The wonder of the new and unknown ally soon spread through Wareville,
and reached Lucy Upton as it reached others. A thought came to her and
she was about to speak of it, but she stopped, fearing ridicule, and
merely listened to the excited talk going on all about her.

An hour later a fourth Indian was shot from the tree, and less than
fifteen minutes afterwards a fifth fell a victim to the terrible rifle.
Then two, the only survivors, dropped from the boughs and ran for the
forest. Ross, Sol and Paul Cotter were watching together and saw the
flight.

"One of them brown rascals will never reach the woods," said Ross with
the intuition of the borderer.

The foremost savage fell just at the edge of the forest, shot through
the heart, and the other, the sole survivor of the tree, escaped behind
the sheltering trunks.

The cry of the angry savages swelled into a terrible chorus and bullets
beat upon the stockade, but the attack was quickly repulsed, and again
quiet and treacherous peace settled down upon this little spot, this pin
point in the mighty wilderness, whose struggle must be carried on
unaided, and, in truth, unknown to all the rest of the world.

When the savages were driven back they melted again into the forest, and
the old silence and peace laid hold of everything, the brilliant
sunshine gilding every house, and dyeing into deeper colors the glowing
tints of the wilderness. The huge tree, so fatal to those who had sought
to use it, stood up, a great green cone, its branches waving softly
before the wind.

In the little fortress the wonder and excitement yet prevailed, but
mingled with it was a devout gratitude for this help from an unknown
quarter which had been so timely and so effective. The spirits of the
garrison, from the boldest ranger down to the most timid woman, took a
sudden upward heave and they felt that they should surely repel every
attack by the savage army.

The remainder of the day passed in silence and with the foe invisible,
but the guard at the palisade, now safe from ambushed marksmen, relaxed
its vigilance not at all. These men knew that they dealt with an enemy
whose uncertainty made him all the more terrible, and they would not
leave the issue to shifting chance.

The day waned, the night came, heavy and dark again, and full, as it was
bound to be, of threats and omens for the beleaguered people. Lucy Upton
with Mary Ware slipped to the little wooden embrasure where Paul Co