ve. But the night wore on, and he
made no sign. The sentry relieved at midnight reported no cause for
alarm. The one who went off duty two hours later gave a similar
assurance of continued safety. His successor yawned sleepily as he
paced to and fro, and shivered with the chill that had crept into the
night. A slight mist was rising from the water, and through it even
the black outline of the forest was undistinguishable. As nothing
could be seen, the sentry gave over his pacing, and, leaning against
the foremast, devoted himself to listening. He even closed his eyes to
improve his hearing, and so stood halt musing, half dreaming of his
distant English home, until, suddenly from out of the blackness, there
rang a shout of warning. It was instantly followed by another, and a
confused tumult on the water at no great distance.

As the startled sentry echoed the alarm and sprang to the bulwarks, he
caught a glimpse of moving objects sweeping down on the slumbering
vessel. In another minute the enemy would have swarmed irresistibly
over her sides, and her fate would have been sealed. But, ere half
that time had elapsed, there burst from her such a blaze of cannon and
musketry that the night was illumined as though by a flash of
lightning. The schooner trembled to her keel with the concussion. The
advancing canoes were so torn and riddled, by the hail of grape and
bullets, that several of them sank, a score of their occupants were
killed, many more were wounded, and the survivors fled in consternation
to the shore. From there, behind a breastwork of logs, they opened a
harmless fire that was quickly silenced by the schooner's guns. Soon
afterwards, a favoring breeze springing up, she weighed anchor and made
her way in safety to the fort, to which she brought not only
reinforcements of troops, but a supply of ammunition and provisions,
without which the garrison must speedily have surrendered.

On the very night of all these happenings, the canoe containing Donald
Hester and Paymaster Bullen entered the Detroit river, and began to
stem its swift current, moving silently and in blackest shadows.
Hoping to run the long gantlet of the channels, and reach the fort
before daylight, they strained every nerve to the attainment of this
purpose. They, too, had heard the defiant boom of the distant sunset
gun, announcing to all the forest world that Detroit was still held for
England's king, and the sound gave them a new