They knew, however, that a well-defined trail led from the Cowpens to Cherokee Ford, and along this they advanced at a smart pace, for it seemed necessary the journey should be performed during the hours of darkness.
Neither felt inclined for conversation. The silence of the men as they left the encampment struck them much like predictions of evil, and they were weighted down by a sense of danger in the air everywhere around them.
At near midnight they made the first halt, and up to that time not more than half a dozen words had been exchanged.
Now it was as if the nearness of the foe revived their courage rather than depressed them, and they discussed the situation as calmly as they might have spoken of the most ordinary affair.
"We must have been five hours on the march, and covered no less than seventeen or eighteen miles," Nathan suggested.
"Surely we are that far from the encampment, and it stands us in hand to have an eye out for redcoats, because they or the Tories will likely be scouting nearabout their halting place."
"And by going blindly ahead we may come upon them sooner than would be pleasant," Nathan added with a laugh. "Now it is my proposition that we tarry here until daybreak, rather than run our noses into trouble."
"Father said we were to perform the mission as quickly as might be."
"True; but yet he did not propose that we discover the foe by running into their very midst."
"We are yet a good dozen miles from Cherokee Ford, and by waiting here until daybreak will be forced to spend three or four hours before we can hope to see the main body."