Like shipwrecked mariners scanning the horizon for the rescuing sail, the besieged were hopeful that some good fortune would bring the strong body of stockmen that way; but the vision was rewarded by no such welcome sight.
Capt.

Asbury received a shock just before night closed in.

So many hours had passed without the exchange of a shot that both parties exposed themselves freely.

Had they chosen, a good many might have been picked off; but the general understanding that the hour had not yet come for action, threatened, at times, to change the impending tragedy into a most ordinary situation.
Capt.

Asbury was sitting by one of the front windows, smoking his briarwood, and looking nowhere in particular, when he saw a man kneeling on top of the ridge and carefully sighting his gun at him.
Before the fellow could secure an aim the officer moved quickly back out of sight, and he vanished.
"I have no doubt it was Duke Vesey," he thought; "what a pity I did not shoot him last night." He judged it not worth while to tell any of the rest of the incident, but he took care not to tempt the fellow again by a second exposure to his aim.
But for this prompt action on the part of the leader, a frightful conflict must have been precipitated.