night; and the
crashing of rending wood was heard, as a heavy shot tore the logs in
the room above, and the whole block shook with the force of a shell that
lodged in the work. The Pathfinder narrowly escaped the passage of this
formidable missile as it entered; but when it exploded, Mabel could not
suppress a shriek, for she supposed all over her head, whether animate
or inanimate, destroyed. To increase her horror, her father shouted in a
frantic voice to "charge!"

"Mabel," said Pathfinder, with his head at the trap, "this is true Mingo
work--more noise than injury. The vagabonds have got the howitzer
we took from the French, and have discharged it ag'in the block; but
fortunately they have fired off the only shell we had, and there is an
ind of its use for the present. There is some confusion among the stores
up in this loft, but no one is hurt. Your uncle is still on the roof;
and, as for myself, I've run the gauntlet of too many rifles to be
skeary about such a thing as a howitzer, and that in Indian hands."

Mabel murmured her thanks, and tried to give all her attention to her
father, whose efforts to rise were only counteracted by his debility.
During the fearful minutes that succeeded, she was so much occupied with
the care of the invalid that she scarcely heeded the clamor that reigned
around her. Indeed, the uproar was so great, that, had not her thoughts
been otherwise employed, confusion of faculties rather than alarm would
probably have been the consequence.

Cap preserved his coolness admirably. He had a profound and increasing
respect for the power of the savages, and even for the majesty of fresh
water, it is true; but his apprehensions of the former proceeded more
from his dread of being scalped and tortured than from any unmanly fear
of death; and, as he was now on the deck of a house, if not on the deck
of a ship, and knew that there was little danger of boarders, he
moved about with a fearlessness and a rash exposure of his person that
Pathfinder, had he been aware of the fact, would have been the first to
condemn. Instead of keeping his body covered, agreeably to the usages of
Indian warfare, he was seen on every part of the roof, dashing the water
right and left, with the apparent steadiness and unconcern he would have
manifested had he been a sail trimmer exercising his art in a battle
afloat. His appearance was one of the causes of the extraordinary clamor
among the assailants; who, unused to