to fear. They join the
merry-makers, and care and their suits of mail are laid aside, and
merriment prevails. The Indians' hour has come. Over the walls swarm
a red horde, creeping towards the unsuspecting feasters. One long
war-whoop, a shower of arrows, cries of agony, and all is over."

Charley stopped. "I've been talking like a five cent novel," he said,
sheepishly.

"I'll bet that is just the way it really happened," his chum declared.
"That explains why the fort was empty."

"Perhaps," Charley said, "but here comes Chris and the captain, and
we'll have to change the subject."

"I 'spect you-alls don't pay no 'tention 'tall to dis dinner," grumbled
Chris. "De fire's all out, mighty nigh."

"We are not good cooks like you, Chris," said Charley soothingly, and
the vain little darky grinned at the compliment.

"Golly, I reckon dat's so," he declared pompously, "you chillens sho'
don't know nothin' 'bout cookin'. Spect you-alls mighty near starve to
death if it warn't for dis nigger. You chillens jes' get out, an' I'll
finish gettin' de dinner."

The boys, relieved of the cooking, turned their attention to other
tasks. They carried the two canoes into the empty fort and placed them
bottom up in one corner. The other goods they piled up in the shade of
a tree.

Charley then disappeared but soon came back with a large kettle he had
noticed when removing the skeletons. "It's copper," he said,
exhibiting it proudly, "with a little cleaning it will be as good as
when it was made. We need it for boiling water, for we have got to
clean house this afternoon."

While he carried the copper to the spring and scrubbed lustily away
with sand to remove the green verdigris with which it was thickly
coated, Walter attempted the manufacture of a mop. Selecting a
straight piece of the root of a scrub palmetto, which grew in abundance
around the wall, he trimmed it with his knife into the desired shape
and size. Laying the piece, thus prepared, upon a large stone, he
pounded one side of it lustily with a piece of rock. A few minutes
sufficed to pound out the pith and leave the harsh fiber exposed.

By the time the two lads had completed their respective tasks, Chris
announced that dinner was ready and all fell to with appetites
sharpened by the morning's work.

As soon as dinner was finished, the copper kettle was filled with water
and placed upon the fire. By the time the water had come to a boil,
the par