out among groaning men over whom the doctor
was busy, when all seemed to me to be unusually silent, and then I found
that I was able to see a little more as I got right forward to where
Colonel Preston was making his men close up together, and handing fresh
ammunition. It was rapidly growing lighter, and I saw dimly enough at a
short distance, just behind where the block-house stood, the
misty-looking figures of a large body of Indians.

"Look, quick!" I panted.

"Ah!" exclaimed the colonel. "Good! You can see now, my men. Hold
your fire till they are close in, and then let them have a volley."

A low murmur ran along the line of men, and a feeling of elation
thrilled me, but only for a deathly cold chill to run through every
vein. For this was evidently such a desperate season as Morgan or his
confederates might choose.

I could not stir for the moment. Then, as I mastered the horrible
feeling of inaction, I drew back and made my way through the confusion
within our defences to where I could be opposite to the covered-in kegs,
which lay not twenty yards away untouched.

The light increased rapidly as it does down south, and I caught sight of
a dark figure crawling half-way between our rough works and the
tarpaulin.

One moment I thought it was a dead or wounded man; the next I recognised
Morgan by the back of his head, and a cry arose to my lips, but it was
drowned by a deafening volley followed by a cheer.

I glanced to my left, and saw the body of fully a couple of hundred
Indians checked and wavering, when a second volley was fired and they
fled.

The smoke hid the rest from my eyes, and when it rose, Morgan was
standing close beside me watching the Indians, who had all crowded
through the palisade where a great piece was torn down, dragging with
them their dead and wounded.

CHAPTER FIFTY.

"Morgan," I whispered, and he started and looked at me wildly, the
morning dawn showing his face smeared with blood, and blackened with the
grime of powder.

"Yes, my lad," he said, sadly; "I thought it was all over, and as soon
as they were well at their work I meant to fire it."

I could not speak, and I knew it would be useless, so I shrank away, and
crept back past scores of despairing faces, to where my father lay
eagerly waiting for news.

As I went I saw that the officers were giving orders for restoring
portions of our torn down defences, and that the day had given the men
fresh energy, for