The camp was astir early the next morning, and it soon became noised about that we were to fall back, but only so far as might be needful to find a strong position. From this it was evident that a battle was imminent¹, though as yet there were no signs of the approach of the patriots³.  
From the camp talk we, Tybee and I, gleaned⁴ some better information of the situation. A fortnight earlier Major Ferguson had captured two of the over-mountain men of Clark's party and had sent them to the settlement on the Watauga with a challenge in due form—or rather with the threat to come and lay the over-mountain region waste in default of an instant return of the pioneers to their allegiance to the king.
 
This challenge, so our scouts⁵ told us, had been immediately accepted. Sevier and Shelby had embodied⁶ some two hundred men each from the Watauga and the Holston settlements, and Colonel William Campbell, the stout⁷ old Presbyterian Indian fighter, had joined them with as many more Virginians.
 
Crossing the mountain these three troops had fallen in with other scattered⁸ parties of the border patriots under Benjamin Cleaveland, Major Chronicle and Colonel Williams, of South Carolina, until now, as the scouts reported, the challenged outnumbered the challengers. Learning this, Ferguson, who was as prudent⁹ as he was brave, thought it best to make his stand at some point nearer the main body of the army; and so the withdrawal¹⁰ from Gilbert Town had fallen into a retreat and a pursuit.
 
From what Captain de Peyster has since told me, there would seem to be little doubt that the major meant to fight when he had manoeuvered himself into a favorable position; this in spite of Lord Cornwallis's commands to the contrary. In his despatches he was continually urging the need for a bold push in his quarter, and asking for Tarleton and a sufficient number of the legion to enable him to cope with a mounted enemy. But be this as it may, the garbled¹² letter I had brought him turned whatever scale there was to turn. He had now with him some eleven hundred regulars and Tories, the latter decently well drilled; he had every reason to expect the needed help from Cornwallis; and, on the night of my arrival, he had word that another Tory force under Major Gibbs would join him in a day or two, at farthest.
 
For his battle-ground Major Ferguson chose the top of a forest-covered hill, the last and lowest elevation¹³ in the spur named that day King's Mountain.
 
In some respects the position was all that could be desired. There was room on the flat hilltop for an orderly disposition¹⁴ of the fighting force; and the slopes in front and rear were steep enough to give an attacking enemy a sharp climb. Moreover, there was a plentiful¹⁵ outcropping of stone on the summit, scantiest¹⁶ on the broad or outer end of the hill, and this was so disposed as to form a natural breastwork for the defenders¹⁷.
 
But there were disadvantages also, the chief of these being the heavy wooding of the slopes to screen the advance of the assaulting party; and while the major was busy making his dispositions¹⁹ for the fight, I was on tenter-hooks for fear he would have the trees felled to belt the breastwork with a clear space.
 
He did not do it, being restrained, as I afterward²⁰ learned, by his uncertainty²¹ as to whether or no the mountain men had cannon²². Against artillery²³ posted on the neighboring hillocks the trees were his best defense²⁴, and so he left them standing²⁵.
 
As you would suppose, my situation was now become most trying, and poor Tybee's was scarcely less so. Knowing my name and circumstance, and having, moreover, a high regard for my old field-marshal's genius, Major Ferguson was very willing to make use of my experience. These askings from one whom I knew for a brave and honorable gentleman let me fall between two stools. As a patriot² spy, it was my duty to turn the major's confidence as a weapon against him. But as an officer and a gentleman I could by no means descend²⁶ to such depths of perfidy²⁷.
 
In this dilemma²⁸ I sought to steer²⁹ a middle course, saying that I must beg exemption³⁰ because my long hard ride had re-opened my old sword wound—as indeed it had. So the major generously let me be, thus heaping coals of fire upon my head; and I kept out of his way, consorting³¹ with Tybee, who, like myself, must be an onlooker³² in the coming fray³³.
 
As for the lieutenant³⁴, he was all agog³⁵ to learn more than I dared tell him, and it irked him most nettlesomely to have a fight in prospect³⁶ in the which he was in honor bound not to take a hand. Time and again he begged me to release him from his parole; and when I would not, he was for fighting me a duel³⁷ with his freedom for a stake.
 
"Consider of it, Captain Ireton," he pleaded. "For God's sake, put yourself in my place. Here am I, in the camp of my friends, gagged and bound by my word to you whilst your infernal plot, whatever it may be, works out to the coup³⁸ de grâce. Ye gods! it would have been far more merciful had you run me through in our wrestling match last night!"
 
"Mayhap," said I, curtly³⁹. "'Twas but the choice between two evils. Nevertheless, in time to come I hope you may conclude that this is the lesser⁴⁰ of the two."
 
"No, I'm damned if I shall!" he retorted, fuming⁴¹ like a disappointed boy, and minding me most forcibly of my hot-headed Richard Jennifer. And then he would repeat: "I thought you were my friend."
 
"So I am, as man to man. But this matter concerns the welfare of a cause to which I have sworn fealty⁴². Take your own words back, my lad, and put yourself in my place. Can I do less than hold you to your pledge?"
 
"No, I suppose not," he would say, grumpily. "Yet 'tis hard; most devilish hard!"
 
"'Tis the fortune of war. Another day the shoe may be upon the other foot."
 
The baggage wagons⁴⁴ had been massed across the broad end of the hill to eke⁴⁵ out the stone breastwork, and the last of these arguing colloquies⁴⁶ took place beneath one of the wagons whither we had crept for shelter from the rain, which was now pouring again. In the midst of our talk, Major Ferguson dived to share our shelter, dripping like a water spaniel.
 
"Ha! ye're carpet soldiers, both of ye!" he snorted, and then he began to swear piteously at the rain.
 
"'Twill be worse for the enemy than for us," said Tybee. "We can at least keep our powder dry."
 
"Damn the enemy!" quoth the major, cheerfully. "So the weather does not put the creeks⁴⁷ up and hold Tarleton and Major Gibbs back from us, 'tis a small matter whether the rebels' powder be dry or soaked."
 
"You have made all your dispositions, Major?" Tybee asked.
 
The major nodded. "All in apple-pie order, no thanks to either of ye. 'Tis a strong position, this, eh, Captain Ireton? I'm thinking not all the rebel banditti out of hell will drive us from it."
 
"'Tis good enough," I agreed; and here the talk was broken off by the major's diving out to berate⁴⁸ some of his Tory militiamen who were preparing to make a night of it with a jug⁵⁰ of their vile⁵¹ country liquor.
 
The rain continued all that Friday night and well on into the forenoon of the Saturday. During this interval⁵² we waited with scouts out for the upcoming of the mountain men. At noon Major Ferguson sent a final express to Lord Cornwallis, urging the hurrying on of the reinforcements, not knowing that his former despatch¹¹ had been intercepted⁵³, nor that Tarleton had not as yet started to the rescue. A little later the scouts began to come in one by one with news of the approaching riflemen.
 
There was but a small body of them, not above a thousand men in all, so the spies said, and my heart misgave⁵⁴ me. They were without cannon and they lacked bayonets; and moreover, when all was said, they were but militia⁴⁹, all untried save in border warfare⁵⁵ with the Indians. Could they successfully assault the fortified⁵⁶ camp whose defenders—thanks to the major's ingenuity—had fitted butcher-knives to the muzzles⁵⁷ of their guns in lieu of bayonets? Nay⁵⁸, rather would they have the courage to try?
 
'Twas late in the afternoon before these questions were answered. The rain had ceased, and the chill October sunlight filtered aslant⁵⁹ through the trees. With the clearing skies a cold wind............