Our leaders were grave, probably because they alone knew at what price this temporary triumph had been purchased; but the remainder of the party were wild with joy, for we imagined ourselves victors.
Before fording the river we were joined by nearly an hundred mounted men who had obeyed Master Hamilton's instructions to take their families home and return armed, and throughout the night we received accessions to our force until the Regulators were more than a thousand strong.
It can well be supposed that all the company were burning with curiosity to learn more concerning the bargain which had resulted in the release of the prisoners; but our commander gave no sign of being in haste to explain matters.
"The Regulation will meet to-night, and the whole matter shall be laid before it," he said gravely when Master Howell, bolder than the others, ventured to ask for particulars.
Sidney and I, when we were occupying our old lean-to once more, speculated earnestly as to what the people had, through Master Hamilton, promised as the price of the prisoners' release; but we had made little headway when Master James Hunter, the deputy, approached our shelter on his way across the encampment.
After our experience in his company he seemed rather like a comrade than a mere acquaintance, and Sidney did not hesitate about asking the questions we were so eager to have answered.
"As yet we have really made no bargain, lads," Master Hunter said as he seated himself in a friendly way near us. "The governor promised, for the sole purpose of averting bloodshed, so he declared, to release those of us who were sentenced to imprisonment and fine, in consideration of the Regulators returning to camp, and keeping with them such as might arrive bent on rebellious acts, until to-morrow morning. Then, so the secretary stated, some proposal looking to peace will be made."
"It seems much as if Tryon was backing down from the high horse he has been riding in the Carolinas," Sidney said with a laugh.
"He had no choice in this case," Master Hunter replied. "The Regulators held him like a rat in a trap, and if a battle had ensued his own precious body would have been endangered. My only fear is that he counts, by such delay, on getting the best of us in some way."
"We shall be stronger to-morrow morning than we are now," I ventured to suggest. "The people are coming in rapidly, and soon we shall outnumber his force five to one."