have lost her." Second thought convinced him that he had had no chance from the beginning--since the night he leaned on his musket in the shelter of the Fort; confused past the power of action, when the Ensign asked for volunteers. "Want to go over, Rob?" It was Mackenzie who asked the question, and Forsyth gladly welcomed the respite from his torturing thoughts. At the Fort all was changed, for the order had been read that morning on parade, and the men stood about in little groups earnestly discussing it. Mrs. Franklin and Katherine were on the porch at the Lieutenant's, and Robert went there, feeling that their society would be more bearable than that of the men. "If we go," said Katherine, "there'll be very little we can take with us." "If we go!" snapped Mrs. Franklin. "Do you think for a minute we're not going? A soldier's first duty is to obey orders!" Katherine turned a shade paler as she welcomed Forsyth. "Have you packed your belongings?" she asked. "Not yet," he answered, with a hollow laugh. The impending danger was obscured, in his mind, by something of infinitely more moment. "When do we start?" he inquired of Mrs. Franklin. "I don't know--Wallace hasn't decided. But we'll start when he says we will, and nobody need think we won't!" "Kit," said Mackenzie, as he joined the group, "I wish you'd go over to your mother--she isn't well. Bee is with her, but perhaps you could do something." "I'll go at once," replied Katherine. "And I must go home," said Mrs. Franklin. "If I can do anything, just let me know." Ronald and Lieutenant Howard were standing near the gate, and Forsyth stopped there when Mackenzie and Katherine went on home. "It's usual in such circumstances," Ronald was saying, bitterly, "to call a council of war." "And by the Lord," flashed the Lieutenant, "there shall be a council of war! What are we--children, or fools?" Ronald put a friendly arm across Forsyth's shoulders. "What do you think about it, old man?" "I haven't thought about it. I'm not a soldier, you know, and I'm not supposed to think. Of course, I'll obey orders, and if it comes to trouble, here's one more man to fight--I'm with you to the last." "Bully for you!" said Ronald. "If the Captain would listen to reason, there wouldn't be any trouble; but he won't--I know him too well." "He is only one man," put in the Lieutenant, with sinister significance. "And he is our superior officer," concluded Ronald. "Hello, Norton!"