soldier, ready to fight
or scheme against our dangerous foes.

"Escape to the settlement if we can get safely away."

"But--"

I stopped short.

"Well?" he said.

"I was thinking about the house and garden, the furniture and books, and
all our treasures."

"Doomed, I'm afraid, George," he said with a sigh. "We must think about
saving our lives. We can build up the house again."

"Build it up again, father?"

"Yes, if it is burnt, and replace our books; but we cannot restore life,
my boy. Besides, all these things that we shall lose are not worth
grieving over. There, I think we have waited long enough now to give
them time, and we are near the landing-place. Pull steadily now, boy,
right for the posts."

Pomp obeyed, and the boat glided on, swept round a wooded point, and the
landing-place with its overhanging trees was in sight.

"Are they there?" said my father, sharply.

"I can't see them, father."

A sharp stamp with his foot on the thwart of the boat told of the
excitement he felt, and made me realise more than ever the peril we were
in.

"Pull, boy--pull!" he said.

I sat down in front of Pomp, laid my gun across the thwarts, and placing
my hands on the oars, helped with a good thrust at every tug, sending
the boat well along, so that in a couple of minutes more we were at the
landing-place, where I leaped out, and secured the boat by passing the
rope through a ring-bolt.

"Don't fasten it tightly," said my father; "leave it so that you can
slip it at a moment's notice. No, no, boy, sit still ready to row."

Pomp, who was about to spring out, plumped down again, his brow wrinkled
up, and his twinkling dark eyes watching my father, of whom he stood in
terrible awe.

"They ought to have been here; they ought to have been here," said my
father, unfastening the other boat, and making a loop of the rope that
could be just hung over one of the posts, besides bringing the boat
close in.

"I cannot go, George," he said sharply. "This is our only means of
escape, and it would be like throwing it away: they ought to have been
here."

"Pomp hear um come," cried the boy eagerly; and we both listened, but
for a few moments I could make out nothing.

Then as my father was eagerly scanning the edge of the river, gun in
hand, on the look-out for the first approach of the Indians, I heard
_plod_--_plod_--_plod_--_plod_, and directly after Morgan came into
sight laden with the guns and ammunitio