hank you too much, young sir, for coming
to the fort with this warning."

"It is what we always owe to one another in the woods," said Henry. "I
think it likely that they will attack about three or four o'clock in the
morning. If I were you, sir, I'd have coffee served to the riflemen,
that is, if you have coffee."

"We have it," said the Major, and soon the women were preparing the
coffee. Everybody drank, and then the riflemen resumed their watch upon
the forest. Some were men of experience and some were not. Those who
were not believed, as the weary hours passed, that it was a false alarm
and wished to go to sleep, leaving perhaps a half dozen sentinels to
keep guard. But Major Braithwaite would not allow it. Not an expert in
the forest himself, he believed that he knew an expert when he saw one,
and he already had implicit faith in Henry Ware. The two were together
most of the time, passing continually around the enclosure. Henry looked
up at the sky, where no ray of moonlight now appeared, and where rolling
clouds increased in the darkness. The forest was merely a black shadow,
and the clearing between it and the palisade lay in heavy gloom. The
wise forethought of Major Braithwaite had caused a narrow platform, or
rather ledge, to be run around the inside of the palisade at such a
height that a man could stand upon it and fire over the top of the
stakes.

Henry and the Major stepped upon the ledge and looked at the clearing.
The Major saw nothing--merely the black background of earth, forest and
sky. Nor did Henry see anything, but he believed that he heard
something, a faint, sliding sound, perhaps like that of a great serpent
when it trails its long length over the grass and leaves. It was such a
noise as this that he was expecting, and he sought with attentive ear
and eye to locate it.

Ear guided eye, and he became sure that the sound came from a point
fifteen or twenty yards in front of them, but approaching. Then eye
discerned a darker blot against the dark face of the earth, and
presently turned this blot into the shape of a creeping warrior. There
were other creeping forms to right and left, but Henry, raising his
rifle, fired at the first that he had seen.

All the warriors, dozens of them, sprang to their feet, uttering their
cry, and rushed upon the wall, firing their rifles as they came. The
defenders replied from the top of the palisade through the loopholes and
from the upper story of the block