d turned to look, the explosion
came. He saw a sheet of vivid flame, that dimmed the brightness of the
rising sun, leaping in air. At the same instant, as though it had been
a thunderbolt and hurled at him, he was struck senseless by a crashing
blow on the head, delivered from behind.

The four or five crouching figures that had been grimly watching
Donald's approach, and sprang up to receive him as he turned to look
back, were for a moment petrified with fright at the suddenness and
violence of the shock. Then, moved by a common impulse, and without a
word being spoken, they lifted their unconscious captive, ran with him
to the lake shore, bundled him into a canoe, and pushed off.

Upon the Indians behind the breastwork, where the full force of the
explosion was felt, the effect was so disastrous that the
panic-stricken survivors rushed madly for their canoes. Many of these
were damaged, and some crushed beyond repair, by the rain of logs,
stones, and other missiles hurled from the dense smoke-cloud that was
slowly drifting to leeward in fleecy folds.

Although the blockhouse was violently shaken, it remained standing,
and, after a moment of consternation, its garrison rushed out to hasten
the flight of their terrified foes. A few ran to the breastwork on the
lake shore, and gazed wonderingly at the smoking hole from which the
torrent of flame had burst. The rest, headed by Christie, charged upon
the Indians behind the creek hank, who, although preparing for flight,
were not quite so bereft of their senses as those who had felt the full
shock of the upheaval. Some of them even turned on the whites, who
rushed so recklessly among them; so that for a minute a fierce
hand-to-hand fight raged on the narrow strand, and even among the
crowded canoes in the water. In the confusion of this melee Christie
became separated from his men, and ere he realized the full peril of
his position received several knife wounds in quick succession.
Staggering under these, he fell, was instantly dragged into a canoe,
and borne away.

It was only after the last of the canoes had made good its escape,
leaving many dead savages behind, that the little force of breathless
but exulting soldiers discovered their leader to be missing. In vain
did they search for him. In vain did they run along the shore, firing
ineffectual shots at the departing fleet. He was not to be found, nor
had they any knowledge of his fate.

So their jubila