back as I passed them without
a word and went on to the governor's great room. The door was ajar, and
I pushed it open and stood for a minute on the threshold. They were all
there--the principal men of the colony, the governor, the [v]treasurer,
[v]West, [v]John Rolfe.

At sight of me the governor sprang to his feet; through the treasurer's
lips came a long, sighing breath; West's dark face was ashen. I came
forward to the table, and leaned my weight upon it; for all the waves of
the sea were roaring in my ears and the lights were going up and down.

"Are you man or spirit!" cried Rolfe through white lips. "Are you Ralph
Percy?"

"Yes," I said, "I am Percy."

With an effort I drew myself erect, and standing so, told my tidings,
quietly and with circumstance, so as to leave no room for doubt as to
their verity, or as to the sanity of him who brought them. They listened
with shaking limbs and gasping breath; for it was the fall and wiping
out of a people of which I brought warning.

When all was told I thought to ask a question myself; but before my
tongue could frame it, the roaring of the sea became so loud that I
could hear naught else, and the lights all ran together into a wheel of
fire. Then in a moment all sounds ceased and to the lights succeeded the
blackness of outer darkness.

When I awoke from the sleep into which I must have passed from that
swoon, it was to find myself lying in a room flooded with sunshine. For
a moment I lay still, wondering where I was and how I came there. A drum
beat, a dog barked, and a man's quick voice gave a command. The sounds
stung me into remembrance.

There were many people in the street. Women hurried by to the fort with
white, scared faces, their arms filled with household gear; children ran
beside them; men went to and fro, the most grimly silent, but a few
talking loudly.

I could not see the palisade across the neck, but I knew that it was
there that the fight--if fight there were--would be made. Should the
Indians take the palisade, there would yet be the houses of the town,
and, last of all, the fort in which to make a stand. I believed not that
they would take it, for Indian warfare ran more to ambuscade and
surprise than to assault in the open field.

The drum beat again, and a messenger from the palisade came down the
street at a run.

"They're in the woods over against us, thicker than ants!" he cried to
West, who was coming along the way. "A boat has just