sh! Don't get excited. They are gone now."

"Yes, I know," I said; "gone to Colonel Preston's."

"Hist!" he cried, as I heard steps close by, and Morgan came hurrying
up.

"Couldn't get far, sir. I was making haste, and getting close up to the
last man as I thought, when three of the savages jumped up just in my
path, and held up their bows and arrows in a way that said, plain as any
tongue could speak, `go back, or we'll send one of these through you.'"

"The chief knows what he is about," said my father, "and we cannot
communicate. Now then, get inside, and we will barricade the place as
well as we can, in case of their coming back. Can you walk now,
George?"

"Yes, father, the giddiness has gone off now," I said; and I sprang up,
but reeled and nearly fell again.

"Take my arm, boy," he said, as he helped me toward the window, and I
climbed in by it, when the first thing my eyes lighted upon was the
figure of our Sarah, down on her knees behind the door with her eyes
shut; but a gun was leaning up against the wall; and as she heard us she
sprang up, seized it, and faced round.

"Oh! I thought it was the Indians," she said, with a sigh of relief.

"Perhaps we have been frightening ourselves without cause," said my
father, helping Morgan to fix up the strong shutter with which the
window was provided. "The Indians are gone now."

"Yes," muttered Morgan, so that I could hear, "but they may come back
again. I don't trust 'em a bit."

"Nor I, Morgan," said my father, for he had heard every word; "but a
bold calm front seems to have kept them from attempting violence. If we
had been shut up here, and had opened fire, not one of us would now have
been alive."

"Never mind, sir," said Morgan. "If they come back let's risk it, and
show a bold front here behind the shutters, with the muzzles of our guns
sticking out, for I couldn't go through another hour like that again. I
was beginning to turn giddy, like Master George here, and to feel as if
my head was going to burst."

"Go up into the roof, and keep a good look-out from the little gratings;
but keep away, so as not to show your face."

"Then you do think they'll come back, sir?"

"Yes, I feel sure of it. I am even now in doubt as to whether they are
all gone. Indians are strangely furtive people, and I fully expect that
a couple of them are lying down among the trees to watch us, for fear we
should try to communicate with the others. I am af