“The roll of the drum brought you to your feet, then!” he cried. “You’ve lain like the dead all night. I came but to see if you were breathing.”

“When I have eaten, I shall be myself again,” I said. “There’s no attack as yet?”

“No,” he answered. “They must know that we are prepared. But they have kindled fires along the river bank, and we can hear them yelling. Whether they’ll be mad enough to come against us remains to be seen.”

“The nearest settlements have been warned?”

“Ay. The Governor offered a thousand pounds of tobacco and the perpetual esteem of the Company to the man or men who would carry the news.