le he was looking
for the smoke in the skirts of the woods, to note the spot; while
Joyce, with folded arms, stood at rest on the ridge, actually examining
the valley in another direction, certain that a fire so distant could
not be very dangerous.

Jamie's calculation proved a good one. The bullet struck against the
chimney, indented a brick, and fell upon the shingles of the roof.
Joyce descended at the next instant, and he coolly picked up, and kept
tossing the flattened bit of lead in his hand, for the next minute or
two, with the air of a man who seemed unconscious of having it at all.

"The enemy is besieging us, your honour," said Joyce, "but he will not
attack at present. If I might presume to advise, we shall do well to
leave a single sentinel on this stage, since no one can approach the
palisades without being seen, if the man keeps in motion."

"I was thinking of this myself, serjeant; we will first post Blodget
here. We can trust him; and, as the day advances, a-less intelligent
sentinel will answer. At the same time, he must be instructed to keep
an eye in the rear of the Hut, danger often coming from the quarter
least expected."

All this was done, and the remainder of the men descended to the court.
Captain Willoughby ordered the gate unbarred, when he passed outside,
taking the direction towards the lifeless body, which still lay where
it had fallen, at the foot of the stockades. He was accompanied by
Joyce and Jamie Allen, the latter carrying a spade, it being the
intention to inter the savage as the shortest means of getting rid of a
disagreeable object. Our two old soldiers had none of the sensitiveness
on the subject of exposure that is so apt to disturb the tyro in the
art of war. With sentinels properly posted, they had no apprehensions
of dangers that did not exist, and they moved with confidence and
steadily wherever duty called. Not only was the inner gate opened and
passed, but the outer also, the simple precaution of stationing a man
at the first being the only safeguard taken.

When outside of the palisades, the captain and his companions proceeded
at once towards the body. It was now sunrise, and a rich light was
illuminating the hill-tops, though the direct rays of the luminary had
not yet descended to the valley. There lay the Indian, precisely as he
had fallen, no warrior having interposed to save him from the scalping-
knife. His head had reached the earth first, and the legs and bo