the bow. His only conscious thought
was how to get a gun. He had no idea of what to do upon landing.

Upon pushing off, moved by a common instinct of caution, the Indians
fell silent, and during the crossing there was no sound but the
grumbling of the clumsy sweeps in the thole-pins, and the splash of the
blades.

Standing on the little platform astern, silhouetted against the sky,
Ambrose recognized the man who had given the word to attack Gaviller.

He marked him well. He was of middle size, a tall man among the little
Kakisas, with a great shock of hair cut off like a Dutchman's at the
neck.

On the way over Ambrose was greatly astonished to feel his sleeve
gently plucked. He studied the men beside him, and finally made out
Tole under his flaring hatbrim.

Into his ear he whispered: "I told you to go home."

"I go with you," Tole whispered back. "I your friend."

Ambrose's anxious heart was warmed. He needed a friend. He gripped
Tole's shoulder.

"Have you a gun?" he asked.

The breed shook his head.

"Get guns for us both if you can," said Ambrose.

On the other side, the instant the york boat touched the shingle, the
Indians set up a chorus of yelling frightful to hear, and scrambled
ashore.

Ambrose and Tole were among the first out. Together they drew aside a
little way into the darkness to see what would happen. There was no
need to warn the Company people; the yelling did that.

The Indians set off across the beach and up the bank, working
themselves up with their strident, brutish cries. The habits of thirty
years of peace were shed like a garment. The young men of the tribe
had never heard the war-cry until that moment.

Ambrose followed at their heels. At the top of the bank, to his
unbounded relief, they turned toward the store. He still had a little
time. All he could do was to offer himself to the defenders.

"I'm going to the side door of Gaviller's house," he said to Tole.
"Get guns for us, somehow, and come to me there."

He knew that Tole, who was as dark as the Kakisas, and in no way
distinguished from them in dress, ran little risk of discovery in the
confusion.

There was no sign of life about the post; every window was dark. The
Indians swarmed across the quadrangle without meeting any one.

As Ambrose reached the fence around Gaviller's house he heard the
store-door and the windows go in with a series of crashes. He crouched
beside the gate to wait for Tol