rney, declaring that he had nothing now to lose; while, half an hour
after, Lilla had seen through one of the verandahs the whole of the
labourers glide silently away towards the forest, and then a silence as
of death had fallen upon the hacienda.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE.

THE ATTACK ON THE HACIENDA.

"Harry," said my uncle about sundown, "if I could do as I liked I should
rest my cuts and bruises for a few days; but, as it is, I cannot give
up. Now, look here, my lad--here, you, Tom Bulk, don't shrink away,
man--this is as much for your ears as for his. I've been thinking this
over, and, from what I know of the Indians, I'm quite sure that they
mean mischief. It seems hard, but I fear that there will be a fierce
attack upon this place before many hours are past; and then, unless we
can beat them off, ours will be a bad case. You two must see to the
closing up of the bottom of the place, and doing what you can to put it
in a state of defence."

"Uncle," I said, "is not this almost madness? Here we are, only three.
How, then, can we defend such a house as this?"

"It is our only hope," he said gloomily. "If we had your treasure here,
we might try to escape down the river; but as it is, we'll fight to the
last, and then take to the woods."

"And the cave--eh, Mas'r Landell?" said Tom.

"Tom," I cried joyfully, "why, that would indeed be a place of refuge
when all here failed."

"Yes," said my uncle thoughtfully. "I did not think of that. Such a
place might indeed be useful for a retreat if we could take with us
provisions. But now see about this place. I will not leave here yet--
not until we are obliged."

In obedience to his wishes, though with an aching heart, I set to
bolting and barring, closing shutters, and providing one or two windows
that commanded likely points of assault with mattresses over which we
could fire. But all the while I knew well enough that, with anything
like a daring attack, the place must be carried directly. The great
dread I had, though, was of fire, which I knew would prove the most
formidable of adversaries--for a brand applied to one of the posts of
the verandah would be sufficient to ensure the total destruction of the
light, sun-dried, wooden building.

Meanwhile, on returning, I found that my uncle had nearly forgotten his
pains, and was busily arranging such firearms as we had--ample, as it
happened; for there were five guns, and he had a couple of brace of
pisto