ositions on the stage, these last could now be examined on
all sides, nothing was easier than to make certain of this fact. The
fences, too, were light and open, rendering it impossible for any
ambush or advancing party to shelter itself behind them. In a word,
daylight brought the comfortable assurance to those within the
palisades that another night was passed without bringing an assault.

"We shall escape this morning, I do believe, Joyce," said the captain,
who had laid down his rifle, and no longer felt it necessary to keep
the upper portions of his body concealed behind the roof--"Nothing can
be seen that denotes an intention to attack, and not an enemy is near."

"I will take one more thorough look, your honour," answered the
serjeant, mounting to the ridge of the building, where he obtained the
immaterial advantage of seeing more at the same time, at the risk of
exposing his whole person, should any hostile rifle be in reach of a
bullet--"then we may be certain."

Joyce was a man who stood just six feet in his stockings, and, losing
no part of this stature by his setting up, a better object for a sharp-
shooter could not have been presented than he now offered. The crack of
a rifle soon saluted the ears of the garrison; then followed the
whizzing of the bullet as it came humming through the air towards the
Hut. But the report was so distant as at once to announce that the
piece was discharged from the margin of the forest; a certain evidence
of two important facts; one, that the enemy had fallen back to a cover;
the other, that the house was narrowly watched.

Nothing tries the nerves of a young soldier more than the whizzing of a
distant fire. The slower a bullet or a shot approaches, the more noise
it makes; and, the sound continuing longer than is generally imagined,
the uninitiated are apt to imagine that the dangerous missile is
travelling on an errand directly towards themselves. Space appears
annihilated, and raw hands are often seen to duck at a round shot that
is possibly flying a hundred yards from them.

On the present occasion, the younger Pliny fairly squatted below the
root Jamie thought it prudent to put some of his own masonry, which was
favourably placed in an adjacent chimney for such a purpose, between
him and the spot whence the report proceeded; while even Blodget looked
up into the air, as if he expected to _see_ where the bullet was
going. Captain Willoughby had no thought of the missi