resently when I looked up I saw that the black wrack was
clearing from the sky, and through a gap there shone a watery star.

Ringan took stock of our defences, and doled out to each a portion of
sodden meat. Grey had found his breath by this time, and had got a
spare musket, for his own had been left in the woods. Elspeth had had
her wits sorely jangled by the storm, and in the revulsion was on the
brink of tears. She was very tender towards Grey's condition, and the
sight gave me no jealousy, for in that tense hour all things were
forgotten but life and death. Donaldson, at Ringan's bidding, saw to
the feeding of the horses as if he were in his own stable on the
Rappahannock. It takes all sorts of men to make a world, but I thought
at the time that for this business the steel nerves of the Borderer
were worth many quicker brains and more alert spirits.

The hours marched sombrely towards midnight, while we stayed every man
by his post. I asked Shalah if the enemy had gone, and he shook his
head. He had the sense of a wild animal to detect danger in the forest
when the eye and ear gave no proof. He stood like a stag, sniffing the
night air, and peering with his deep eyes into the gloom. Fortunately,
though the moon was all but full, the sky was so overcast that only the
faintest yellow glow broke into the darkness of the hill-tops.

It must have been an hour after midnight when we got our next warning
of the enemy. Suddenly a firebrand leaped from farther up the hill, and
flew in a wide curve into the middle of the stockade. It fell on the
partition between the horses and ourselves and hung crackling there. A
shower of arrows followed it, which missed us, for we were close to the
edges of the palisade. But the sputtering torch was a danger, for
presently it would show our position; so Bertrand very gallantly pulled
it down, stamped it out, and got back to his post unscathed.

Yet the firebrand had done its work, for it had showed the savages
where the horses stood picketed. Another followed, lighting in their
very midst, and setting them plunging at their ropes.

I heard Ringan curse deeply, for we had not thought of this stratagem.
And the next second I became aware that there was some one among the
horses. At first I thought that the palisade had been stormed, and then
I heard a soft voice which was no Indian's. Heedless of orders, I flung
myself at the rough gate, and in a trice was beside the voice.

Elspeth w