d kindled. If
allowed to burn for a few minutes, the wind would fan it into an
inextinguishable blaze.

How she managed to do what she did without discovery she never could
have explained herself. But, holding the lid firmly grasped with one
hand, she lifted it up until it stood perpendicular on its noiseless
hinges.

As the door moved over to this position, her head and shoulders rose
through the opening. Had her movements been quick, instead of
deliberate, they would have suggested the action of the familiar
Jack-in-the-box.

This straightening of her stature brought her head several inches above
the peak or highest portion of the house, and, consequently, gave her a
view of the entire roof.

And looking in the direction whence the odor came, and where she had
caught the tiny illumination, the brave colored woman saw a sight
indeed.

A brawny Indian warrior was stooped over and nursing a small flame with
the utmost care. How he had managed the difficult business thus far
without detection from below, was almost beyond explanation.

But it followed, from what has been told, that he had climbed upon the
roof, taking with him some twigs and bits of wood, without having been
heard by Captain Shirril, who was listening intently at the lower door,
and who heard more than one other noise that must have been slighter
than that overhead.

It was probable that the warrior, having made his preparations, rode his
horse close to the further corner of the cabin, where he stopped the
animal, and rose to the upright position on his back. The roof was so
low that it could be easily reached in this way, and he was so far
removed from the inmates that his action escaped notice, his presence
being finally discovered in the manner described.

Finding he could not open the scuttle, he had crept over the peak of the
roof, stooped down, and, gathering his combustibles with care, set fire
to them. In doing this, he must have used the common lucifer match of
civilization, since no other means would have answered, and the American
Indian of the border is as quick to appropriate the conveniences as he
is to adopt the vices of the white man.

Be that as it may, he had succeeded in starting the tiny fire, and, at
the moment the wrathful Dinah caught sight of him, was placing several
larger sticks upon the growing flame, and, bending over, was striving to
help the natural wind by blowing upon the blaze.

The picture was a striking one