he driving snow a dusky mass rolled forward,
and when it was halfway across the space we made out no less than a
score of Indians each shouldering three or four planks of short length.
With reckless valor they came on, whooping and yelling defiantly.

"They've taken the cut timber that was stored in the powder house!"
cried Carteret. "It's as dry as touchwood and will burn like wildfire!"

"We're lost!" exclaimed Menzies. "There are too many of the fiends; we
shall never drive them back!"

"It's our last chance!" I shouted. "Steady, now. Fire!"

Bang! went my musket. Bang! bang! bang! rang other reports. The volley
caught the savages at a range of twenty yards and as the smoke drifted
up from the loopholes I saw the foremost, at whom I had aimed, sprawled
on the snow. Three or four others were down, and two more dropped
quickly. The rest darted on unchecked.

"Again!" I shouted. "Quick, let them have it! All together!"

We snatched spare guns from the men behind us, throwing down our empty
weapons, and a second straggling volley of lead and flame blazed from
the loopholes. But the smoke partly spoiled our aim, and the interval
gave the redskins a terrible advantage. Half of them dashed on, under
our very guns, and right up to the wall of the house, and the next
instant we heard an ominous sound--the thump and clatter of the dried
timbers as they fell against the logs.

"That's our death knell!" cried Menzies. "Heaven help us now! We are
lost!"

Heaven help us indeed! That there was no hope save for the intervention
of Providence, every man of us knew. Some cursed their hard fate, and
some shrieked threats and imprecations. Others seized the guns as fast
as the relief men could load them, and fired at the now retreating
savages, who went back with more caution than they came; for they first
crept along the base of the wall to the left angle, and then darted over
the crust in zigzag fashion toward the outbuildings, where their
comrades were howling and whooping with triumph.

"Two down!" cried Captain Rudstone.

"And one for me!" exclaimed Carteret.

I watched for a moment, but no more Indians appeared. The rest had
escaped to shelter, and they must have been few in number; for I could
count eight bodies lying about in the falling snow, amid scattered
strips of planking, and four wounded wretches were trying to crawl away.
Their attempt had succeeded, but at a terrible cost of life. With a
gesture of despair.