XXXVI. In the New Gray Dawn 378 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "'Toinette!' I whispered, 'I would call you by a dearer name than that!'" Frontispiece "The obsequious darkey was deliberately combing out his long hair" Facing page 56 "There was a rustle of paper, and Heald read slowly: 'Evacuate the post if practicable'" 192 "She had reined her horse back against a wheel of the halted wagon" 268 "'You shall not torture this man--he is a soldier of France!'" 313 "'Don't, John! The savage has a gun hidden beneath his robe'" 338 "I saw a dot upon the map, and a housefly's filmy wing-- They said 'twas Dearborn's picket-flag, when Wilderness was King. * * * * * I heard the block-house gates unbar, the column's solemn tread, I saw the Tree of a single leaf its splendid foliage shed To wave awhile that August morn above the column's head; I heard the moan of muffled drum, the woman's wail of fife, The Dead March played for Dearborn's men just marching out of life; The swooping of the savage cloud that burst upon the rank And struck it with its thunderbolt in forehead and in flank, The spatter of the musket-shot, the rifles' whistling rain,-- The sandhills drift round hope forlorn that never marched again." --_Benjamin F. Taylor._ When Wilderness Was King CHAPTER I A MESSAGE FROM THE WEST Surely it was no longer ago than yesterday. I had left the scythe lying at the edge of the long grass, and gone up through the rows of nodding Indian corn to the house, seeking a draught of cool water from the spring. It was hot in the July sunshine; the thick forest on every side intercepted the breeze, and I had been at work for some hours. How pleasant and inviting the little river looked in the shade of the great trees, while, as I paused a moment bending over the high bank, I could see a lazy pike nosing about among the twisted roots below.