I meant."

"Don't you think he knows that as well as you do?" continued Sneak.

"But I--I _must_ go!" exclaimed Joe, starting in a half run, with the
hounds (which had been forgotten by their master) following at his
heels.

"Let me have the hounds, to go after my gun--the red skins might
waylay me, if I go alone, in spite of all my cunning woodcraft," said
Sneak.

"Go back!" cried Joe, to the hounds. They instantly obeyed, and the
next moment Joe was scampering homeward with all the speed of which
his legs were capable.

When he reached the house, his fears were by no means allayed on
beholding the most valuable articles of Roughgrove's dwelling already
removed thither, and the ferryman himself, his daughter, Boone and
Glenn, assembled in consultation within the inclosure. Joe closed the
gate hurriedly after him, and bolted it on the inside.

"Why did you shut the gate? Open it again," said Glenn.

"Ain't we besieged again? ain't the Indians all around us, ready to
rush in and take our scalps?" said Joe, obeying the command
reluctantly.

"They will not trouble us before night," said Roughgrove.

"No, we need not fear them before night," remarked Boone, whose
continued thoughtful aspect impressed Glenn with the belief that he
apprehended more than the usual horrors of Indian warfare during the
impending attack.

"They will burn father's house, but that is nothing compared to what I
fear will be his own fate!" murmured Mary, dejectedly.

"We can soon build him another," said Glenn, moved by the evident
distress of the pale girl; "and I am very sure that my little stone
castle will suffice to preserve not only your father and yourself, but
all who take shelter in it, from personal injury. So, cheer up, Mary."

"Oh, I will not complain; it pained me most when I first heard they
were coming once more; I will soon be calm again, and just as composed
when they are shooting at us, as I was the other time. But _you_ will
be in a great deal more danger than you were that night. Yet Boone is
with us again--he _must_ save us," said Mary.

"Why do you think there will be more danger, Mary?" asked Glenn.

"Yes, why do you think so?" interposed Joe, much interested in the
reply.

"Because the snow is so deep and so firm, they will leap over the
palisade, if there be a great many of them," replied Mary. Glenn felt
a chill shoot through his breast, for this fact had not before
occurred to him.

"Oh, goodness!--le