their shrieks cannot hurt us; and,
unless they attempt to break in, it would be useless to shoot the poor
wretches."

The enraged cries of the Indians increased when they found that the door
was closed. They attacked it with their tomahawks; but their weapons
were blunted against the hard oak, clamped with iron as it was. By
Tim's advice we still reserved our fire, as our stock of ammunition was
small, and we might require it for an emergency.

The closed door must have showed the Indians that we were within,
though, as we took care to conceal ourselves, they might not otherwise
have known it.

The door was, fortunately, fitted into the wall of the building, and was
so strongly and tightly closed as to prevent the entrance of water,
which we saw, from the marks on the walls, must occasionally rise some
feet in depth round it. As we did not venture to look out of the
window, we could only judge, by the sounds which reached us, what the
Indians were about. There was not much to fear from the blows of their
tomahawks, though in time they might have contrived to cut a small hole
through the door. We could, however, hear the sound of chopping again
and again repeated, while the shouts and shrieks of the savages, as they
ran round the building looking out for an opening, became more and more
vehement. At last they were silent. Wishing to ascertain what they
were about, I crept up to the window, and put out my head far enough to
take a glance round one side of the tower and over the ground below me
for some distance. I saw that a party of Indians were engaged in
bringing up a long log of wood, which they evidently intended to use as
a battering-ram. I must have been seen, for, although I withdrew my
head as rapidly as I could, the next instant a couple of arrows entered
the window, and several others struck the wall outside. Had I remained
a moment longer, I should probably have been killed or wounded.

"We must prevent them battering in the door," I exclaimed, after telling
my companions what I had seen. "We must show the fellows that we have
got fire-arms, and know how to use them."

The difficulty, however, was to reach our assailants without exposing
ourselves. One window only commanded the approach to the door. Here
Tim offered to station himself, and begged us to hand the rifles up to
him as fast as we could load them.

"I'll teach the spalpeens a lesson they'll not forget," he said, as he
took aim wi