"I see something on the roof of the block-house," cried Jonathan.
"There, down towards the east end of the roof and in the shadow of the chimney. And as I"m a living sinner it"s a man crawling towards that blazing arrow. The Indians have not discovered him yet. He is still in the shadow. But they"ll see him. G.o.d! What a nervy thing to do in the face of all those redskins. It is almost certain death!"
"Yes, and they see him," said the Colonel.
With shrill yells the Indians bounded forward and aimed and fired their rifles at the crouching figure of the man. Some hid behind the logs they had rolled toward the Fort; others boldly faced the steady fire now pouring from the portholes. The savages saw in the movement of that man an attempt to defeat their long-cherished hope of burning the Fort. Seeing he was discovered, the man did not hesitate, nor did he lose a second. Swiftly he jumped and ran toward the end of the roof where the burning arrow, now surrounded by blazing shingles, was sticking in the roof. How he ever ran along that slanting roof and with a pail in his hand was incomprehensible.
In moments like that men become superhuman. It all happened in an instant. He reached the arrow, kicked it over the wall, and then dashed the bucket of water on the blazing shingles. In that single instant, wherein his tall form was outlined against the bright light behind him, he presented the fairest kind of a mark for the Indians.
Scores of rifles were levelled and discharged at him. The bullets pattered like hail on the roof of the block-house, but apparently none found their mark, for the man ran back and disappeared.
"It was Clarke!" exclaimed Col. Zane. "No one but Clarke has such light hair. Wasn"t that a plucky thing?"
"It has saved the block-house for to-night," answered Jonathan.
"See, the Indians are falling back. They can"t stand in the face of that shooting. Hurrah! Look at them fall! It could not have happened better. The light from the cabin will prevent any more close attacks for an hour and daylight is near."
CHAPTER XIV.
The sun rose red. Its ruddy rays peeped over the eastern hills, kissed the tree-tops, glinted along the stony bluffs, and chased away the gloom of night from the valley. Its warm gleams penetrated the portholes of the Fort and cast long bright shadows on the walls; but it brought little cheer to the sleepless and almost exhausted defenders. It brought to many of the settlers the familiar old sailor"s maxim: "Redness "a the morning, sailor"s warning." Rising in its crimson glory the sun flooded the valley, dyeing the river, the leaves, the gra.s.s, the stones, tingeing everything with that awful color which stained the stairs, the benches, the floor, even the portholes of the block-house.
Historians call this the time that tried men"s souls. If it tried the men think what it must have been to those grand, heroic women.
Though they had helped the men load and fire nearly forty-eight hours; though they had worked without a moment"s rest and were now ready to succ.u.mb to exhaustion; though the long room was full of stifling smoke and the sickening odor of burned wood and powder, and though the row of silent, covered bodies had steadily lengthened, the thought of giving up never occurred to the women. Death there would be sweet compared to what it would be at the hands of the redmen.
At sunrise Silas Zane, bare-chested, his face dark and fierce, strode into the bastion which was connected with the blockhouse. It was a small shedlike room, and with portholes opening to the river and the forest. This bastion had seen the severest fighting. Five men had been killed here. As Silas entered four haggard and powder-begrimed men, who were kneeling before the portholes, looked up at him. A dead man lay in one corner.
"Smith"s dead. That makes fifteen," said Silas. "Fifteen out of forty-two, that leaves twenty-seven. We must hold out. Len, don"t expose yourselves recklessly. How goes it at the south bastion?"
"All right. There"s been firin" over there all night," answered one of the men. "I guess it"s been kinder warm over that way. But I ain"t heard any shootin" for some time."
"Young Bennet is over there, and if the men needed anything they would send him for it," answered Silas. "I"ll send some food and water. Anything else?"
"Powder. We"re nigh out of powder," replied the man addressed. "And we might jes as well make ready fer a high old time. The red devils hadn"t been quiet all this last hour fer nothin"."
Silas pa.s.sed along the narrow hallway which led from the bastion into the main room of the block-house. As he turned the corner at the head of the stairway he encountered a boy who was dragging himself up the steps.
"h.e.l.lo! Who"s this? Why, Harry!" exclaimed Silas, grasping the boy and drawing him into the room. Once in the light Silas saw that the lad was so weak he could hardly stand. He was covered with blood. It dripped from a bandage wound tightly about his arm; it oozed through a hole in his hunting shirt, and it flowed from a wound over his temple. The shadow of death was already stealing over the pallid face, but from the grey eyes shone an indomitable spirit, a spirit which nothing but death could quench.
"Quick!" the lad panted. "Send men to the south wall. The redskins are breakin" in where the water from the spring runs under the fence."
"Where are Metzar and the other men?"
"Dead! Killed last night. I"ve been there alone all night. I kept on shootin". Then I gets plugged here under the chin. Knowin" it"s all up with me I deserted my post when I heard the Injuns choppin" on the fence where it was on fire last night. But I only--run--because--they"re gettin" in."
"Wetzel, Bennet, Clarke!" yelled Silas, as he laid the boy on the bench.
Almost as Silas spoke the tall form of the hunter confronted him.
Clarke and the other men were almost as prompt.
"Wetzel, run to the south wall. The Indians are cutting a hole through the fence."
Wetzel turned, grabbed his rifle and an axe and was gone like a flash.
"Sullivan, you handle the men here. Bessie, do what you can for this brave lad. Come, Bennet, Clarke, we must follow Wetzel," commanded Silas.
Mrs. Zane hastened to the side of the fainting lad. She washed away the blood from the wound over his temple. She saw that a bullet had glanced on the bone and that the wound was not deep or dangerous.
She unlaced the hunting shirt at the neck and pulled the flaps apart. There on the right breast, on a line with the apex of the lung, was a horrible gaping wound. A murderous British slug had pa.s.sed through the lad. From the hole at every heart-beat poured the dark, crimson life-tide. Mrs. Zane turned her white face away for a second; then she folded a small piece of linen, pressed it tightly over the wound, and wrapped a towel round the lad"s breast.
"Don"t waste time on me. It"s all over," he whispered. "Will you call Betty here a minute?"
Betty came, white-faced and horror-stricken. For forty hours she had been living in a maze of terror. Her movements had almost become mechanical. She had almost ceased to hear and feel. But the light in the eyes of this dying boy brought her back to the horrible reality of the present.
"Oh, Harry! Harry! Harry!" was all Betty could whisper.
"I"m goin", Betty. And I wanted--you to say a little prayer for me--and say good-bye to me," he panted.
Betty knelt by the bench and tried to pray.
"I hated to run, Betty, but I waited and waited and n.o.body came, and the Injuns was getting" in. They"ll find dead Injuns in piles out there. I was shootin" fer you, Betty, and every time I aimed I thought of you."
The lad rambled on, his voice growing weaker and weaker and finally ceasing. The hand which had clasped Betty"s so closely loosened its hold. His eyes closed. Betty thought he was dead, but no! he still breathed. Suddenly his eyes opened. The shadow of pain was gone. In its place shone a beautiful radiance.
"Betty, I"ve cared a lot for you--and I"m dyin"--happy because I"ve fought fer you--and somethin" tells me--you"ll--be saved. Good-bye."
A smile transformed his face and his gray eyes gazed steadily into hers. Then his head fell back. With a sigh his brave spirit fled.
Hugh Bennet looked once at the pale face of his son, then he ran down the stairs after Silas and Clarke. When the three men emerged from behind Capt. Boggs" cabin, which was adjacent to the block-house, and which hid the south wall from their view, they were two hundred feet from Wetzel. They heard the heavy thump of a log being rammed against the fence; then a splitting and splintering of one of the six-inch oak planks. Another and another smashing blow and the lower half of one of the planks fell inwards, leaving an aperture large enough to admit an Indian. The men dashed forward to the a.s.sistance of Wetzel, who stood by the hole with upraised axe.
At the same moment a shot rang out. Bennet stumbled and fell headlong. An Indian had shot through the hole in the fence. Silas and Alfred sheered off toward the fence, out of line. When within twenty yards of Wetzel they saw a swarthy-faced and athletic savage squeeze through the narrow crevice. He had not straightened up before the axe, wielded by the giant hunter, descended on his head, cracking his skull as if it were an eggsh.e.l.l. The savage sank to the earth without even a moan. Another savage naked and powerful, slipped in. He had to stoop to get through. He raised himself, and seeing Wetzel, he tried to dodge the lightning sweep of the axe. It missed his head, at which it had been aimed, but struck just over the shoulders, and buried itself in flesh and bone. The Indian uttered an agonizing yell which ended in a choking, gurgling sound as the blood spurted from his throat. Wetzel pulled the weapon from the body of his victim, and with the same motion he swung it around.
This time the blunt end met the next Indian"s head with a thud like that made by the butcher when he strikes the bullock to the ground.
The Indian"s rifle dropped, his tomahawk flew into the air, while his body rolled down the little embankment into the spring. Another and another Indian met the same fate. Then two Indians endeavored to get through the aperture. The awful axe swung by those steel arms, dispatched both of than in the twinkling of an eye. Their bodies stuck in the hole.
Silas and Alfred stood riveted to the spot. Just then Wetzel in all his horrible glory was a sight to freeze the marrow of any man. He had cast aside his hunting shirt in that run to the fence and was now stripped to the waist. He was covered with blood. The muscles of his broad back and his brawny arms swelled and rippled under the brown skin. At every swing of the gory axe he let out a yell the like of which had never before been heard by the white men. It was the hunter"s mad yell of revenge. In his thirst for vengeance he had forgotten that he was defending the Fort with its women and its children; he was fighting because he loved to kill.
Silas Zane heard the increasing clamor outside and knew that hundreds of Indians were being drawn to the spot. Something must be done at once. He looked around and his eyes fell on a pile of white-oak logs that had been hauled inside the Fort. They had been placed there by Col. Zane, with wise forethought. Silas grabbed Clarke and pulled him toward the pile of logs, at the same time communicating his plan. Together they carried a log to the fence and dropped it in front of the hole. Wetzel immediately stepped on it and took a vicious swing at an Indian who was trying to poke his rifle sideways through the hole. This Indian had discharged his weapon twice. While Wetzel held the Indians at bay, Silas and Clarke piled the logs one upon another, until the hole was closed. This effectually fortified and barricaded the weak place in the stockade fence. The settlers in the bastions were now pouring such a hot fire into the ranks of the savage that they were compelled to retreat out of range.
While Wetzel washed the blood from his arms and his shoulders Silas and Alfred hurried back to where Bennet had fallen. They expected to find him dead, and were overjoyed to see the big settler calmly sitting by the brook binding up a wound in his shoulder.
"It"s nothin" much. Jest a scratch, but it tumbled me over," he said. "I was comin" to help you. That was the wust Injun sc.r.a.p I ever saw. Why didn"t you keep on lettin" "em come in? The red varmints would"a kept on comin" and Wetzel was good fer the whole tribe. All you"d had to do was to drag the dead Injuns aside and give him elbow room."
Wetzel joined them at this moment, and they hurried back to the block-house. The firing had ceased on the bluff. They met Sullivan at the steps of the Fort. He was evidently coming in search of them.
"Zane, the Indians and the Britishers are getting ready for more determined and persistent effort than any that has yet been made,"
said Sullivan.
"How so?" asked Silas.
"They have got hammers from the blacksmith"s shop, and they boarded my boat and found a keg of nails. Now they are making a number of ladders. If they make a rush all at once and place ladders against the fence we"ll have the Fort full of Indians in ten minutes. They can"t stand in the face of a cannon charge. We _must_ use the cannon."
"Clarke, go into Capt. Boggs" cabin and fetch out two kegs of powder," said Silas.
The young man turned in the direction of the cabin, while Silas and the others ascended the stairs.