My impulse was to try to get her back to the
Rappahannock; but, on putting this to Shalah, he shook his head.
"It is too late," he said. "If you seek certain death, go towards the
Rappahannock. She must come with us to the mountains. The only safety
is in the hill-tops."
This seemed a mad saying. To be safe from Indians we were to go into
the heart of Indian country. But Shalah expounded it. The tribes, he
said, dwelt only in the lower glens of the range, and never ventured to
the summits, believing them to be holy land where a great _manitou_
dwelt. The Cherokees especially shunned the peaks. If we could find a
way clear to the top we might stay there in some security, till we
learned the issue of the war, and could get word to our friends.
"Moreover," he said, "we have yet to penetrate the secret of the hills.
That was the object of our quest, brother."
Shalah was right, and I had forgotten all about it. I could not suffer
my care for Elspeth to prevent a work whose issue might mean the
salvation of Virginia. We had still to learn the truth about the
massing of Indians in the mountains, of which the Cherokee raids were
but scouting ventures. The verse of Grey's song came into my head:--
"I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.
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