the time I speak of, and that from the
west side of the fort, where a great clamor of firing and whooping
suddenly broke out. I did not dare to leave my post--I was virtually in
charge of the east stockade--but Captain Rudstone led half a dozen men
to the disturbed quarter. The scrimmage was quickly over, and when the
captain returned I got a report from him.

"It's all right," he said. "The devils rushed us, but we drove them back
by volleys from the loopholes, killing half a score and losing one
ourselves. The ground dips down to the fort there, and we had a clean
sweep. They won't molest us on that side again--it was a half-hearted
attack, anyway."

"I wish they would drop the whole thing," I replied bitterly.

Captain Rudstone shrugged his shoulders.

"You would be a fool to expect it, Carew," he said. "I am not a bird of
ill-omen, but, by Heaven! the redskins are determined to hang on till
they take the fort."

"They'll have a wait," said I.

"That's as maybe," the captain rejoined. "If there were only the Indians
to reckon with! But Northwest men are among them, cleverly disguised;
and I doubt not Cuthbert Mackenzie is one of them."

"I am sure of it," I asserted.

"He is after revenge--and Miss Hatherton," the captain went on. "And to
my mind, it is a toss up which will make the girl the happier--Mackenzie
or Hawke."

I turned on him fiercely, and I could have struck him with pleasure; he
seemed to take a malicious delight in probing my heart wound.

"Is this a time to talk of such things?" I cried. "I wish to hear none
of it, Captain Rudstone. Miss Hatherton is nothing to me!"

The captain laughed--a low, sneering laugh--and just then an Indian
bullet sang between us.

"A close shave!" he muttered, as he strode off to his loophole.

I turned to mine, and it partly relieved my feelings to get a shot at a
feathered scalp-lock, that was bobbing behind a tuft of bushes twenty
feet away. I aimed true, and with a convulsive leap a warrior fell
sprawling in the open.

My success stirred the savages up a little, drawing a chorus of vengeful
whoops, and a straggling shower of lead that pelted the stockade like
hail.

Then the fire ceased almost entirely, ami after waiting and watching for
five minutes, I concluded to leave my post temporarily and have a look
about the fort.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SECOND RUSH.

I went first to the highe