My plan was to find some hollow far up the mountain side, and there to make our encampment.

After an hour's riding, we came to the very place I had sought.

A pocket of flat land lay between two rocky knolls, with a ring of good-sized trees around it.

The spot was dry and hidden, and what especially took my fancy was a spring of water which welled up in the centre, and from which a tiny stream ran down the hill.

'Twas a fine site for a stockade, and so thought Shalah and the two Borderers.
There was much to do to get the place ready, and Donaldson and Bertrand fell to with their axes to fell trees for the fort.