e cliffs came the long, defiant yell of the red
men, who were not yet beaten. The light was now sufficient to show them
swarming along the edge of the water, and even venturing far from the
bank in canoes. The tide of battle swelled anew. Timmendiquas the Great,
Red Eagle, Yellow Panther, and the renegades, Girty, Blackstaffe,
Braxton Wyatt and the others, urged them on. But always it was
Timmendiquas, the great White Lightning of the Wyandots, who directed.

Major Braithwaite watched with fascinated eyes. The heavens were growing
somewhat lighter, and that fact, allied with his bonfire, was now
sufficient to disclose much. He saw the fleet, despite all the attempts
to hold it, moving steadily forward in two parallel lines; he heard
again the mellow notes of the silver trumpet, calling alike to the men
of Adam Colfax and to those in the fort. He looked, too, for the boat
that he had first seen, the one that had contained the five figures, and
he found it, as before, in the very front. The five were still there,
and he thought he could see their rifles flashing. The good Major felt a
singular throb of relief. Then, as the battle thickened, his courage and
military energy leaped up.

"We cannot stand here idle when so great an event, one that means so
much to us, is going on," he said to Seth Cole. "If I mistake not, the
savages are about to make their supreme effort, and it becomes us to
help repel it."

"I reckon you're right, Major," said the scout. "The next ten minutes
will say how this thing is goin' to end, an' we ought to be in at the
sayin'."

"How many men have we on foot, and fit to fight?"

"'Bout sixty, I reckon, Major."

"Then we'll take thirty, leave the other thirty under Wilmot to hold the
fort, and go forth to help our friends who wish to help us."

Action was as prompt as decision. In five minutes the brave borderers
were ready, one of the gates was thrown open, to be closed immediately
behind them, and with the Major and the scout at their head, they rushed
toward the bank.

It was the purpose of Major Braithwaite to lead his men down the stream
a little, and as soon as a position of vantage could be reached, open a
covering fire that would protect the boats. They crossed the cleared
space around the fort unharmed, but directly after they reached the
woods beyond, bullets began to whistle about them, and the Indian war
whoop rang through the dripping forest. The Major knew that he was
attacke