teady!
Shteady an' cool does it!"

A savage, with his face painted half white and half red, stepped out
from the thicket and dropped just as I fired. The next instant he came
leaping straight for our tree, castete poised.

Murphy fired. The effect of the shot was amazing; the savage stopped
short in mid-career as though he had come into collision with a stone
wall; then Elerson fired, knocking him flat, head doubled under his
naked shoulders, feet trailing across a rotting log.

"Save ye're powther, Dave!" sang out Murphy. "Sure he was clean kilt as
he shtood there. Lave a dead man take his own time to fall!"

I had reloaded, and Murphy was coolly priming, when on our right the
rifles began speaking faster and faster, and I heard the sound of men
running hard over the dry leaves, and the thudding gallop of horses.

"A charge!" said Murphy. "There do be horses comin', too. Have they
dhragoons?--I dunnoa. Ha! There they go! 'Tis McCraw's outlaws or I'm a
Dootchman!"

A shrill cock-crow rang out in the forest.

"'Tis the chanticleer scalp-yell of that damned loon, Francy McCraw!" he
cried, fiercely. "Give it to 'em, b'ys! Shoot hell into the
dommed Tories!"

The Caughnawaga rifles rang out from every tree; a white man came
running through the wood, and I instinctively held my fire.

"Shoot the dhirrty son of a shlut!" yelled Murphy; and Elerson shot him
and knocked him down, but the man staggered to his feet again, clutching
at his wounded throat, and reeled towards us. He fell again, got on his
knees, crawled across the dead leaves until he was scarce fifteen yards
away, then fell over and lay there, coughing.

"A dead wan,"' said Murphy, calmly; "lave him."

McCraw's onset passed along our extreme left; the volleys grew furious;
the ghastly cock-crow rang out shrill and piercing, and we fired at long
range where the horses were passing through the rifle-smoke.

Then, in the roar of the fusillade, a bright flash lighted up the
forest; a thundering crash followed, and the storm burst, deluging the
woods with rain. Trees rocked and groaned, dashing their tops together;
the wind rose to a hurricane; the rain poured down, beating the leaves
from the trees, driving friend and foe to shelter. The reports of the
rifles ceased; the war-yelp died away. Peal on peal of thunder shook the
earth; the roar of the tempest rose to a steady shriek through which the
terrific smashing of falling trees echoed above the clash of