thoughts to-night! It is in my heart to wish that the Indians would take
the fort--that something would happen before to-morrow."

"Nothing will happen," I said bitterly. "The fort can stand a siege of
days and months. So you are determined to wed Griffith Hawke--to forget
what we have been to each other in the past?"

"Denzil, you have no right," she said sadly.

The words stung me, and I suddenly realized the depths of shame to which
I had sunk. She saw her advantage, and pressed it.

"I have lingered too long," she said. "I fear I shall be missed. This is
our last meeting. Farewell, Denzil!"

"Farewell!" I answered bitterly.

She held out her hand, and I pressed it to my lips. It was like marble.
Then she turned and glided away, and I heard her light footsteps
receding among the trees.

The next instant I regretted that I had yielded and let her go. The
thought that I might never see her again maddened me. Without realizing
the recklessness and folly of it, I started in pursuit, calling her name
in a hoarse whisper.

But I was too late, swiftly as I moved. I reached the edge of the trees
in time to see a flash of light as the rear door of the factor's house
opened and closed.

I stood for a moment in the moonlight and solitude and then something
happened that cooled my fevered brain and put Flora out of my thoughts.
Loud on the frosty night rang the report of a gun; two more followed in
quick succession. From the nearest watch-tower the sentries shouted a
sonorous alarm, and their voices were drowned by a shrill and more
distant burst of Indian yells.

CHAPTER XIX.

ANOTHER VISITOR.

That the redskins were making an attack in force on the stockade was my
first and immediate conclusion, but it gave me no great uneasiness since
I knew how stoutly we were protected. On second thoughts, however, I
observed that the shots and yells--which were keeping up lustily--came
from a considerable distance, and I began to suspect that something else
was in the wind.

Meanwhile, I had not been standing idle. As soon as I heard the alarm I
ran like a deer across the yard. It was the work of an instant to dash
into the quarters and seize my musket. Then I sped on, with a great
clamor rising from every part of the fort and armed men hastening right
and left of me.

When I reached the gates, where a little group was assembled, no more
than a minute cou