busy in reconnoitring, and in receiving
accessions to its numbers. The latter soon increased to some seventy or
eighty warriors. After waiting several minutes in inaction, a musket,
or rifle, was fired towards the Hut, as if to try the effect of a
summons and the range of a bullet. At this hint the men on the lawn
retired within the stockade, stacked their arms, and joined the party
that was endeavouring to get the gates in their places. From the
circumstance that her father directed all the women and children to
retire within the court, Maud supposed that the bullet might have
fallen somewhere near them. It was quite evident, however, that no one
was injured.

The gates intended for the stockade, being open like the rest of that
work, were materially lighter than those constructed for the house
itself. The difficulty was in handling them with the accuracy required
to enter the hinges, of which there were three pairs. This difficulty
existed on account of their great height. Of physical force, enough
could be applied to toss them over the stockade itself, if necessary;
but finesse was needed, rather than force, to effect the principal
object, and that under difficult circumstances. It is scarcely possible
that the proximity of so fierce an enemy as a body of savages in their
war-paint, for such the men at the mill had discovered was the guise of
their assailants, would in any measure favour the coolness and tact of
the labourers. Poor Maud lost the sense of her own danger, in the
nervous desire to see the long-forgotten gates hung; and she rose once
or twice, in feverish excitement, as she saw that the leaf which was
raised fell in or out, missing its fastenings. Still the men
persevered, one or two sentinels being placed to watch the Indians, and
give timely notice of their approach, should they advance.

Maud now kneeled, with her face bowed to the seat, and uttered a short
but most fervent prayer, in behalf of the dear beings that the Hut
contained. This calmed her spirits a little, and she rose once more to
watch the course of events. The body of men had left the gate at which
they had just been toiling, and were crowding around its fellow. One
leaf was hung! As an assurance of this, she soon after saw her father
swing it backward and forward on its hinges, to cause it to settle into
its place. This was an immense relief, though she had heard too many
tales of Indian warfare, to think there was any imminent danger