uickly stifled by bitter shame--by a vision of the
dead man who had returned good for my meditated evil. Flora was in the
care of Mrs. Menzies. Captain Rudstone had taken her back to the house,
and I had no intention of seeking an interview with her until she should
have partly recovered from the shock of the factor's death.

It was indeed a black and dreadful night--a night of horrors and
anxiety, of gloom and mourning. For the outlook was by no means so
bright as we had let Griffith Hawke believe. What the result would be if
the savages rushed us a third time none of us dared contemplate. It was
too much to expect that they would abandon the siege, with men of the
Northwest Company among them to egg them on; and if they knew our
weakness, as was likely, another desperate attack was certain to come
sooner or later. Out of a total number of forty-six at the beginning of
the trouble, no more than half were now fit for service, the rest were
dead or disabled.

These were stern facts that weighed heavy on my mind and held me
sleepless and occupied while the night wore on. I saw well to it that
the sentries were alert and at their posts, that muskets and howitzers
were loaded and ammunition within easy reach, that the stockade was
secure at every point. I fought off drowsiness and fatigue with cups of
hot coffee, with pipes of strong tobacco.

Two hours before dawn the weather thawed a little and the snow turned to
a drizzling rainfall. In the gray flush of early morning when I made my
last round, it was bitterly cold again; a crust was on the snow, and the
leaden skies promised an early resumption of the storm. To north and
east the drifts reached halfway to the top of the stockade.

Bluish curls of smoke, rising here and there out of the surrounding
forest, told that the Indians were still in the vicinity. The frozen
crust was an incentive to them to make a final attack, and I expected it
during the day. I ate a hasty breakfast, and then Menzies summoned me to
the factor's house, where he had called a meeting to consider the
situation.

CHAPTER XXV.

A RAY OF HOPE.

In all five of us assembled--five low-spirited, grave-faced men: the
others were Menzies and Captain Rudstone, Dr. Knapp and an old and
experienced voyageur named Carteret, whose judgment was to be relied
upon. A discussion of a few minutes found us unanimously agreed that it
would be i