"Thou mild, sad mother--
Quit him not so soon!
Mother, in mercy, stay!
Despair and death are with him; and canst thou,
With that kind, earthward look, go leave him now?"
Dana.
When these precautions were taken, the females returned to their several
look-outs; and Ruth, whose duty it was in moments of danger to exercise a
general superintendence, was left to her meditations and to such
watchfulness as her fears might excite. Quitting the inner rooms, she
approached the door that communicated with the court, and for a moment
lost the recollection of her immediate cares in a view of the imposing
scene by which she was surrounded.
By this time, the whole of the vast range of out-buildings, which had been
constructed, as was usual in the Colonies, of the most combustible
materials and with no regard to the expenditure of wood, was wrapt in
fire. Notwithstanding the position of the intermediate edifices, broad
flashes of light were constantly crossing the court itself, on whose
surface she was able to distinguish the smallest object, while the heavens
above her were glaring with a lurid red. Through the openings between the
buildings the quadrangle, the eye could look out upon the fields, where
she saw every evidence of a sullen intention on the part of the savages to
persevere in their object. Dark, fierce-looking, and nearly naked human
forms were seen flitting from cover to cover while there was no stump nor
log within arrow's-flight of the defences, that did not protect the person
of a daring and indefatigable enemy. It was plain the Indians were there
in hundreds, and as the assaults continued after the failure of a
surprise, it was too evident that they were bent on victory, at some
hazard to themselves. No usual means of adding to the horrors of the scene
were neglected. Whoops and yells were incessantly ringing around the
place, while the loud and often-repeated tones of a conch betrayed the
artifice by which the savages had so often endeavored, in the earlier part
of the night, to lure the garrison out of the palisadoes. A few scattering
shot, discharged with deliberation and from every exposed point within the
works, proclaimed both the coolness and the vigilance of the defendants.
The little gun in the block-house was silent, for the Puritan knew too
well its real power to lessen its reputation by a too frequent use The
weapon was therefore reserved for those moments of pressing danger that
would be sure to arrive.
On this spectacle Ruth gazed in fearful sadness. The long-sustained and
sylvan security of her abode was violently destroyed; and in the place of
a quiet which had approached as near as may be on earth to that holy peace
for which her spirit strove, she and all she most loved were suddenly
confronted to the most frightful exhibition of human horrors. In such a
moment, the feelings of a mother were likely to revive; and ere time was
given for reflection, aided by the light of the conflagration, the matron
was moving swiftly through the intricate passages of the dwelling, in
quest of those whom she had placed in the security of the chambers.
"Thou hast remembered to avoid looking on the fields, my children," said
the nearly breathless woman as she entered the room. "Be thankful, babes;
hitherto the efforts of the savages have been vain and we still remain
masters of our habitations."
"Why is the night so red? Come hither, mother thou mayest look into the
wood as if the sun were shining!"
"The heathens have fired our granaries, and what thou seest is the light
of the flames. But happily they cannot put brand into the dwellings, while
thy father and the young men stand to their weapons. We must be grateful
for this security, frail as it seemeth. Thou hast knelt, my Ruth; and hast
remembered to think of thy father and brother in thy prayers."
"I will do so again, mother," whispered the child, bending to her knees,
and wrapping her young features in the garments of the matron.
"Why hide thy countenance? One young and innocent as thou, may lift thine
eyes to Heaven with confidence."
"Mother, I see the Indian, unless my face be hid. He looketh at me, I
fear, with wish to do us harm."
"Thou art not just to Miantonimoh, child," answered Ruth, as she glanced
her eye rapidly round to seek the boy, who had modestly withdrawn into a
remote and shaded corner of the room. "I left him with thee for a
guardian, and not as one who would wish to injure. Now think of thy God,
child," imprinting a kiss on the cold, marble-like forehead of her
daughter, "and have reliance in his goodness. Miantonimoh, I again leave
you with a charge, to be their protector," she added, quitting her
daughter and advancing towards the youth.
"Mother!" shrieked the child, "come to me, or I die!"
Ruth turned from the listening captive, with the quickness of instinct. A
glance showed her the jeopardy of her offspring. A naked savage, dark,
powerful of frame, and fierce in the frightful masquerade of his
war-paint, stood winding the silken hair of the girl in one hand, while he
already held the glittering axe above a head that seemed inevitably
devoted to destruction.
"Mercy! mercy!" exclaimed Ruth, hoarse with horror, and dropping to her
knees, as much from inability to stand as with intent to petition.
"Monster, strike me, but spare the child!"
The eyes of the Indian rolled over the person of the speaker, but it was
with an expression that seemed rather to enumerate the number of his
victims, than to announce any change of purpose. With a fiend-like
coolness, that bespoke much knowledge of the ruthless practice, he again
swung the quivering but speechless child in the air, and prepared to
direct the weapon with a fell certainty of aim. The tomahawk had made its
last circuit, and an instant would have decided the fate of the victim,
when the captive boy stood in front of the frightful actor in this
revolting scene. By a quick, forward movement of his arm, the blow was
arrested. The deep guttural ejaculation, which betrays the surprise of an
Indian, broke from the chest of the savage, while his hand fell to his
side, and the form of the suspended girl was suffered again to touch the
floor. The look and gesture with which the boy had interfered, expressed
authority rather than resentment or horror. His air was calm, collected,
and, as it appeared by the effect, imposing.
"Go," he said in the language of the fierce people from whom he had
sprung; "the warriors of the pale men are calling thee by name."
"The snow is red with the blood of our young men," the other fiercely
answered; "and not a scalp is at the belt of my people."
"These are mine," returned the boy with dignity, sweeping his arm, while
speaking, in a manner to show that he extended protection to all present.
The warrior gazed about him grimly, and like one but half-convinced. He
had incurred a danger too fearful, in entering the stockade, to be easily
diverted from his purpose.
"Listen!" he continued, after a short pause, during which the artillery of
the Puritan had again bellowed in the uproar, without. "The thunder is
with the Yengeese! Our young women will look another way and call us
Pequots, should there be no scalps on our pole."
For a single moment, the countenance of the boy changed, and his
resolution seemed to waver. The other, who watched his eyes with longing
eagerness, again seized his victim by the hair, when Ruth shrieked in the
accents of despair--
"Boy! boy! if thou art not with us, God hath deserted us!"
"She is mine," burst fiercely from the lips of the lad. "Hear my words,
Wompahwisset; the blood of my father is very warm within me."
The other paused, and the blow was once more suspended. The glaring
eye-balls of the savage rested intently on the swelling form and stern
countenance of the young hero, whose uplifted hand appeared to menace
instant punishment, should he dare to disregard the mediation. The lips of
the warrior severed, and the word 'Miantonimoh' was uttered as softly as
if it recalled a feeling of sorrow. Then, as a sudden burst of yells rose
above the roar of the conflagration, the fierce Indian turned in his
tracks, and, abandoning the trembling and nearly insensible child, he
bounded away like a hound loosened on a fresh scent of blood.
"Boy! boy!" murmured the mother; "heathen or Christian, there is one that
will bless thee!--"
A rapid gesture of the hand interrupted the fervent expression of
her gratitude. Pointing after the form of the retreating savage, the
lad encircled his own head with a finger, in a manner that could not
be mistaken, as he uttered steadily, but with the deep emphasis of
an Indian--
"The young Pale-face has a scalp!"
Ruth heard no more. With instinctive rapidity, every feeling of her soul
quickened nearly to agony, she rushed below, in order to warn Mark against
the machinations of so fearful an enemy. Her step was heard but for a
moment in the vacant chambers, and then the Indian boy, whose steadiness
and authority had just been so signally exerted in favor of the children,
resumed his attitude of meditation, as quietly as if he took no further
interest in the frightful events of the night.
The situation of the garrison was now, indeed, to the last degree
critical. A torrent of fire had passed from the further extremity of the
out-houses to that which stood nearest to the defences, and, as building
after building melted beneath its raging power, the palisadoes became
heated nearly to the point of ignition. The alarm created by this imminent
danger had already been given, and, when Ruth issued into the court, a
female was rushing past her, seemingly on some errand of the last
necessity.
"Hast seen him?" demanded the breathless mother, arresting the steps of
the quick-moving girl.
"Not since the savage made his last onset, but I warrant me he may be
found near the western loops, making good the works against the enemy!"
"Surely he is not foremost in the fray! Of whom speakest thou, Faith? I
questioned thee of Mark. There is one, even now, raging within the
pickets seeking a victim."
"Truly, I thought it had been question of----the boy is with his father
and the stranger soldier who does such deeds of valor in our behalf. I
have seen no enemy within the palisadoes, Madam Heathcote, since the entry
of the man who escaped, by favor of the powers of darkness, from the shot
of Eben Dudley's musket."
"And is this evil like to pass from us," resumed Ruth, breathing more
freely, as she learned the safety of her son; "or does Providence veil its
face in anger?"
"We keep our own, though the savage hath pressed the young men to
extremity. Oh! it gladdened heart to see how brave a guard Reuben Ring,
and others near him, made in our behalf. I do think me, Madam Heathcote,
that, after all, there is real manhood in the brawler Dudley! Truly, the
youth hath done marvels in the way of exposure and resistance. Twenty
times this night have I expected to see him slain."
"And he that lyeth there?" half-whispered the alarmed Ruth, pointing to
a spot near them, where, aside from the movements of those who still
acted in the bustle of the combat, one lay stretched on the earth--"who
hath fallen?"
The cheek of Faith blanched to a whiteness that nearly equalled that of
the linen, which, even in the hurry of such a scene, some friendly hand
had found leisure to throw, in decent sadness, over the form.
"That!" said the faltering girl; "though hurt and bleeding, my brother
Reuben surely keepeth the loop at the western angle; nor is Whittal
wanting in sufficient sense to take heed of danger--This may not be the
stranger, for under the covers of the postern breast-work he holdeth
counsel with the young captain."
"Art certain, girl?"
"I saw them both within the minute. Would to God we could hear the shout
of noisy Dudley, Madam Heathcote: his cry cheereth the heart, in a moment
awful as this!"
"Lift the cloth," said Ruth with calm solemnity, "that we may know which
of our friends hath been called to the great account."
Faith hesitated, and when, by a powerful effort, in which secret interest
had as deep an influence as obedience, she did comply, it was with a sort
of desperate resolution. On raising the linen, the eyes of the two women
rested on the pallid countenance of one who had been transfixed by an
iron-headed arrow. The girl dropped the linen, and in a voice that sounded
like a burst of hysterical feeling, she exclaimed--
"'Tis but the youth that came lately among us! We are spared the loss of
any ancient friend."
"Tis one who died for our safety. I would give largely of this world's
comforts, that this calamity might not have been, or that greater leisure
for the last fearful reckoning had been accorded. But we may not lose the
moments in mourning. Hie thee, girl, and sound the alarm that a savage
lurketh within our walls, and that he skulketh in quest of a secret blow.
Bid all be wary. If the young Mark should cross thy path, speak to him
twice of this danger; the child hath a froward spirit, and may not hearken
to words uttered in too great hurry."
With this charge, Ruth quitted her maiden. While the latter proceeded to
give the necessary notice, the other sought the spot where she had just
learned there was reason to believe her husband might be found.
Content and the stranger were in fact met in consultation over the danger
which threatened destruction to their most important means of defence. The
savages themselves appeared to be conscious that the flames were working
in their favour; for their efforts sensibly slackened, and having already
severely suffered in their attempts to annoy the garrison, they had fallen
back to their covers, and awaited the moment when their practised cunning
should tell them they might, with more flattering promises of success,
again, rally to the onset. A brief explanation served to make Ruth
acquainted with the imminent jeopardy of their situation. Under a sense of
a more appalling danger, she lost the recollection of her former purpose,
and with a contracted and sorrowing eye, she stood like her companions, in
impotent helplessness, an entranced spectator of the progress of the
destruction.
"A soldier should not waste words in useless plaints," observed the
stranger, folding his arms like one who was conscious that human effort
could do no more, "else should I say, 'tis pity that he who drew yon line
of stockade hath not remembered the uses of the ditch."
"I will summon the maidens to the wells," said Ruth.
"'Twill not avail us. The arrow would be among them, nor could mortal long
endure the heat of yon glowing furnace. Thou seest that the timbers
already smoke and blacken, under its fierceness."
The stranger was still speaking, when a small quivering flame played on
the corners of the palisado nearest the burning pile. The element
fluttered like a waving line along the edges of the heated wood, after
which it spread over the whole surface of the timber, from its larger base
to the pointed summit. As if this had merely been the signal of a general
destruction, the flames kindled in fifty places at the same instant, and
then the whole line of the stockade, nearest the conflagration, was
covered with fire. A yell of triumph arose in the fields, and a flight of
arrows, sailing tauntingly into the works, announced the fierce impatience
of those who watched the increase of the conflagration.
"We shall be driven to our block," said Content "Assemble thy maidens,
Ruth, and make speedy preparation for the last retreat."
"I go; but hazard not thy life in any vain endeavor to retard the flames.
There will yet be time for all that is needful to our security."
"I know not," hurriedly observed the stranger. "Here cometh the assault in
a new aspect!"
The feet of Ruth were arrested. On looking upward, she saw the object
which had drawn this remark from the last speaker. A small bright ball of
fire had arisen out of the fields, and, describing an arc in the air, it
sailed above their heads and fell on the shingles of a building which
formed part of the quadrangle of the inner court. The movement was that of
an arrow thrown from a distant bow, and its way was to be traced by a long
trail of light, that followed its course like a blazing meteor. This
burning arrow had been sent with a cool and practised judgment. It lighted
upon a portion of the combustibles that were nearly as inflammable as
gunpowder, and the eye had scarcely succeeded in tracing it to its fall,
ere the bright flames were seen stealing over the heated roof.
"One struggle for our habitations!" cried Content--but the hand of the
stranger was placed firmly on his shoulder. At that instant, a dozen
similar meteor-looking balls shot into the air, and fell in as many
different places on the already half-kindled pile. Further efforts would
have been useless. Relinquishing the hope of saving his property, every
thought was now given to personal safety.
Ruth recovered from her short trance, and hastened with hurried steps to
perform her well-known office. Then came a few minutes of exertion, during
which the females transferred all that was necessary to their subsistence,
and which had not been already provided in the block, to their little
citadel. The glowing light, which penetrated the darkest passages among
the buildings, prevented this movement from being made without discovery.
The whoop summoned their enemies to another attack. The arrows thickened
in the air, and the important duty was not performed without risk, as all
were obliged, in some degree, to expose their persons, while passing to
and fro, loaded with necessaries. The gathering smoke, however, served in
some measure for a screen; and it was not long before Content received the
welcome tidings that he might command the retreat of his young men from
the palisadoes. The conch sounded the necessary signal, and ere the foe
had time to understand its meaning, or profit by the defenceless state of
the works, every individual within them had reached the door of the block
in safety. Still, there was more of hurry and confusion than altogether
comported with their safety. They who were assigned to that duty, however,
mounted eagerly to the loops, and stood in readiness to pour out their
fire on whoever might dare to come within its reach, while a few still
lingered in the court, to see that no necessary provision for resistance,
or of safety, was forgotten. Ruth had been foremost in exertion, and she
now stood pressing her hands to her temples, like one whose mind was
bewildered by her own efforts.
"Our fallen friend!" she said. "Shall we leave his remains to be mangled
by the savage?"
"Surely not; Dudley, thy hand. We will bear the body within the lower--ha!
death hath struck another of our family."
The alarm with which Content made this discovery passed quickly to all in
hearing. It was but too apparent, by the shape of the linen, that two
bodies lay beneath its folds. Anxious and rapid looks were cast from face
to face, in order to learn who was missing; and then, conscious of the
hazard of further delay, Content raised the linen, in order to remove all
doubts by certainty. The form of the young borderer, who was known to have
fallen, was first slowly and reverently uncovered; but even the most
self-restrained among the spectators started back in horror, as his robbed
and reeking head showed that a savage hand had worked its ruthless will on
the unresisting corpse.
"The other!" Ruth struggled to say, and it was only as her husband had
half removed the linen that she could succeed in uttering the
words--"Beware the other!"
The warning was not useless, for the linen waved violently as it rose
under the hand of Content, and a grim Indian sprang into the very centre
of the startled group. Sweeping his armed hand widely about him, the
savage broke through the receding circle, and, giving forth the appalling
whoop of his tribe, he bounded into the open door of the principal
dwelling, so swiftly as utterly to defeat any design of pursuit. The arms
of Ruth were frantically extended towards the place where he had
disappeared, and she was about to rush madly on his footsteps, when the
hand of her husband stopped the movement.
"Wouldst hazard life, to save some worthless trifle?"
"Husband, release me!" returned the woman, nearly choked with her
agony--"nature hath slept within me!"
"Fear blindeth thy reason!"
The form of Ruth ceased to struggle. All the madness, which had been
glaring wildly about her eyes, disappeared in the settled look of an
almost preternatural calm. Collecting the whole of her mental energy in
one desperate effort of self-command, she turned to her husband, and, as
her bosom swelled with the terror that seemed to stop her breath, she said
in a voice that was frightful by its composure--
"If thou hast a father's heart, release me!--Our babes have been
forgotten!"
The hand of Content relaxed its hold, and, in another instant, the form of
his wife was lost to view on the track that had just been taken by the
successful savage. This was the luckless moment chosen by the foe to push
his advantage. A fierce burst of yells proclaimed the activity of the
assailants, and a general discharge from the loops of the block-house
sufficiently apprised those in the court that the onset of the enemy was
now pushed into the very heart of the defences. All had mounted, but the
few who lingered to discharge the melancholy duty to the dead. They were
too few to render resistance prudent, and yet too many to think of
deserting the distracted mother and her offspring without an effort.
"Enter," said Content, pointing to the door of the block. "It is my duty
to share the fate of those nearest my blood."
The stranger made no answer. Placing his powerful hands on the nearly
stupified husband, he thrust his person, by an irresistible effort, within
the basement of the building, and then he signed, by a quick gesture, for
all around him to follow. After the last form had entered, he commanded
that the fastenings of the door should be secured, remaining himself, as
he believed, alone without. But when by a rapid glance he saw there was
another gazing in dull awe on the features of the fallen man, it was too
late to rectify the mistake. Yells were now rising out of the black smoke,
that was rolling in volumes from the heated buildings, and it was plain
that only a few feet divided them from their pursuers. Beckoning the man
who had been excluded from the block to follow, the stern soldier rushed
into the principal dwelling, which was still but little injured by the
fire. Guided rather by chance than by any knowledge of the windings of the
building, he soon found himself in the chambers. He was now at a loss
whither to proceed. At that moment, his companion, who was no other than
Whittal Ring, took the lead, and in another instant, they were at the door
of the secret apartment.
"Hist!" said the stranger, raising a hand to command silence as he entered
the room. "Our hope is in secrecy."
"And how may we escape without detection?" demanded the mother, pointing
about her at objects illuminated by a light so powerful as to penetrate
every cranny of the ill-constructed building. "The noon-day sun is scarce
brighter than this dreadful fire!"
"God is in the elements! His guiding hand shall point the way. But here we
may not tarry, for the flames are already on the shingles. Follow, and
speak not."
Ruth pressed the children to her side, and the whole party left the
apartment of the attic in a body. Their descent to a lower room was made
quickly, and without discovery. But here their leader paused, for the
state of things without was one to demand the utmost steadines of nerve,
and great reflection.
The Indians had by this time gained command of the whole of Mark
Heathcote's possessions, with the exception of the block-house; and as
their first act had been to apply the brand wherever it might be wanting,
the roar of the conflagration was now heard in every direction. The
discharge of muskets and the whoops of the combatants, however, while they
added to the horrible din of such a scene, proclaimed the unconquered
resolution of those who held the citadel. A window of the room they
occupied enabled the stranger to take a cautious survey of what was
passing without. The court, lighted to the brilliancy of day, was empty;
for the increasing heat of the fires, no less than the discharges from the
loops, still kept the cautious savages to their covers. There was barely
hope, that the space between the dwelling and the block-house might yet be
passed in safety.
"I would I had asked that the door of the block should be held in hand,"
muttered Submission; "it would be death to linger an instant in that
fierce light; nor have we any manner of----"
A touch was laid upon his arm, and turning, the speaker saw the dark eye
of the captive boy looking steadily in his face.
"Wilt do it?" demanded the other, in a manner to show that he doubted,
while he hoped.
A speaking gesture of assent was the answer, and then the form of the lad
was seen gliding quietly from the room.
Another instant, and Miantonimoh appeared in the court. He walked with the
deliberation that one would have shown in moments of the most entire
security. A hand was raised towards the loops, as if to betoken amity, and
then dropping the limb, he moved with the same slow step into the very
centre of the area. Here the boy stood in the fullest glare of the
conflagration, and turned his face deliberately on every side of him. The
action showed that he wished to invite all eyes to examine his person. At
this moment the yells ceased in the surrounding covers, proclaiming alike
the common feeling that was awakened by his appearance, and the hazard
that any other would have incurred by exposing himself in that fearful
scene. When this act of exceeding confidence had been performed, the boy
drew a pace nearer to the entrance of the block.
"Comest thou in peace, or is this another device of Indian treachery?"
demanded a voice, through an opening in the door left expressly for the
purposes of parley.
The boy raised the palm of one hand towards the speaker, while he laid the
other with a gesture of confidence on his naked breast.
"Hast aught to offer in behalf of my wife and babes? If gold will buy
their ransom, name thy price."
Miantonimoh was at no loss to comprehend the other's meaning. With the
readiness of one whose faculties had been early schooled in the inventions
of emergencies, he made a gesture that said even more than his figurative
words, as he answered--
"Can a woman of the Pale-faces pass through wood? An Indian arrow is
swifter than the foot of my mother."
"Boy, I trust thee," returned the voice from within the loop. "If
thou deceivest beings so feeble and so innocent, Heaven will remember
the wrong."
Miantonimoh again made a sign to show that caution must be used, and then
he retired with a step calm and measured as that used in his advance.
Another pause to the shouts betrayed the interest of those whose fierce
eyes watched his movements in the distance.
When the young Indian had rejoined the party in the dwelling, he led them,
without being observed by the lurking band that still hovered in the smoke
of the surrounding buildings, to a spot that commanded a full view of
their short but perilous route. At this moment the door of the
block-house half-opened, and was closed again. Still the stranger
hesitated, for he saw how little was the chance that all should cross the
court unharmed, and to pass it by repeated trials he knew to be
impossible.
"Boy," he said, "thou, who hast done thus much, may still do more. Ask
mercy for these children, in some manner that may touch the hearts of
thy people."
Miantonimoh shook his head, and pointing to the ghastly corpse that lay in
the court, he answered coldly--
"The red-man has tasted blood."
"Then must the desperate trial be done! Think not of thy children, devoted
and daring mother, but look only to thine own safety. This witless youth
and I will charge ourselves with the care of the innocents."
Ruth waved him away with her hand, pressing her mute and trembling
daughter to her bosom, in a manner to show that her resolution was taken.
The stranger yielded, and turning to Whittal, who stood near him,
seemingly as much occupied in vacant admiration of the blazing piles as in
any apprehension of his own personal danger, he bade him look to the
safety of the remaining child. Moving in front himself, he was about to
offer Ruth such protection as the case afforded, when a window in the rear
of the house was dashed inward, announcing the entrance of the enemy, and
the imminent danger that their flight would be intercepted. There was no
time to lose, for it was now certain that only a single room separated
them from their foes. The generous nature of Ruth was roused, and catching
Martha from the arms of Whittal Ring, she endeavored, by a desperate
effort, in which feeling rather than any reasonable motive predominated,
to envelop both the children in her robe.
"I am with ye!" whispered the agitated woman, "hush ye, hush ye, babes!
thy mother is nigh."
The stranger was very differently employed. The instant the crash of glass
was heard, he rushed to the rear; and he had already grappled with the
savage so often named, and who acted as guide to a dozen fierce and
yelling followers.
"To the block!" shouted the steady soldier, while with a powerful arm he
held his enemy in the throat of the narrow passage, stopping the approach
of those in the rear by the body of his foe. "For the love of life and
children, woman, to the block!"
The summons rang frightfully in the ears of Ruth, but in that moment of
extreme jeopardy her presence of mind was lost. The cry was repeated, and
not till then did the bewildered mother catch her daughter from the
floor. With eyes still bent on the fierce struggle in her rear, she
clasped the child to her heart and fled, calling on Whittal Ring to
follow. The lad obeyed, and ere she had half-crossed the court, the
stranger, still holding his savage shield between him and his enemies,
was seen endeavoring to take the same direction. The whoops, the flight
of arrows, and the discharges of musquetry, that succeeded, proclaimed
the whole extent of the danger. But fear had lent unnatural vigor to the
limbs of Ruth, and the gliding arrows themselves scarce sailed more
swiftly through the heated air, than she darted into the open door of the
block. Whittal Ring was less successful. As he crossed the court, bearing
the child intrusted to his care, an arrow pierced his flesh. Stung by the
pain, the witless lad turned, in anger, to chide the hand that had
inflicted the injury.
"On, foolish boy!" cried the stranger, as he passed him, still making a
target of the body of the savage that was writhing in his grasp. "On, for
thy life, and that of the babe!"
The mandate came too late. The hand of an Indian was already on the
innocent victim, and in the next instant the child was sweeping the air,
while with a short yell the keen axe flourished above his head. A shot
from the loops laid the monster dead in his tracks. The girl was instantly
seized by another hand, and as the captor with his prize darted unharmed
into the dwelling, there arose in the block a common exclamation of the
name of "Miantonimoh!" Two more of the savages profited by the pause of
horror that followed, to lay hands on the wounded Whittal and to drag him
within the blazing building. At the same moment, the stranger cast the
unresisting savage back upon the weapons of his companions. The bleeding
and half-strangled Indian met the blows which had been aimed at the life
of the soldier, and as he staggered and fell, his vigorous conqueror
disappeared in the block. The door of the little citadel was instantly
closed, and the savages, who rushed headlong against the entrance, heard
the fitting of the bars which secured it against their attacks. The yell
of retreat was raised, and in the next instant the court was left to be
possession of the dead.