mendiquas, and where is that coward, Sir John Johnson? Will
they come?"

"They won't come," said Coleman.

They lay still awhile, listening to the firing in the town, which swayed
hither and thither. The smoke in the room thinned somewhat, and the
daylight broadened and deepened. As a desperate resort they resumed fire
from the windows, but three more of their number were slain, and, bitter
with chagrin, they crouched once more on the floor out of range. Wyatt
looked at the figures of the living and the dead. Savage despair tore at
his heart again, and his hatred of those who bad done this increased.
It was being served out to him and his band as they had served it out
to many a defenseless family in the beautiful valleys of the border.
Despite the sharpshooters, he took another look at the window, but kept
so far back that there was no chance for a shot.

"Two of them are slipping away," he exclaimed. "They are Ross and the
one they call Long Jim! I wish I dared a shot! Now they're gone!"

They lay again in silence for a time. There was still firing in
the town, and now and then they heard shouts. Wyatt looked at his
lieutenant, and his lieutenant looked at him.

"Yours is the ugliest face I ever saw," said Wyatt.

"I can say the same of yours-as I can't see mine," said Coleman.

The two gazed once more at the hideous, streaked, and grimed faces of
each other, and then laughed wildly. A wounded Seneca sitting with his
back against the wall began to chant a low, wailing death song.

"Shut up! Stop that infernal noise!" exclaimed Wyatt savagely.

The Seneca stared at him with fixed, glassy eyes and continued his
chant. Wyatt turned away, but that song was upon his nerves. He knew
that everything was lost. The main force of the Iroquois would not
come back to his help, and Henry Ware would triumph. He sat down on the
floor, and muttered fierce words under his breath.

"Hark!" suddenly exclaimed Coleman. "What is that?"

A low crackling sound came to their ears, and both recognized it
instantly. It was the sound of flames eating rapidly into wood, and of
that wood was built the house they now held. Even as they listened they
could hear the flames leap and roar into new and larger life.

"This is, what those two, Ross and Hart, were up to!" exclaimed Wyatt.
"We're not only trapped, but we're to be burned alive in our trap!"

"Not I," said Coleman, "I'm goin' to make a rush for it."

"It's the only thing to be