Sol, "but the Wyoming fort can't
ever hold out. Thar ain't a hundred men left in it fit to fight, an'
thar are more than than a thousand howlin' devils outside ready to
attack it. Thar may be worse to come than anything we've yet seen."

"Still, we'll go in an' help," said Henry. "Sol, when you an' Paul have
rested a little longer we'll make a big loop around in the woods, and
come up to the fort on the other side."

They were in full accord, and after an hour in the bushes, where they
lay completely hidden, recovering their vitality and energy, they
undertook to reach the fort and cabins inclosed by the palisades.
Paul was still weak from shock, but Shif'less Sol had fully recovered.
Neither bad weapons, but they were sure that the want could be supplied
soon. They curved around toward the west, intending to approach the fort
from the other side, but they did not wholly lose sight of the fires,
and they heard now and then the triumphant war whoop. The victors were
still engaged in the pleasant task of burning the prisoners to death.
Little did the five, seeing and feeling only their part of it there in
the dark woods, dream that the deeds of this day and night would soon
shock the whole civilized world, and remain, for generations, a crowning
act of infamy. But they certainly felt it deeply enough, and in each
heart burned a fierce desire for revenge upon the Iroquois.

It was almost midnight when they secured entrance into the fort, which
was filled with grief and wailing. That afternoon more than one hundred
and fifty women within those walls had been made widows, and six hundred
children had been made orphans. But few men fit to bear arms were left
for its defense, and it was certain that the allied British and Indian
army would easily take it on the morrow. A demand for its surrender
in the name of King George III of England had already been made, and,
sitting at a little rough table in the cabin of Thomas Bennett, the
room lighted only by a single tallow wick, Colonel Butler and Colonel
Dennison were writing an agreement that the fort be surrendered the next
day, with what it should contain. But Colonel Butler put his wife on a
horse and escaped with her over the mountains.

Stragglers, evading the tomahawk in the darkness, were coming in, only
to be surrendered the next day; others were pouring forth in a stream,
seeking the shelter of the mountains and the forest, preferring any
dangers that might be found th