drifted ashore,
with two men in it, dead and scalped!"

I looked again at the neck of land and the forest beyond, and now, as if
by magic, from the forest and up and down the river as far as the eye
could reach, rose here and there thin columns of smoke. Suddenly, as I
stared, three or four white smoke puffs, like giant flowers, started out
of the shadowy woods across the neck. Following the crack of the
muskets--fired out of pure bravado by the Indians--came the yelling of
the savages. The sound was prolonged and deep, as though issuing from
many throats.

The street, when I went out into it, was very quiet. All windows and
doors were closed and barred. The yelling from the forest had ceased for
the moment, but I knew well that it would soon begin with doubled noise.
I hurried along the street to the palisade, where all the men of
Jamestown were gathered, armed and helmeted and breast-plated, waiting
for the foe in grim silence.

Through a loophole in the gate of the palisade I looked and saw the
sandy neck joining the town to the mainland, and the deep and dark woods
beyond, the fairy mantle giving invisibility to the foe. I drew back
from my loophole and held out my hand to a woman for a loaded musket. A
quick murmur like the drawing of a breath came from our line. The
governor, standing near me, cast an anxious glance along the stretch of
wooden stakes that were neither so high nor so thick as they should have
been.

"I am new to this warfare, Captain Percy," he said. "Do they think to
use those logs they carry as battering rams?"

"As scaling ladders, your honor," I replied. "It is possible that we may
have some sword play after all."

"We'll take your advice the next time we build a palisade, Ralph Percy,"
muttered West on my other side. Mounting the breastwork that we had
thrown up to shelter the women who were to load the muskets, he coolly
looked over the pales at the oncoming savages.

"Wait until they pass the blasted pine, men!" he cried. "Then give them
a hail of lead that will beat them back to the Pamunkey."

An arrow whistled by his ear; a second struck him on the shoulder but
pierced not his coat of mail. He came down from his dangerous post with
a laugh.

"If the leader could be picked off"--I said. "It's a long shot, but
there's no harm in trying."

As I spoke I raised my gun to my shoulder, but West leaned across Rolfe,
who stood between us, and plucked me by the sleeve.

"You've not