y played on us," he said, "worthy uv a great
chief, but we hev met it with another jest ez good. I s'pose it's a new
way to put out fires with a cannon, but it's fine when you know how to
shoot them big guns straight. A-kill-us an' Hannibal an' Homer an' all
them old soldiers Paul talks about wuz never ez smart ez that."

But the battle was not over, nor had they yet forced all the watery
pass. The northern Indians were numerous, hardy, and wild for triumph.
The great mind and spirit of Timmendiquas, the White Lightning of the
Wyandots, urged them on, and they swarmed in hundreds along either
shore, standing in the water among the bushes and sending in an
incessant rifle fire. Others waded beyond the bushes, and still others
darted out in their light canoes, from which they sent bullets at the
two dark lines of boats in the middle of the river.

The rain came in gusts, and mingled with it was a wind which shrieked
now and then like a human being, as it swept over the forests and the
water. The thunder formed a bass note to all these noises, and the
lightning at times fairly danced upon the water with dazzling
brilliancy. It was a confused and terrible advance, in which the boats
were in imminent danger from one another. Every one was compelled to
move slowly lest it be sunk by the one behind it, and half the fighting
force of the fleet was forced to pay its whole attention to the oars and
sweeps and steering gear.

Paul was dazed a little by the tremendous confusion and mingling of
sights and sounds. He saw an Indian near the southern bank aiming his
rifle at their boat, and he sought to aim his own in return, but the
flash of lightning that had disclosed the warrior was gone, and for the
moment he looked only into blank darkness. He shut his eyes, rubbed his
hands over them, and then opened them again. The darkness was still
there. He did not at that time feel fear. It was too unreal, too much
like a hideous nightmare, and he did not realize its full import until
afterward.

"Shall we ever get through?" he asked, raising his voice above the
tumult.

"Some o' us will! most o' us, I hope!" shouted Shif'less Sol in reply.
"Jumpin' Jehoshephat, but that bullet was close! I think I got a free
shave on my left cheek. Did you ever hear sech a yellin' an' shriekin'
an' whizzin' o' bullets!"

"They are certainly making a determined attack," said Henry. "If they
had the fires to go by they'd get us yet. Look, there goes a