ond rifle went off.

"He doesn't want to die," said Frank. "He's full of bullets." She heard
pain in his voice, and as she handed him his freshly loaded rifle,
Nicole saw that his upper lip was beaded with sweat. She hurt for him.
He hated killing, and now he was forced to try again and again to kill
this man.

Frank aimed and fired again. "There. I got him. He's down."

Frank pulled his rifle in and handed it to Nicole. As she started to
reload it, he leaned against the wall. Slowly his knees bent and he slid
down till he was sitting on the floor. She put the rifle down and
crouched beside him, stroking his arm, her heart aching.

He covered his mouth with his hand. His body jerked, but he managed to
hold in the vomit. After a moment, breathing heavily, he took his hand
away from his mouth.

"Oh, Jesus! What am I doing?"

Nicole put her arms around him, and his head fell against her breast.

"Excuse me, Miz Hopkins," said a voice above her. She let go of Frank as
David Cooper squatted down beside them and laid his hand on Frank's
knee.

"Hopkins, you're all right. I was with Harrison at Tippecanoe Village,
and when the Indians came at us out of the woods, I don't believe more
than half the men fired their rifles. There's really few men find it
easy to kill. There's times we got to."

Frank wiped his eyes and laid a hand on top of Cooper's. "Thanks."

Cooper said, "If you still feel bad, just think about what they'd do to
your wife and kids if they got in here."

Frank put a hand on the floor and pushed himself to his feet. "Yes, as
long as I think about my family I'll be able to shoot." There was a
bitterness in his voice, and Nicole felt she knew what he was thinking.
How cruel the irony, that love for his family could make him into a
killer.

"Here they come again!" a woman down the line shouted.

Again and again Nicole heard the rapping of bullets into the log wall
near Frank's head as he fired steadily at Indians charging from the
trading post buildings they had captured.

Frank turned from the rifle port to hand Nicole an empty rifle and take
a loaded one. An arrow flashed through the narrow opening, missing his
head by inches.

_Thank you, God!_

The defenders kept up a steady fire until the Indians withdrew again
into the captured buildings. Nicole and Frank took turns watching
through the rifle port. What was happening to their home at this moment?

The lull stretched on. Nicole went downs