oadstreet. "Should
they return to the farm, your friends will be exposed to great danger.
I purpose, on reaching Fort Harwood, to lay the state of the case before
the commandant, and to try and induce him to send me back with a body of
men, either to relieve the garrison of the farm should it be attacked,
or to go in search of the marauders."

I thanked the lieutenant kindly for this offer, although I did not
suppose that Uncle Jeff and his companions would have any difficulty in
beating off their assailants.

"As we must be off by daylight, it is now time to turn in," said the
lieutenant. "Suppose you keep one eye open, and I another! We must
not, if we can help it, be surprised by wolves or bears--nor Indians
either. It is just possible that the fellows whom we saw in the
afternoon may follow us."

"Then I will sit up and keep watch while you sleep," I said. "If they
come at all, they will try and steal upon us when they think that we may
be asleep."

"I agree to your proposal," answered my companion. "If you will call me
in a couple of hours, I will then take my turn, and thus let you have
the morning watch. I am accustomed to have my sleep broken."

Nothing occurred during the first watch, and at the end of it I roused
up the lieutenant and lay down. I suspect that he had intended to keep
on watch for the rest of the night; but I happened to awake, and
insisted--finding he had had a long spell--on his lying down. The young
officer, therefore, rolling himself in his buffalo robe, was again
quickly asleep.

I sometimes walked up and down, my rifle in my hand; sometimes leaned
against a tree, peering in every direction. It could not then have
wanted more than a couple of hours to dawn. The only sounds which
reached my ear were those from our animals as they cropped the rich
grass, or the occasional scream of some night-bird in the forest. The
moon, too, was nearly at its full, and I was thus enabled to see objects
at a distance distinctly. I could judge pretty well of the hour by the
appearance of the fire, on which, from time to time, I threw a few
sticks to keep up the blaze.

I was leaning against a tree, beginning to feel somewhat sleepy, and
thinking that it would soon be time to call the lieutenant, when a sound
as of something moving in the forest behind me struck on my ear. I
remained perfectly motionless, and again I heard the sound. "It may be
a bear," was my first thought; "but then,