him. For God's sake, get back behind the barricade!"

She shook her head. "He is dead. They will all be dead directly, my
cousin and all. My father cannot help me, and he who lies here cannot
help me. I will not be taken alive by these devils, and I have no knife.
Will you kill me?"

"My God!"

"Quick!" she said in the same low, steady tones. "They are coming; they
will beat us down in a moment. Kill me!"

For answer Landless raised his voice until it rang high above the
uproar, and arrested the attention of the combatants on both sides.
"Fight with a will, men," he cried, "for help is at hand! Do you not
hear the hoofs of the horses?"

"By God! you are right!" cried the Colonel, suddenly struggling to his
feet. "Hold out, men! Anthony Nash reached Rosemead, and has brought us
aid!"

"The dog priest!" the mulatto cried fiercely to Trail. "Was he here?
Then they have sent for help, and Mother of God! it is here!"

"And coming at the planter's pace," answered Trail. "They will be upon
us before we reach the boats."

The mulatto glanced at the friend with whom he had fled the Indies with
a sinister smile. "Ay," he muttered to himself. "They will be upon us
indeed, before we reach the boats, wherefore Luiz Sebastian goes not to
turn pirate this time. He throws in his lot with the Ricahecrians whose
canoes are close at hand in the inlet that winds into the Pamunkey.
They are very swift, and in the Blue Mountains there is safety. But one
thing first."

He gave a shrill and peculiar whistle which brought to him half a dozen
Indians. He pointed to the body of Grey Wolf and then to Landless. A
yell burst from the lips of the savages, and they rushed upon the
latter. He met them, ran his sword through the heart of the first, of
the second: Sir Charles moaned, stirred, and struggled to his knees. A
third raised his knife; it would have descended, but Landless darted
between the savage and the half-dazed, utterly helpless man at whom the
blow was aimed, struck up the arm, and plunged his sword into the dark
breast. A broken oar, snatched from the floor by the mulatto, descended
upon his head, and with a woman's scream sounding in his ear, he fell
heavily to the floor, and lay as one dead.

When he came to himself, it was to find the great room still crowded
with men, and filled with noise and confusion, but the thronging figures
and the excited voices were those of friends--of servants from the
neighboring plantations,