the drift pile.
Tom determined lose no chance, however, and cautioning the others to
keep still, he went to the look-out to watch for an opportunity to
communicate with the white men whom these Indians were evidently
fighting.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CANOE FIGHT.

Before going further with the story of what happened around the root
fortress on that morning, it is necessary to explain how it came about
that a battle was fought there. I gather the facts from authentic
history.

During all the time spent by the Hardwickes in their wanderings and in
the root fortress, the war had been going on vigorously. The occupants
of Fort Sinquefield, when they abandoned that fort as described in the
early chapters of this story, succeeded in making their way to Fort
Glass, or Fort Madison, as it was properly named, though the people
still used its original name Fort Glass in speaking of it, for which
reason I have so called the place throughout this story. In July General
Floyd, who was in command of all the United States forces in the
south-west, sent General Claiborne, with his twelve months' Mississippi
volunteers to Fort Stoddart, with instructions to render such aid as he
could to the forts in the surrounding country. His force consisted of
seven hundred men, and of them he took five hundred to Fort Stoddart,
sending the remaining two hundred, under Col. Joseph E. Carson, a
volunteer officer, to Fort Glass. The two hundred soldiers added greatly
to the strength of the place, and with the settlers who had taken refuge
inside, rendered it reasonably secure against attack. The refugees were
under command of Captain Evan Austill, himself a planter of the
neighborhood.

Shortly after the storming of Fort Sinquefield, and almost immediately
after the garrison of that place had reached Fort Glass, the Indians
appeared in great numbers in that neighborhood, burning houses, killing
everybody who strayed even a few hundred yards outside the picket gates,
and seriously threatening the fort itself. In view of these facts Col.
Carson sent a young man of nineteen years of age named Jerry Austill,
the son of Capt. Evan Austill to General Claiborne's head-quarters,
with dispatches describing the situation and asking for reinforcements.
Young Austill made the journey alone and at night, at terrible risk, as
he had to pass through a country infested with savages, but on his
return brought, instead of assistance, an order for Col. Carson