harp note of the rifle fire, steady, insistent, and full of threat, and
over it the heavy thudding of the great guns.

It was Paul's eye and ear at first that received the deep impression, but
now the aspect of a panorama passed away and his soul was stirred with a
fierce desire to get on, to cut through the hostile line, to crush down
the opposition, and to reach the full freedom of the wide river. He began
to hate those men who opposed them, the fire of passion that battle breeds
was surely mounting to his head. Unconsciously, Paul, the scholar and
coming statesman, the grave quiet youth, began to shout and to hurl
invectives at those who presumed to hold them back. The barrel of his
rifle grew hot in his hand with constant loading and firing, but he did
not notice it. He still, at imminent risk to himself, sent his bullets
toward the dark line of Indian canoes and the flashing hulk of the ship
behind them.

The supply fleet was beginning to suffer severely. A number of boats and
canoes had been sunk and nearly a score of men had been killed. Many more
were wounded and, despite all this loss, they had made no progress. The
fire from the bank, moreover, was beginning to sting them and to stop it
Adam Colfax landed more men. The increased force of the Americans on the
shore served the purpose but they were still unable to force the mouth of
the bayou. The schooner seemed to be fixed there and she never ceased to
send a storm of bullets and cannon balls at them.

Adam Colfax had a slight wound in the arm, but his slow cold blood was now
at the boiling point.

"We've got to force that schooner!" he cried. "We've got to take her, if
it has to be done with boarders! We can never get by unless we do it!"

But the loss of life even if the attempt were a success, would be
terrible. That was apparent to everybody and Henry made a suggestion.

"Let's concentrate our whole fire upon the ship," he said. "Mass the
cannon and the rest of us will back them up with our rifles. Maybe we can
silence her, and if we do then's the time to take her by storm."

The supply fleet drew back and its fire died. It seemed, in truth, as if
it were beaten and that, hemmed in by fire, as it were in the narrow
bayou, it must surrender. A tremendous shout of triumph burst forth from
the men on the schooner, and the Indians took it up in a vast and shriller
but more terrible chorus.

Then came one of those sudden and ominous silences that sometim