Ethan felt like a coward and a criminal as he resumed his walk, following the same general route that he and Kindred had used only a day earlier. He was surprisingly weak and confused. Everything looked different now and he found it difficult to recognize even the obvious landmarks that any outdoorsman would store automatically and indelibly in his memory. The strangeness even applied to a stream crossing, a large fallen tree across the trail that had to be circumnavigated, a muddy slope where footing was difficult, a singular rock formation. At first he thought it might be the change in perspective of a man on foot instead of horseback, and then that he was moving in the opposite direction. But even when he turned around to imitate his earlier view, the scenes were hardly recognizable. It required a great deal of mental discipline to convince himself that he had not taken the wrong route. He looked at his pocket compass to double-check his general direction and had to acknowledge that there was no other trail that paralleled the north bank of Briar Creek. He felt that a different person inhabited his body.

Now, as he trudged homeward, his mind cleared and he realized that the trail had, indeed, been changed after he and Kindred traversed it, now trampled by hundreds of British troops who had followed its general direction. When he had walked about ten miles, he saw where Newota had obviously led them to the trail after crossing Briar Creek, and had then turned toward the campsite of the Continentals. From this point on, Ethan recognized the undisturbed path with which he was familiar and felt that he was regaining his equilibrium and his sense of judgment.

But he was filled with conflicting emotions, some of them pent up from the past. He deeply resented the brutal murder of Kindred and reluctantly concluded that he could no longer remain passive in the growing conflict. A major impediment to this decision had always been the necessity of serving under the direction of Elijah Clarke, a man with whom he was naturally incompatible and who might very well not accept him as a volunteer militiaman. He had been surprised that Clarke had asked him to deliver the warning to Ashe, but realized that it was because of his unique familiarity with the lower reaches of Briar Creek, and possibly the influence of Aaron Hart and John Twiggs. Also, there had been no way to anticipate how important the message would prove to be.