AS TWILIGHT FELL.
For more than twenty-four hours I had taken no repose, and as nothing
occurred to rouse me, I slept longer than I intended. When I opened my
eyes languidly the room was so dark that I could scarcely make out a
chair against the wall, and the window-panes were crusted with frost and
snow. At once I was wide awake, and all the incidents of the morning
flashed into my mind. I knew that this was the time when the attack was
expected, and for a moment I sat up and listened anxiously, but I heard
only a distant hum of voices.
"All is well so far," I thought. "I hope no precautions have been
neglected, for when the storm bursts it will be sudden and fierce."
I threw off the blankets that covered me, and leaped out of bed. Hastily
donning my fur capote, cap and mittens, and taking my loaded musket, I
left the quarters without encountering any person.
I paused outside to look about, and the scene that met my eyes was a
dreary one. The inclosure was shrouded in the murky gray gloom of
twilight. It was bitterly cold, and snow was falling fast. The various
outbuildings loomed dimly here and there between the narrow paths and
high-banked drifts. The only ray of light visible was behind me, and
shone from the window of Flora's room. As I turned from a brief
contemplation of it, I saw a man passing and hailed him. He proved to be
Baptiste.
"Why was I not wakened?" I demanded sharply. "Here is the night upon us,
and I wished to be up at noon."
"Mr. Menzie's orders, sir," he replied. "He said you were not to be
disturbed."
I questioned Baptiste further, and learned that there had been no alarm
during the day, and that not an Indian had shown himself. He also
relieved my mind concerning the preparations for holding the factor's
house.
"They moved everything in," he said; "food and blankets, all the powder
and ball, four sledges, and the wounded men."
"And the dead, Baptiste?"
"They are buried, sir--under the snow."
"Ah, then no time has been wasted," said I. "If the worst comes we shall
be ready--"
"There is nothing more to be done, Carew," interrupted a voice at my
elbow. "No step that prudence or forethought could dictate has been
omitted."
The speaker was Captain Rudstone, who had approached unperceived.
"Has your sleep refreshed you?" he added.
"Very much," I replied. "I feel fit for another stretch of fighting.
What is the situation now?"
"The calm before the storm, to my mind," he declared. "Sentries are
posted to command a view from every side of the fort. Both towers will
be abandoned at the first alarm, and all the men will rush to the
quarter whence it comes, those are the general orders. If the redskins
prove too strong for us, we will retreat to the factor's house."
"Ay, and hold it," said I. "The place is impregnable, Rudstone!"
"That remains to be seen," he answered. "Go and get some supper, Carew,
while you have the chance."
"Then you think the attack is imminent?"
"Yes, it may come at any moment."
"But Baptiste tells me the Indians have made no sign all day."
"True enough," assented the captain, "and that's the worst of it. They
are hatching some deep-laid deviltry, be sure! I have my suspicions, and
I communicated them to Menzies. He agrees with me that the attack will
probably burst upon us in the form of a--"
He never finished the sentence. The words were stifled on his lips by a
tremendous explosion that seemed to shake the very ground, and rattled
and thundered far away into the heart of the wilderness. A crash of
falling debris followed, and then the night rang with shrill clamor and
blood-curdling whoops.
"_Nom de Dieu!_ we are lost!" wailed Baptiste.
"My God, what does it mean?" I cried, clutching Captain Rudstone's arm
with a trembling hand.
"My prediction, Carew," he answered hoarsely. "It has come--it is what I
expected. The devils have tunneled under the snow and planted a powder
bag against the stockade. They have blown a breach."
"We'll keep them out of it as long as we can," I shouted. "Hark! the
fighting has begun."
The captain and I had already set off on a run, and Baptiste was hanging
at our heels. Shouting and yelling rose from all parts of the fort, and
blended with the wild cheers of the savages. Dark forms loomed right and
left of us as we sped on. Guided by the clamor and by the great column
of smoke that was stamped blackly against the driving snow, we soon
reached the scene of the explosion, which was the northeast watch-tower.
It is impossible to describe the sight that was revealed to us by the
first rapid glimpse. All that day the redskins must have been burrowing
a passage beneath the drifts from the woods to the fort. They had
planted a bag or cask of powder at the very base of the tower, and blown
it into a heap of ruins, out of which could be seen sticking the bodies
of the two poor fellows who had been on duty there. As yet only a small
force of Indians--those who had approached by the tunnel--were storming
the breach, and these were being held at bay by a dozen of our men who
had reached the spot before the captain and myself. Muskets were
cracking, and tomahawks were flying through the air; the yells of
invaders and invaded made a horrible din.
At the first I saw some hope of holding the sheltered place--of beating
the enemy off. I plunged into the thick of the fight, emptying my gun
into the breast of a red devil, and bringing the butt down on the head
of another. We pressed close up to the sides of the tower, and gained
footholds on the ruins. Hand to hand we fought desperately, shooting and
striking at the Indians and keeping them on the outside of the fort. Not
many of them had firearms, and so far as I could see, but one of our men
had fallen.
"Stand up to it!" I shouted. "Hold your ground!"
"Hit hard!" cried Captain Rudstone. "Finish all you can before the main
rush comes!"
Flushed with triumph, half-crazed by the thirst for blood, we did not
pause to reflect that the scale must soon turn the other way. Face to
face, weapon to weapon, we held the savages at bay, sending one after
another to his last account. Meanwhile more men kept joining us, until,
excepting a few who were on duty at other points, our whole available
force was present. I heard Andrew Menzies giving directions. I saw
Father Cleary on my left and Christopher Burley on the right, both
striking at the painted faces behind the shattered walls.
"This is hot work, Carew," Captain Rudstone found a chance to shout in
my ear, "and it's precious little use to keep it up. The devils will
soon be at us in their hundreds. Now is the time to make a safe retreat
to the house."
"I think the same," I answered, as I dodged a whizzing tomahawk; "and if
Menzies don't soon give the command I will."
The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the clamor took a deeper,
shriller pitch. We all knew what it meant--the tide was turning. Through
the gaping holes in the watch tower stamped against the snowy mist, we
saw a dark mass rolling forward--scores and scores of painted Indians.