t proved that he saw no enemy very near. At length he waved
his hat to some object, or person in the glen beneath; and she even
thought she heard his shout. At the next moment, he turned his horse,
and was seen scouring along the road towards the Hut. The lawn was
covered with the fugitives as the captain reached it, while a few armed
men were already coming out of the court-yard. Gesticulating as if
giving orders, the captain dashed through them all, without drawing the
rein, and disappeared in the court. A minute later, he re-issued,
bearing his arms, followed by his wife and Beulah, the latter pressing
little Evert to her bosom.

Something like order now began to appear among the men. Counting all
ages and both colours, the valley, at this particular moment, could
muster thirty-three males capable of bearing arms. To these might be
added some ten or fifteen women who had occasionally brought down a
deer, and who might be thought more or less dangerous, stationed at a
loop, with a rifle or a musket. Captain Willoughby had taken some pains
to drill the former, who could go through some of the simpler light-
infantry evolutions. Among them he had appointed sundry corporals,
while Joel Strides had been named a serjeant. Joyce, now an aged and
war-worn veteran, did the duty of adjutant. Twenty men were soon drawn
up in array, in front of the open gateway on the lawn, under the
immediate orders of Joyce; and the last woman and child, that had been
seen approaching the place of refuge, had passed within the stockade.
At this instant captain Willoughby called a party of the stragglers
around him, and set about hanging the gates of the outer passage, or
that which led through the palisades.

Maud would now have left the rock, but, at that moment, a dark body of
Indians poured up over the cliffs, crowning it with a menacing cloud of
at least fifty armed warriors. The rivulet lay between her and the Hut,
and the nearest bridge that crossed it would have brought her within
reach of danger. Then it would require at least half an hour to reach
that bridge by the circuitous path she would be compelled to take, and
there was little hope of getting over it before the strangers should
have advanced. It was better to remain where she could behold what was
passing, and to be governed by events, than to rush blindly into unseen
risks.

The party that crowned the cliffs near the mills, showed no impatience
to advance. It was evidently