Jean Duval? If one of us is hit let another take his place at
once. Now be ready, for they are coming!"

As he spoke there was a shrill whistle from below, and in an instant the
stair was filled with rushing red figures and waving weapons.
Bang! Bang! Bang! went the three guns, and then again and again
Bang! Bang! Bang! The smoke was so thick in the low-roofed room that
they could hardly see to pass the muskets to the eager hands which
grasped for them. But no Iroquois had reached the barricade, and there
was no patter of their feet now upon the stair. Nothing but an angry
snarling and an occasional groan from below. The marksmen were
uninjured, but they ceased to fire and waited for the smoke to clear.

And when it cleared they saw how deadly their aim had been at those
close quarters. Only nine shots had been fired, and seven Indians were
littered up and down on the straight stone stair. Five of them lay
motionless, but two tried to crawl slowly back to their friends.
Du Lhut and the _censitaire_ raised their muskets, and the two crippled
men lay still.

"By Saint Anne!" said the old pioneer, as he rammed home another bullet.
"If they have our scalps we have sold them at a great price. A hundred
squaws will be howling in their villages when they hear of this day's
work."

"Ay, they will not forget their welcome at Sainte Marie," said the old
nobleman. "I must again express my deep regret, my dear De Catinat,
that you and your wife should have been put to such inconvenience when
you have been good enough to visit me. I trust that she and the others
are safe at the fort by this time."

"May God grant that they are! Oh, I shall never have an easy moment
until I see her once more."

"If they are safe we may expect help in the morning, if we can hold out
so long. Chambly, the commandant, is not a man to leave a comrade at a
pinch."

The cards were still laid out at one end of the table, with the tricks
overlapping each other, as they had left them on the previous morning.
But there was something else there of more interest to them, for the
breakfast had not been cleared away, and they had been fighting all day
with hardly bite or sup. Even when face to face with death, Nature
still cries out for her dues, and the hungry men turned savagely upon
the loaf, the ham, and the cold wild duck. A little cluster of wine
bottles stood upon the buffet, and these had their necks knocked off,
and were emptie