he echo.

Scarcely had this subsided, when terrific shrieks and cries, mingled
with fierce yells, burst from the opposite side of the sandhill.
This lasted for about five minutes, and then gradually died away.
Then many straggling shots were heard, and these died away in
distance.

Captain Headley, who had deferred his movement towards the sandhill
during this manifestation of the presence of the enemy on the other
side of the ridge, now moved his men to its base, and there halted
them. After a little time, ordering a rush with the bayonet on the
first Indians who should show themselves in any force, he stepped
out of the square, and moved in a stooping posture to gain the
summit, that he might reconnoitre the enemy and see what they were
about. But scarcely had he reached the top when he again rapidly
descended. His face was pale--his lips compressed. He had seen a
sight to shake the nerves of the sternest soldier, and gladly did
he swallow, from the canteen of Sergeant Nixon, who offered it to
him, the cordial beverage that carried renewed circulation to his
veins.

"Forward, men, with as little noise as possible, and gain the crest
of the hill; but, whatever you see, let not your nerves be shaken
into indiscretion. If you fire without orders from me, you are
lost without a hope. Be cool, and when I do give the command to
fire, let the front face of the square exchange their discharged
firelocks for those of the rear face, in order to be always loaded.
Now, men, be cool."

Captain Headley was wise in issuing this precautionary order, for
the sight the little square beheld, on gaining and halting on the
ridge, was one not merely to render men reckless and imprudent,
but in a great measure to drive them mad.

CHAPTER XXII.

"A crimson river of warm blood like to a bubbling fountain
stirr'd with wind."
--_Titus Andronicus._

To understand the horrible scene that met the view, first of the
commanding officer, and subsequently of the little square, it will
be necessary to go back to certain events of the past half hour.

When Captain Wells had returned from delivering over his wounded
niece to the charge of Black Partridge and Winnebeg, both of whom
had, with deep sorrow, beheld the fiendish excesses of their young
men, but without being able to prevent them, he was pursuing
his way across the sandhill to the assistance of Captain Headley.
Suddenly, while looking around to find out in what pa