"You are exhausted, Mistress Royal, you ought not to be here," said one of the surgeons sternly. "Go and rest."
"Oh, please let me stay," she pleaded with a humility so new that he looked at her with curiosity.
"Hush!" said his assistant making an excuse to draw him aside. "Don't you know she's been watching the men set out for the Fort?"
Elizabeth found words of comfort for a soldier who was mourning because his wife would have no one to look after her, if he died. "I will help her," she said. And then, by the light of the flaring candle, she wrote down the woman's address. She repeated verses of Scripture for some who asked her for them, and found a little steadiness of voice in doing it. But through everything she saw Archdale's vigorous form and heard Edmonson's passionate voice and his words. With such a marksman, and at such range, how could a shot stray!
But she dreaded still more the time when the expedition should return. To-night she bitterly regretted that the General had not been told her errand, and saw that when Mr. Royal urged it, it had been the wish to save her that had made Stephen Archdale ask him not to do it.
Three hours after the start she heard that the expedition had failed. All that was left was returning, the wounded would soon be brought in. Her little strength deserted her for the moment She sank down helpless in the shadow. Then she rose and went forward.
As the boat lay rocking on the waves waiting for the others, Archdale took his bearings. Leaning towards the stern, he said to one of his men:—
"Greene will you change places with me?" If the man had thought the request more than a whim, he would have supposed it to be because the captain considered his new choice a more dangerous post. Archdale seating himself again glanced toward the bow. He was now on the same side with Edmonson and the fourth man from him. It would be somewhat difficult to have the latter's gun go off by accident and be sure of its mark, and Greene was safe so far as exemption from an enemy at hand was concerned. Archdale would have preferred Edmonson's left hand but when it came to disembarking, his enemy should precede him.
"Better cushions?" asked Edmonson with a sneering laugh under which he tried to hide his anger. "Can't see any other motive for your running the risk of capsizing us."