red on the ground.

But the savages had not given in by any means, as became pretty clear
from the noise they made in the woods soon afterwards. This continued
all night, and Leif ordered the fire to be extinguished, lest they
should be tempted by its light to send a flight of arrows among them,
which might wound some of his people when off their guard.

When the first grey light of dawn appeared, it became evident to the
beleaguered Norsemen what the savages had been about. Not very far from
the fortress an enormous pile of dry timber had been raised, and,
although it was within easy bow-shot, the savages managed, by dodging
from tree to tree, to get under its shelter with fresh logs on their
shoulders, and thus increased the pile continually.

"They mean to burn us out!" exclaimed Hengler anxiously.

"Rather to smoke us out," observed one of the men. "Fire can never
reach us from that distance."

Leif, who was very grave, shook his head and said:--

"If they make the pile very big it may reach us well enough. They have
plenty of hands and no lack of wood. See, they are piling it to
windward. God grant that the breeze may not increase, else shall we
have to forsake the fortress. Nevertheless our good ship is at hand,"
he added, in a more cheerful tone, "and they will find us tough to deal
with when we get upon the water.--Come, lads, we will at all events
harass if we cannot stop them."

So saying, Leif ordered the men to keep up a constant discharge of
arrows whenever they obtained a glimpse of the savages, and he himself
headed a sally and drove them back to the woods. But as soon as he and
his men had returned to the fortress, out came the savages again like a
swarm of bees, and continued their work vigorously.

Thus the morning passed away, and the pile of the intended bonfire,
despite the arrows and the frequent sallies of the Norsemen, continued
slowly but steadily to grow.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

HAKE MAKES A BOLD VENTURE, BUT DOES NOT WIN--THE NORSEMEN FIND THAT
THERE IS MANY A SLIP 'TWIXT THE CUP AND THE LIP.

When Karlsefin and his men had surmounted the rapid, as before
described, they found their future advance unimpeded, and, in the
natural course of things--or of the river--arrived, not long after the
children, at the lake-like expansion on the shores of which the native
village stood.

This village, it must be understood, was not a permanent one. The
natives were nomads. Their