t the perpendicular rock, ran to
the corner formed by the cabin and the wall, and by the aid of the
dovetailed ends of the logs clambered quickly to the roof. I sent a
shot at them, but it had no effect.

No sooner had they reached the roof than they threw the flaming brands
and coal of our bonfire down the chimney, where they broke into
fragments and rolled over the floor, setting fire to the scattered
straw and plumes.

Busy putting stops into the windows, and fastening them and the doors,
we could do nothing to extinguish the fire before it got well under
way.

A blanket was thrown over the top of the chimney to prevent a draught,
and soon the whole interior was thick with stifling smoke.

The horses plunged frantically, sending the fire in every direction.
Our eyes began to smart painfully, and we felt ourselves suffocating
and choking in the thick and poisonous atmosphere.

To remain in the house was to be burned alive; to leave it was to
perish, perhaps, in a still more horrible way. Just as I was on the
brink of despair, the sergeant gasped rather than spoke:

"They are here, lieutenant. Hark! Hark!"

Ping! Ping! We heard the sound of rifle-shots, accompanied by a good,
honest, Anglo-Saxon cheer. Was there ever sweeter music?

The war-whoops ceased, the blanket was quickly withdrawn from the
chimney-top, and two thuds on the east side of the cabin showed the
Indians had left the roof. A general scurrying of feet and other thuds
down the perpendicular wall back of the spring were evidence that the
besiegers were in full and demoralized flight.

We threw the doors open, and our friends rushed in, and before a
greeting was uttered feet and butts of rifles were sweeping brands and
straw into the fireplace, and the roaring draught was fast clearing
the air.

Before I had fairly recovered my sight, and while still engaged in
wiping away the tears the smoke had excited to copious flow, I heard a
sobbing voice near me say:

"Oh, Franky, brother, if it had not been for dear little Vicky what
would have happened to you?"

Blinking my eyes open, I saw the boy corporals with their right arms
about each other's neck, holding their Spencers by the muzzles in
their left hands.

"Why, Henry," I said, "you did not make that march with the men?"

"Couldn't keep him back, sir," answered Corporal Coffey. "Said his
place was with his brother. Made the march like a man, and fired the
first shot when we turned the bl