ead fell forward upon the back of the man in front of him. The second
gunner sighted the same canoe as it came abreast of him, but at the very
instant when he stretched out his match to fire a bullet came humming
from the stockade and he fell forward dead without a groan.

"This is work that I know something of, lad," said old Ephraim,
springing suddenly forward. "But when I fire a gun I like to train it
myself. Give me a help with the handspike and get her straight for the
island. So! A little lower for an even keel! Now we have them!"
He clapped down his match and fired.

It was a beautiful shot. The whole charge took the canoe about six feet
behind the bow, and doubled her up like an eggshell. Before the smoke
had cleared she had foundered, and the second canoe had paused to pick
up some of the wounded men. The others, as much at home in the water as
in the woods, were already striking out for the shore.

"Quick! Quick!" cried the seigneur. "Load the gun! We may get the
second one yet!"

But it was not to be. Long before they could get it ready the Iroquois
had picked up their wounded warriors and were pulling madly up-stream
once more. As they shot away the fire died suddenly down in the burning
cottages and the rain and the darkness closed in upon them.

"My God!" cried De Catinat furiously, "they will be taken. Let us
abandon this place, take a boat, and follow them. Come! Come! Not an
instant is to be lost!"

"Monsieur, you go too far in your very natural anxiety," said the
seigneur coldly. "I am not inclined to leave my post so easily!"

"Ah, what is it? Only wood and stone, which can be built again. But to
think of the women in the hands of these devils! Oh, I am going mad!
Come! Come! For Christ's sake come!" His face was deadly pale, and he
raved with his clenched hands in the air.

"I do not think that they will be caught," said Du Lhut, laying his hand
soothingly upon his shoulder. "Do not fear. They had a long start and
the women here can paddle as well as the men. Again, the Iroquois canoe
was overloaded at the start, and has the wounded men aboard as well now.
Besides, these oak canoes of the Mohawks are not as swift as the
Algonquin birch barks which we use. In any case it is impossible to
follow, for we have no boat."

"There is one lying there."

"Ah, it will but hold a single man. It is that in which the friar
came."

"Then I am going in that! My place is wi