o women on the stair
screamed slightly, and, as though it were a signal, there came a great
blow upon the door and pandemonium arose without. I fired blindly through
my loophole, seized the musket at my side, and fired a second time, then
emptied both my pistols out into the night. It seemed to me a hundred
rifles were being fired at once. The hall was full of smoke and the
pungent smell of powder, and then, in a second, all was still.

But only for a second. For there came another chorus of yells from a
distance, and I could hear the negro women on the steps behind me
wailing softly.

"Load!" I shouted. "Load, Pomp! They will be back in a minute," and then
I ran to the other door to see how Brightson fared.

"All right," he said cheerfully, in answer to my question. "We couldn't
see 'em, but we emptied a good deal of lead out there, and I think from
the way they yelled we must have hit two or three." "Keep it up!" I
cried. "We'll drive them off easily," and with a word of encouragement to
the negroes, I returned to my post. As I neared the door, I saw two
figures in white working over the guns. It was Dorothy and her mother,
helping the negroes reload. I sent them back to the stair with affected
sternness, but I got a second hand-clasp from Dorothy as she passed me.

Then came another long period of waiting, which racked the nerves until
the silence grew well-nigh insupportable. The darkness without was
absolute, and there was not a sound to disturb the stillness. The minutes
passed, and I was just beginning to hope that the Indians had already got
enough, when I caught the faint shuffle of moccasined feet on the porch,
and again the door was struck a terrific blow, which made it groan on its
hinges. I fired out into the darkness as fast as I could lay down one gun
and pick up another, and again the uproar ceased as suddenly as it had
begun. As I turned away a moment from the loophole, I saw that Pomp had
sunk down to the floor, his hands to his head.

"What is it, Pomp?" I cried, as I bent over him, but there was no need
for him to answer, even had he been able. A bullet, entering the
loop-hole through which he was firing, had struck his left eye and
entered the head. The other negro and myself laid him to one side
against the wall, and when I went to him ten minutes later to see if
there was anything I could do, he was dead. I turned away to the women
to say some words of cheer and comfort to them, when a call fr