The Cryptogram Part 24

"Mr. Menzie's orders, sir," he replied. "He said you were not to be disturbed."

I questioned Baptiste further, and learned that there had been no alarm during the day, and that not an Indian had shown himself. He also relieved my mind concerning the preparations for holding the factor's house.

"They moved everything in," he said; "food and blankets, all the powder and ball, four sledges, and the wounded men."

"And the dead, Baptiste?"

"They are buried, sir--under the snow."

"Ah, then no time has been wasted," said I. "If the worst comes we shall be ready--"

"There is nothing more to be done, Carew," interrupted a voice at my elbow. "No step that prudence or forethought could dictate has been omitted."

The speaker was Captain Rudstone, who had approached unperceived.

"Has your sleep refreshed you?" he added.

"Very much," I replied. "I feel fit for another stretch of fighting.

What is the situation now?"

"The calm before the storm, to my mind," he declared. "Sentries are posted to command a view from every side of the fort. Both towers will be abandoned at the first alarm, and all the men will rush to the quarter whence it comes, those are the general orders. If the redskins prove too strong for us, we will retreat to the factor's house."

"Ay, and hold it," said I. "The place is impregnable, Rudstone!"

"That remains to be seen," he answered. "Go and get some supper, Carew, while you have the chance."

"Then you think the attack is imminent?"

"Yes, it may come at any moment."

"But Baptiste tells me the Indians have made no sign all day."

"True enough," a.s.sented the captain, "and that's the worst of it. They are hatching some deep-laid deviltry, be sure! I have my suspicions, and I communicated them to Menzies. He agrees with me that the attack will probably burst upon us in the form of a--"

He never finished the sentence. The words were stifled on his lips by a tremendous explosion that seemed to shake the very ground, and rattled and thundered far away into the heart of the wilderness. A crash of falling debris followed, and then the night rang with shrill clamor and blood-curdling whoops.

"_Nom de Dieu!_ we are lost!" wailed Baptiste.

"My G.o.d, what does it mean?" I cried, clutching Captain Rudstone's arm with a trembling hand.

"My prediction, Carew," he answered hoa.r.s.ely. "It has come--it is what I expected. The devils have tunneled under the snow and planted a powder bag against the stockade. They have blown a breach."

"We'll keep them out of it as long as we can," I shouted. "Hark! the fighting has begun."

The captain and I had already set off on a run, and Baptiste was hanging at our heels. Shouting and yelling rose from all parts of the fort, and blended with the wild cheers of the savages. Dark forms loomed right and left of us as we sped on. Guided by the clamor and by the great column of smoke that was stamped blackly against the driving snow, we soon reached the scene of the explosion, which was the northeast watch-tower.

It is impossible to describe the sight that was revealed to us by the first rapid glimpse. All that day the redskins must have been burrowing a pa.s.sage beneath the drifts from the woods to the fort. They had planted a bag or cask of powder at the very base of the tower, and blown it into a heap of ruins, out of which could be seen sticking the bodies of the two poor fellows who had been on duty there. As yet only a small force of Indians--those who had approached by the tunnel--were storming the breach, and these were being held at bay by a dozen of our men who had reached the spot before the captain and myself. Muskets were cracking, and tomahawks were flying through the air; the yells of invaders and invaded made a horrible din.

At the first I saw some hope of holding the sheltered place--of beating the enemy off. I plunged into the thick of the fight, emptying my gun into the breast of a red devil, and bringing the b.u.t.t down on the head of another. We pressed close up to the sides of the tower, and gained footholds on the ruins. Hand to hand we fought desperately, shooting and striking at the Indians and keeping them on the outside of the fort. Not many of them had firearms, and so far as I could see, but one of our men had fallen.

"Stand up to it!" I shouted. "Hold your ground!"

"Hit hard!" cried Captain Rudstone. "Finish all you can before the main rush comes!"

Flushed with triumph, half-crazed by the thirst for blood, we did not pause to reflect that the scale must soon turn the other way. Face to face, weapon to weapon, we held the savages at bay, sending one after another to his last account. Meanwhile more men kept joining us, until, excepting a few who were on duty at other points, our whole available force was present. I heard Andrew Menzies giving directions. I saw Father Cleary on my left and Christopher Burley on the right, both striking at the painted faces behind the shattered walls.

"This is hot work, Carew," Captain Rudstone found a chance to shout in my ear, "and it's precious little use to keep it up. The devils will soon be at us in their hundreds. Now is the time to make a safe retreat to the house."

"I think the same," I answered, as I dodged a whizzing tomahawk; "and if Menzies don't soon give the command I will."

The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the clamor took a deeper, shriller pitch. We all knew what it meant--the tide was turning. Through the gaping holes in the watch tower stamped against the snowy mist, we saw a dark ma.s.s rolling forward--scores and scores of painted Indians.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE SIEGE OF THE HOUSE.

They had started from the woods the moment the explosion occurred, and they would have arrived earlier but for the fresh snow that lay on the frozen crust.

"Stand firm!" cried Menzies. "Give them a raking volley at close quarters."

"And be ready to retire in good order," I shouted. "We can't afford to lose a man."

With that the living tide was upon us. Screeching and veiling like demons, the horde of savages struck the weakened northeast angle of the fort. There was no checking them, though our muskets poured a leaden rain. Some entered by the breach, dashing over the debris of wood and stone; others clambered to the top of the palisades and dropped down inside.

At the first we had to retire a little, so overwhelming was the rush.

Then we made a brief stand and tried to stem the torrent. Bang, bang, bang! bullets flew thickly, from both sides and hissing tomahawks fell among us. I saw two men drop near me, and heard cries of agony mingling with the infernal din. We held our ground until the foremost of the savages were at arm's length, striking and hacking at us through the snow and powder smoke. Two or three score were already within the fort, and when a section of the stockade fell with a crash--borne down by sheer weight--I believed for a terrible moment that all was lost.

"Back, back!" I cried hoa.r.s.ely. "Back for your lives, men! We can't do anything more here!"

"Ay, the inclosure is taken!" shouted Captain Rudstone. "Back to the house! Keep your faces to the foe, and make every shot tell!"

Menzies called out a similar order, seeing that any delay would imperil our last chance, and those of us who were left slowly began the retreat.

We drew off into the narrow pa.s.sage, with high banks of snow on either side, that led to the factor's house. The yelling redskins pressed after us, and for several moments, by a cool and steady fire, we prevented them from coming to close quarters again.

We kept firing and loading while we moved backward, and as it was next to impossible to miss, the Indians seemed disheartened by the heavy damage we inflicted on them. For ourselves, we lost three men in a brief time, and we would have lost more but for the shelter of the outbuildings, round some of which the path turned.

When we were halfway to the house, and had pa.s.sed the quarters, we were joined by the sentries from the southwest tower. But now the savages plucked up courage, and made a rush that brought them within six yards of us. We stood at bay, and delivered a straggling fire. The Indians returned it as they pushed on doggedly. A voyageur fell at my side, and another dropped in front of me. There was a sudden cry that the priest was shot, and glancing to the right, I saw Father Cleary reel down in the snow and lie motionless.

"We must run for it!" shouted Captain Rudstone. "Make a dash for the house, men!"

"For G.o.d's sake, no!" I yelled hoa.r.s.ely. "If we turn now we will be overtaken and butchered! Hold firm!"

Just then, when the situation was most critical, an unexpected thing gave us the opportunity we so sorely needed. In the retreat we had dragged one of the howitzers along with us, and we had forgotten until now that it was loaded. In a trice we put it in position and touched it off.

Crash! The heavy charge ploughed into the huddled ma.s.s of savages. To judge from the agonized shrieks that followed the loss of life must have been terrible, but we could see nothing for the dense cloud of smoke that hung between us.