"_Nom de Dieu!_ we are lost!" wailed Baptiste.

"My God, what does it mean?" I cried, clutching Captain Rudstone's arm
with a trembling hand.

"My prediction, Carew," he answered hoarsely. "It has come--it is what I
expected. The devils have tunneled under the snow and planted a powder
bag against the stockade. They have blown a breach."

"We'll keep them out of it as long as we can," I shouted. "Hark! the
fighting has begun."

The captain and I had already set off on a run, and Baptiste was hanging
at our heels. Shouting and yelling rose from all parts of the fort, and
blended with the wild cheers of the savages. Dark forms loomed right and
left of us as we sped on. Guided by the clamor and by the great column
of smoke that was stamped blackly against the driving snow, we soon
reached the scene of the explosion, which was the northeast watch-tower.

It is impossible to describe the sight that was revealed to us by the
first rapid glimpse. All that day the redskins must have been burrowing
a passage beneath the drifts from the woods to the fort. They had
planted a bag or cask of powder at the very base of the tower, and blown
it into a heap of ruins, out of which could be seen sticking the bodies
of the two poor fellows who had been on duty there. As yet only a small
force of Indians--those who had approached by the tunnel--were storming
the breach, and these were being held at bay by a dozen of our men who
had reached the spot before the captain and myself. Muskets were
cracking, and tomahawks were flying through the air; the yells of
invaders and invaded made a horrible din.

At the first I saw some hope of holding the sheltered place--of beating
the enemy off. I plunged into the thick of the fight, emptying my gun
into the breast of a red devil, and bringing the butt down on the head
of another. We pressed close up to the sides of the tower, and gained
footholds on the ruins. Hand to hand we fought desperately, shooting and
striking at the Indians and keeping them on the outside of the fort. Not
many of them had firearms, and so far as I could see, but one of our men
had fallen.

"Stand up to it!" I shouted. "Hold your ground!"

"Hit hard!" cried Captain Rudstone. "Finish all you can before the main
rush comes!"

Flushed with triumph, half-crazed by the thirst for blood, we did not
pause to reflect that the scale must soon turn the other way. Face to
face, weapon to weapon, we held the savages at bay, s