war whoops, they came rushing on, confident of
success, when a cheer was heard from the left, followed by a rattling
fire of musketry. The fierce warriors turned and fled. Their chief
himself, who was distinguished by his tall figure and waving plume, was
seen to fall. Some of his followers endeavoured to lift him from the
ground, but fled with the rest, and in another minute a large body of
horsemen galloped up, who were seen, as the glare of the burning
stockades fell on them, to be mostly half-breed hunters, led by a white
man.

"Hurrah! Hurrah! It's Allan Keith," cried Hector, who had been on the
look-out through one of the barricaded windows.

In an instant the door was thrown open. The men of the garrison rushed
to the burning walls, some with axes to cut them down, others with
buckets of water to extinguish the flames.

While the half-breeds were pursuing the flying foe, another party
appeared on the right, and in a short time Dr McCrab and Dan Maloney,
who had led them, were heartily greeting Captain Mackintosh and his
companions, and congratulating them on their narrow escape.

"Faith, my boy, I'm mighty glad that we've come just in the nick of
time, and that we shouldn't have done, I'm after thinking, if it hadn't
been for falling in with old Isaac Sass, and his impish follower, Master
Greensnake," exclaimed Maloney, as he shook Hector's hand. "He told us
if we wanted to save you, to put our best feet foremost while he showed
us the course to take. It's my belief, too, that he afterwards managed
to fall in with Allan Keith and his party, or it's possible they might
have arrived as we should have done, just in time to be too late."

The men belonging to the fort had been successful in extinguishing the
flames, though the whole front was either in ruins or presented a
fearfully shattered and blackened appearance.

Dr McCrab, with coat off and sleeves tucked up, was busily employed in
attending to the wounded men, while Loraine was assisting Sybil and Mrs
Mackintosh in calming the fears of poor Effie, who, not seeing Allan
Keith among those who had just arrived, had feared that some accident
had happened to him. He soon, however, with his active horsemen, having
driven the enemy to a distance, arrived unhurt, and his appearance
quickly tranquillised her mind.

"We must not, however, forget our friend Mr Harvey," exclaimed Captain
Mackintosh. "The Blackfeet may possibly direct their course towards