hen she placed the knife in the hand of The
Panther. She decided to peep over the top of the rock and learn what the
Shawanoe was doing.

Sufficient moonlight found its way among the branches to permit one to
see indistinctly for a few feet. She was confident that she could give
their enemy one quick glance and then drop back before he could do her
harm.

Her heart beat a little faster than it was wont when, with the silence
of a phantom, she began slowly raising her head, with her eyes fixed on
the top of the rock, which she touched with her hands. Before she
reached the elevation in mind, she discovered the Indian was doing the
same thing, and, fortunately for her, was two or three seconds advanced
with the action.

The crown of the warrior, with the projecting eagle feathers, were as if
they were a part of the darkness itself, so vaguely were they outlined
in the gloom, though their identity was as clear to the girl as if the
noon-day sun was shining upon the painted features.

The head rose just high enough for the glittering eyes to peer over the
horizon of the rock in the endeavor to learn something of the situation
within the interior of the "fort."

Agnes was transfixed for a moment. She feared that if she sank lower, or
changed her position, the Indian would detect it and use his knife or
tomahawk, and the same unspeakable dread prevented her crying out to
warn George Ashbridge or any of the others of their peril.

She had no weapon of her own at command, and very probably it would have
made no difference if she had, for she was but an infant before this
terrible embodiment of strength, treachery and hate. But she felt she
must do something to teach the miscreant the risk he ran by his daring
act.

Groping silently with her right hand among and under the leaves, she
managed to clutch some gravel and dirt, which, with a quick flirt, she
intended to fling in the face of the Indian. It would probably cause him
some inconvenience and considerable surprise, though the weapon was too
insignificant for him to make any use of it.

The result of the novel demonstration can only be guessed, since the
opportunity to try it passed at the moment Agnes was ready to make the
test. When in the act of drawing back her hand, the head of the Shawanoe
vanished as noiselessly as it had obtruded on the scene.

It seems incredible that the savage could have gained any knowledge of
the interior of the fortification or of th