ho had told them what to do, and
it was she who led the way.

She reached the open gate again, but she did not hasten her footsteps.
She walked sedately in, and behind her she heard only the regular tread
of the long double file of women. The forest was as silent as ever.

The last woman passed in, the gate was slammed shut, the heavy bars were
dropped into place, and Mr. Upton throwing his arms about Lucy
exclaimed:

"Oh, my brave daughter!"

She sank against him trembling, her nerves weak after the long tension,
but she felt a great pride nevertheless. She wished to show that a woman
too could be physically brave in the face of the most terrible of all
dangers, and she had triumphantly done so.

The bringing of the water, or rather the courage that inspired the act,
heartened the garrison anew, and color came back to men's faces. The
schoolmaster discussed the incident with Tom Ross, and wondered why the
Indians who were not in the habit of sparing women had not fired.

"Sometimes a man or a crowd of men won't do a thing that they would do
at any other time," said Ross, "maybe they thought they could get us all
in a bunch by waitin' an' maybe way down at the bottom of their savage
souls, was a spark of generosity that lighted up for just this once.
We'll never know."

Henry Ware went out that night, and returning before dawn with the same
facility that marked all his movements in the wilderness, reported that
the savage army was troubled. All such forces are loose and irregular,
with little cohesive power, and they will not bear disappointment and
waiting. Moreover the warriors having lost many men, with nothing in
repayment were grumbling and saying that the face of Manitou was set
against them. They were confirmed too in this belief by the presence of
the mysterious foe who had slain the warriors in the tree, and who had
since given other unmistakable signs of his presence.

"They will have more discouragement soon," he said, "because it is going
to rain to-day."

He had read the signs aright, as the sun came up amid the mists and
vapors, and the gentle wind was damp to the face; then dark clouds
spread across the western heavens, like a vast carpet unrolled by a
giant hand, and the wilderness began to moan. Low thunder muttered on
the horizon, and the somber sky was cut by vivid strokes of lightning.

Nature took on an ominous and threatening hue but within the village
there was only joy; the coming sto