The Cryptogram Part 25

"To the house!" cried Menzies.

"Quick--for your lives!" I shouted.

With that we turned our backs and made off, dashing along in some disorder and leaving the howitzer behind. We half expected to be overtaken, but by the time the Indians had recovered from their check and pushed on, the house was before us.

We staggered inside by twos and threes, and closed and barred the ma.s.sive door. A respite for rest and breathing was badly needed, but we did not dare to take it. Half of our men went to the front loopholes, and as fast as they could load and fire they picked off the yelling wretches who were now swarming thickly before the house. In their frenzied rage they exposed themselves recklessly, sending volley after volley of lead against the stout beams and even hurling tomahawks.

I took no part in this scrimmage myself. With Menzies and several others I went over the lower floor of the house, and made sure that all was in right condition for a protracted siege. We placed lighted candles in the hall, and opened the doors communicating with it, so that some light could shine into the various rooms.

Meanwhile the firing had dwindled and ceased, and when we returned to the front we found that the Indians had abandoned the attack and melted away; none were in sight from the loopholes, but we could hear them making a great clamor in the direction of the trading house and other outbuildings.

This relief gave us a chance to consult regarding our future plans, and to count up our little force. Alas! but sixteen of us had entered the house. That was our whole number; the rest of the forty odd had perished during the fighting of the past two days; and not the least mourned among that night's casualties was brave Father Cleary. Fortunately, none of us were disabled, though Christopher Burley had been grazed by a bullet, and Captain Rudstone and several others had been gashed slightly by tomahawks. The wounded transferred from the hospital, who were in a small room at the rear, were now reduced to five; two had died that morning, as Dr. Knapp predicted.

But there was no time for useless grief or idleness. We had no sooner served out rations, loaded all the guns and posted the men on the four sides of the house than the Indians showed a determination to crown their triumph by taking our stronghold. At first they kept to the shelter of the surrounding outbuildings, and blazed steadily away at the house, on the chance of sending a bullet through the loopholes or the c.h.i.n.ks of the logs. Twice a little squad of savages rushed forward carrying a beam, with which they hoped to batter down the door. But we poured a hot fire into them--it was light enough outside for us to take aim--and each time they wavered and fell back, leaving the snow dotted with dead bodies.

After that came a lull, except for intermittent shots, and Captain Rudstone predicted that an unpleasant surprise was being prepared for us by the Northwest men whom we believed to be among the redskins.

"It may be all that," I answered him stoutly, "but the house is not to be taken."

A little later I took advantage of the inaction to go upstairs, whither Menzies had already preceded me. He was with his wife and Miss Hatherton in a back room with one small window, and that protected by a heavy shutter.

I drew Flora aside and explained to her, as hopefully as possible, the plan by which we expected ultimately to escape to Fort York. What else I said to her, or what sweet and thrilling words she whispered into my ear, I do not purpose to set down here; but when I returned to the lower floor my heart was throbbing with happiness, and I felt strengthened and braced to meet whatever fate might hold in store. I was strangely confident at the time that we should outwit our bloodthirsty foes.

Menzies followed me below, and almost at once the Indians renewed the attack, mainly on the front of the house and on the north side. They exposed themselves on the verge of the outbuildings, blazing away steadily, and drawing a constant return fire from our men. At the end of a quarter of an hour they were still wasting ammunition. They must have suffered heavily, and yet not one of their bullets had done us any harm.

I wandered from room to room, taking an occasional shot, and finally I stopped in the hall, where Captain Rudstone and three others were posted at the loopholes right and left of the door.

"The Indians will run out of powder presently; if they keep up at this rate," said I. "They can't have much of a leader."

"Too clever a one for us," the captain answered, as he loaded his musket. "This is only a ruse, a diversion, Carew. There is something to follow."

"I hope it will come soon," I replied. "Then the savages will likely draw off and give us a chance to put a force of men to work at the tunnel. We should finish it by noon to-morrow, and escape through it at nightfall. If the snow keeps up--as it gives promise of doing--our tracks will be covered before we have gone a mile."

"I like the plan," said old Carteret, the voyageur. "It sounds well, and it's possible to be carried out under certain conditions. But if you'll not mind my saying--"

He paused an instant to aim and fire.

"One redskin the less," he added, peering out the loophole; "he sprang three feet in the air when I plugged him. As for your plan, Mr. Carew, I think the odds are about evenly divided. There's the chance that the varmints will suspect something of the sort, and watch the stockade on all sides."

"Likely enough," a.s.sented Captain Rudstone; "but it's not to that quarter I look for the danger. The Indians can take the house by a.s.sault in an hour if they choose to sacrifice a lot of lives."

"It would cost fifty or a hundred," said I. "They won't pay such a price."

"There is no telling how far they will go," the captain answered gravely, "with Northwest Company men to egg them on."

As he spoke there was a sudden and noisy alarm from the room on the right of the hall, which commanded the south side of the house. Half a dozen muskets cracked in rapid succession, the reports blending with a din of voices. Then Menzies yelled hoa.r.s.ely: "This way, men! Come, for G.o.d's sake! Quick, or we are lost!"

The summons was promptly responded to. I was the first to dash into the room, followed by Rudstone and Carteret. I put my eyes to a vacant loophole and what I saw fairly froze the blood in my veins.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE END OF HOPE.

A body of Indians--nine or ten in number--were advancing at a run straight for the house, and each painted savage carried wrapped in his arms a ma.s.s of bedding from the abandoned sleeping quarters. I had no sooner caught a glimpse of the party and divined their alarming purpose, than a straggling volley was fired from the loopholes right and left of me. Crack! crack, crack!

Three Indians fell with their burdens, and one of them began to crawl away, dragging a broken limb after him. A fourth took fright and darted back, but the rest kept on. They were lost to view for an instant as they gained the very wall of the house and stacked the bedding against it. Then back they scurried to the shelter of the outbuildings, a single one falling by my musket, which I thrust quickly out and fired.

Unfortunately my companions' weapons were empty.

"Load up, men, fast!" cried Menzies. "The devils intend to fire the house! They will be coming back with timber next!"

"G.o.d help us if they get a blaze started with bedding and dry wood!"

said I. "The house will go--we won't be able to save it! I never counted on anything like this!"

"I was afraid of it from the first," replied Captain Rudstone, "though I hoped we should have time enough to dig the tunnel. Our only chance is to keep the redskins away from the wall."

"And that's a mighty poor one!" muttered Carteret.

"We must do it," groaned Menzies, "or it's all up with us. We can't get at the bedding; the fiends have put it too far off from the window."

A noisy clamor interrupted our conversation, as the men from other parts of the house poured into the room, drawn thither by Menzies' summons of a moment before. They were under the impression that a rush had been made and repelled; when they learned the truth they quieted down, and a sort of awed horror was visible on every face.

No time was wasted in words. At any instant the savages might return to complete their devilish task; the chance of beating them back, slight as it was must be made the most of. Our last card was staked on that, and we grimly prepared to play it. Eight men were a.s.signed to the loopholes--there were four on each side of the shuttered windows--and five others, including Christopher Burley, brought powder and ball, and set to work to load spare rifles. The rest were sent back to watch at their posts, lest a counter attack should be made in those directions.

It had all been so sudden, so overwhelming, that I felt dazed as I looked from my loophole into the murky, snow-flecked night. Across the crust, dotted with ghastly forms, the outbuildings loomed vaguely.

Behind them hundreds of bloodthirsty redskins lay sheltered; but there was scarcely a sound to be heard save the pitiful whining of the husky dogs who were shut up in the canoe house.

"Fate is against us!" I reflected bitterly. "A few moments ago I believed we could hold out for days--I was confident that we should all escape; and now this black cloud of despair, of death, has fallen upon us! Flora, my darling, I pray Heaven to spare you! G.o.d help us to beat the savages off--to save the house!"

Just then I detected a movement in the distance, and I knew too well what it meant. My companions saw it also, and they broke out with warning exclamations:

"Here they come!" "Be ready, boys!" "Give the devils a hot reception!"

"Keep the spare muskets handy!"

"Take sharp aim and make every shot tell!" Menzies cried hoa.r.s.ely. "Fire at those nearest your own side. My G.o.d, look yonder--"

His voice was drowned by one blood-curdling screech poured from a hundred throats. Through the driving snow a dusky ma.s.s rolled forward, and when it was halfway across the s.p.a.ce we made out no less than a score of Indians each shouldering three or four planks of short length.

With reckless valor they came on, whooping and yelling defiantly.

"They've taken the cut timber that was stored in the powder house!"

cried Carteret. "It's as dry as touchwood and will burn like wildfire!"

"We're lost!" exclaimed Menzies. "There are too many of the fiends; we shall never drive them back!"

"It's our last chance!" I shouted. "Steady, now. Fire!"