he heart by Samson. Two others were severely wounded, but
numbers were following them, and rushing forward with their hatchets,
dealt desperate blows on the door.

"You may cut away pretty hard, my laddies, before you break that in,"
observed Sandy, as he reloaded his rifle. Samson and I were doing the
same, and again we fired; but most of the Indians, knowing the time we
should take to do that, sprang aside, and only one of them was hit.

"You will find two more rifles in yonder chest," said Samson to Reuben
and Mike. "Quick! load them, and we'll astonish the Redskins."

While he was speaking, the blows on the door were redoubled, and in
spite of its strength it appeared every instant as if it would give way.
Samson was, in the meantime, ramming down his charge, and again his
rifle sent forth its deadly contents. Instead of firing together, we
now followed each other, allowing a few seconds to elapse between each
shot, thus making our assailants afraid of approaching the door. We
guessed that they were collected on either side, where our rifles could
not reach them.

In a couple of minutes or so Reuben and Mike had found the rifles, and
loaded them.

"Now!" said Samson, "you two and Roger fire together; and then Sandy and
I will take your places, and try what we can do."

We waited till the savages, losing patience, again attacked the door
with their axes, in a way which threatened each instant to bring it
down, when we all three ran out the muzzles of our rifles and fired.
Another savage was, at all events, hit; but they had been on the watch,
and had actively sprung, some on one side and some on the other, so that
we could not be certain what execution had been done. The moment,
however, that our rifles were withdrawn, as many as could attack the
door leaped forward, and began hacking away with greater fury than
before. Scarcely had the first strokes been given when Samson and Sandy
fired into their midst, killing two of the most determined--the bullets
passing through the bodies of the first and wounding others behind them.
Five rifles, however, were more than they were prepared to encounter.
They must have guessed that we had increased our number, for, with cries
of rage and disappointment, they deserted the door and got under
shelter.

"Hurrah! we have beaten them," I cried out, and was turning to Reuben to
shake hands, and to ask how he and Mike had escaped, when Samson
observed--

"We must not b