o
sisters arrived at the "garrison" with a pitiful tale. The Indians had
killed Daniel Twitchel and Jacob Flynt the night previous, and the
visitors had but just escaped from their home before it was set on fire
by the cruel enemy.

"I doubt not they will make an attack here before another day, friend
Kilburne, yet I beg shelter of you, and my rifle may not come amiss."

"You would be welcome to stay, even though unarmed," was the hearty
reply. "The garrison is large enough for all, and I would that Daniel
Twitchel had spent more time strengthening his own dwelling against an
attack instead of trying to find flaws in the way I chose to provide for
my family. Ben, you and your brother had better mould bullets. It will
serve to keep you in-doors, and no one can say how much ammunition may
be needed."

As the boys set about the task, Mr. Kilburne listened again to the sad
news brought by his neighbor. There was nothing to be done in the way of
making ready for defence, because that had been attended to when no
danger threatened.

John Pike had not finished giving his story in detail, when Mrs.
Kilburne, who had stepped out of the house to get water from the pump,
which stood close at hand, sprang back suddenly, her face so pale that
there was no necessity of asking the cause of her alarm.

The two men were at the loop-holes in an instant, and that which he saw
caused Mr. Kilburne to say sharply:

"Ben, I leave the north side of the house to you and your brother. Our
lives may depend upon your vigilance, and there is to be no waste of
ammunition; every bullet must strike its target. Mary," he added, to his
wife, "you and your friends will keep the spare guns loaded, and finish
what the boys have left undone at the fire. I do not--"

"It is a regular army that has come upon us," Mr. Pike interrupted. "I
have counted not less than forty savages in the edge of the thicket, and
there must be as many more on either side of the house!"

It was learned later that the enemy numbered a hundred and seventy, all
well armed.

Ben and Arthur were peering eagerly out through loop-holes cut on each
side of the shuttered window, and the former was the first to discharge
his weapon.

"I saw a head over the top of the stockade," he said, in reply to his
father's question.

"Their number is so large that they will likely put on a bolder front
than usual," Mr. Kilburne muttered to himself, and despite the strength
of the "garris