and
down the portion of the camp which had been allotted to me to guard. It
was the north-west angle, contained by the line of breastwork which ran
along the edge of the ravine and half of that by the brink of the cliff.
I frequently stopped to listen, stretching over as far as I could to
look down into the depths of the gorge below, I had been on watch about
an hour and had just reached the eastern end of my beat, where it joined
that of Dio, who was posted at the northern angle, when I saw the black
come creeping towards me.

"Hist! Massa Mike," he whispered, "me tink me hear someting down below,
may be bear or painter, or may be red-skin comin' to try and cut our
t'roats. He no get in so easy 'dough. Jes' come an' say what you t'ink
it is, Massa Mike, but not show yourself, or if red-skin savage him
shoot his arrow."

Following Dio's example, I stooped down and crept cautiously on to the
point to which he conducted me. We listened attentively. The sound of
the cattle cropping the grass, or the cry of some night-bird, and now
and then the snore of a sleeper, alone broke the silence of night.

"I can hear no sounds, Dio," I whispered.

"Dat show me dat he no bear, painter, or wolf, for dey rush about de
brushwood. Red-skin too clever for dat."

"Keep watch then, Dio," I said, "while I call Mr Tidey. You very
likely are right; and if he thinks so, we must rouse up the rest of the
camp. You must keep an eye to my post, which I ought not to quit except
on an emergency."

I ran to the opposite angle, where the Dominie had stationed himself,
and told him that Dio had heard a movement below us.

"Just what I expected," he answered; "go back to your post, and I will
call up your father and uncle, and the rest of the men if necessary."

I hurried back and had scarcely got half-way across the camp, though it
was not many paces wide, when I saw Dio lift up his double-handed axe,
and strike a blow with it at some object which was to me invisible. The
Dominie, who had seen the occurrence, rushed back to the breastwork. We
were just in time to catch sight of the feather-bedecked heads of two
Indians rising above the bank, on which they were about to place their
knees. The next moment Dio's axe came down on one of them, while the
Dominie struck a blow at the other which hurled him backwards.

"Give a look to the side of the gully, they will be attempting to get in
there presently. The Indians expect to surpri