reat. In the gray dawn the remnant of Dalzel's
army reached the fort. The Indians went off, well satisfied with their
night's work, to count their scalps and celebrate.

While the English lost about sixty men in this engagement, called the
battle of Bloody Ridge, the number of Indians killed and wounded was not
greater than fifteen or twenty. The Indians considered it a great
victory and fresh warriors flocked to the camp of the Indian commander
who seemed to be a match for the English.

XI. THE END OF THE SIEGE

We have seen that after the battle of Bloody Ridge many tribes that had
before been afraid to take up the hatchet against the English, presented
themselves at the camp of Pontiac, eager for a share in the victory at
Detroit, which they thought would follow.

Yet that English stronghold, that log palisade, was a prize out of reach
of the chief and his warriors. The Indians kept close watch. If a head
appeared at a loophole, bang went an Indian's gun. If a point was left
unguarded, there was the torch applied. Fire arrows whizzed over the
rampart in the darkness, only to burn themselves out in the broad
roadway between the wall and the buildings. Again and again hundreds of
painted warriors danced about the fort yelling as if Detroit, like
Jericho, might be taken with shouting. Their spent bullets pelted the
old fort like harmless hail. They tried to rush upon the gate, but the
fusilade from the block house and the fire-belching cannon of the
British drove them back helter-skelter.

Late in September an incident occurred which increased the Indians' awe
of the British. A scout brought word to Pontiac that a dispatch boat
with a large store of provisions was on her way to the fort. As there
were only twelve men aboard, her capture seemed an easy matter.

The Indians planned a midnight attack. Three hundred of them drifted
down the river in their light birch canoes. The night was so dark and
they came so noiselessly that the watching English did not know of their
approach until they were within gunshot of the boat.

A cannon was fired, but its shot and shell went over the heads of the
Indians and plowed up the black water beyond. The canoes were all about
the ship and the savages, with knives in their teeth, were climbing up
its sides. The crew fired once. One or two Indians fell back into the
water; the rest came on. As they climbed nearer, the British charged
them with bayonets, and hacked them wit