t there pulling
down the stockade and we can keep them back from him.
Quick, Rory!"

Like one possessed she made for the first door on the
left of the passage.

Along the trail came the new lot of half-breeds and
Indians to the assistance of their fellows, or, perhaps
it would be more correct to say, to see to it that they
did not miss their full share of the plunder. Roused to
fresh efforts by the sight of the others, those on the
spot fairly riddled the doors and windows of the house.
The bullets were whizzing into the kitchen in every
direction, splintering the furniture and sending the
plaster flying from the walls until the room was filled
with a fine, blinding, choking dust. It was impossible
to hold out much longer. The final rush was sure to come
in a very few minutes--and all would be over.

Pasmore had cut off the house from the burning shed by
hewing down the connecting wall, while Dorothy Douglas
and Rory, by firing from a side window, had kept the
enemy from approaching; After what seemed an age, Pasmore
rejoined them.

There was a pause in the firing, then a hoarse murmur of
excited voices came from the sheds. It rose like a sudden
storm on the Lake of the Winds. There was a wild volley
and a rush of feet. A dark body smashed in the casement
and tried to follow it, but Rory's long knife gleamed in
the air, and the intruder fell back in his death agony.
Rory seldom wasted powder and shot at close quarters.
The sergeant looked at the girl strangely.

"Come with me to your father," he said hoarsely.

"Is it the end?" she asked.

"I fear it is," he replied; "but we'll fight to the
finish."

He opened the door and led the way out.

"I must go to the others," he continued. "Rory can guard
this end of the house. Will you come with me?"

"Yes, and remember your promise--I am not afraid."

"I am," he admitted, "but not of them."

They reached the kitchen, but he would not let her enter.

"Stay where you are for a moment," he commanded firmly.

He found Douglas and Jacques still holding the doorway,
though the door itself, and the table which had been
placed against it, were badly wrecked. A breed had actually
forced his body through a great rent when they had rushed,
but Jacques had tapped him over the head with the stock
of his rifle and cracked it as he would have done an
egg-shell. The lifeless body still filled the gap.

"Bravo, gentlemen," cried the sergeant, "we shall exact
our pric