The Cryptogram Part 26

Bang! went my musket. Bang! bang! bang! rang other reports. The volley caught the savages at a range of twenty yards and as the smoke drifted up from the loopholes I saw the foremost, at whom I had aimed, sprawled on the snow. Three or four others were down, and two more dropped quickly. The rest darted on unchecked.

"Again!" I shouted. "Quick, let them have it! All together!"

We s.n.a.t.c.hed spare guns from the men behind us, throwing down our empty weapons, and a second straggling volley of lead and flame blazed from the loopholes. But the smoke partly spoiled our aim, and the interval gave the redskins a terrible advantage. Half of them dashed on, under our very guns, and right up to the wall of the house, and the next instant we heard an ominous sound--the thump and clatter of the dried timbers as they fell against the logs.

"That's our death knell!" cried Menzies. "Heaven help us now! We are lost!"

Heaven help us indeed! That there was no hope save for the intervention of Providence, every man of us knew. Some cursed their hard fate, and some shrieked threats and imprecations. Others seized the guns as fast as the relief men could load them, and fired at the now retreating savages, who went back with more caution than they came; for they first crept along the base of the wall to the left angle, and then darted over the crust in zigzag fas.h.i.+on toward the outbuildings, where their comrades were howling and whooping with triumph.

"Two down!" cried Captain Rudstone.

"And one for me!" exclaimed Carteret.

I watched for a moment, but no more Indians appeared. The rest had escaped to shelter, and they must have been few in number; for I could count eight bodies lying about in the falling snow, amid scattered strips of planking, and four wounded wretches were trying to crawl away.

Their attempt had succeeded, but at a terrible cost of life. With a gesture of despair. I turned round.

"Have they all gone back?" I asked.

"I think so," Menzies replied huskily. "They will rush us again directly, and fire the bedding and the wood. It's all up with us!"

Crack! A gun spoke shrilly from a loophole on the right, and Baptiste's voice shouted with elation:

"Bonne! bonne! another redskin! He ran out from beneath the window! He is dead now--I shot him in the back!"

"But why did he stay behind the rest?" Menzies asked suspiciously.

"To light the fire!" cried Carteret. "My comrades, it is Heaven's will that we peris.h.!.+"

The old voyageur was right. As he spoke he pointed with one band to the loopholes. We saw a red glare spreading farther and farther across the trampled snow crust, and heard a hissing, crackling noise. The dead Indian had ignited the heaped-up material, probably by means of flint and steel.

The flames leaped higher, throwing ruddy reflections yards away. They roared and sang as they devoured the inflammable mattresses, stuffed with straw, and laid hold of the dry timbers piled above. They spat showers of sparks, turned the falling snowflakes to specks of crimson, and drove curls of thick yellow smoke into the room through the c.h.i.n.ks of the now burning logs. The house was doomed, and we who were caught there in the meshes of death, fated to perish by agonizing torture, looked at one another with white faces and eyes dilated by horror, with limbs that trembled and lips that could not speak. Outside, across the inclosure, the hordes of savages shrieked and yelled with the voices of malicious demons. From the hall, from the rooms beyond it, the rest of our little band came running in panic to learn the worst and share our misery.

Christopher Burley fell on his knees and clasped his hands in prayer.

"O, G.o.d, save us!" he cried. "Let me live to see London again."

"The fire is just to the left of the window," exclaimed Captain Rudstone. "If we had water--"

"There's only one small cask in the house," interrupted Carteret, "and if we had plenty we could do nothing. Fifty bullets would enter by the window the moment the shutter was opened."

With terrible rapidity the flames spread, roaring like a pa.s.sage of a wind storm through treetops. Out in the snow it was as light as day, and one could have counted the streaks of paint on the faces of the dead savages by the awful red glare. The c.h.i.n.ks between the logs were flickering lines of fire, and the smoke puffed through so thickly as to make us cough and choke, and fill our smarting eyes with water. The heat grew intense, and drops of perspiration rolled down our cheeks.

Crack! crack--crack--crack! The Indians suddenly began to fire at the loopholes, which were now distinctly outlined against the flame-lit wall. By twos and threes the guns went off, blending with a din of whooping voices, and the bullets pattered like hail. Menzies spun around and clutched at his right arm, which was bleeding above the elbow.

A ball whizzed by my ear and another struck Dr. Knapp just between the eyes; he fell with a crash and lay quite still.

It was clear that the savages had the range of the loopholes, and with one accord we fled from the room, taking the powder canisters with us.

In the hall a candle was burning on a shelf, and by the dim glow I saw Mrs. Menzies and Flora coming hurriedly down the stairs.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE SECRET OF THE FACTOR'S DESK.

I shrank from the encounter. The sight of the fair girl whom I loved so pa.s.sionately made me a coward, and I felt that I could not speak the words of her doom and mine. So I lurked to one side while Mrs. Menzies rushed up to her husband and clutched him hysterically.

"The house is on fire!" she cried. "The smoke drove us downstairs, and--Oh, you are shot!"

"A mere flesh wound," Menzies answered huskily. "Tie it up for me with a strip of your skirt."

With trembling fingers she obeyed.

"The worse, Andrew!" she pleaded--"tell me the worst! I am a brave woman; I can bear it."

I did not hear Menzies' reply, for he quickly led his wife into a darkened room adjoining; but I had a glimpse of his face, and it seemed to have aged years in the last minute.

"Denzil!"

I recognized Flora's voice, and turning, I found her at my elbow. Her cheeks were white, except for a burning red spot in the middle of each.

Her lovely eyes gazed into mine with a look of deepest affection, of heart-rending fear that she could not disguise.

"Come!" I whispered hoa.r.s.ely.

I drew her past the little group of men to the far end of the hall, where the staircase screened us from the light of the candle. How to begin, what to say, I did not know. With one arm about her slender form, I pressed kisses on her lips and forehead.

"My darling!" I cried. "Oh, the pity of it--the pity of it!"

"Then it is true, Denzil?" she asked in faltering tones. "Don't deceive me at such a time. Is there really no hope?"

It would have been worse than folly to speak false words of comfort now, and with an effort I answered:

"No; all hope is gone. You must know the worst, my darling! We have but a little while to live. Heaven has deserted us. Oh, G.o.d, that it should be my lot to tell you this!" She crept closer to me, hiding her face on my breast. For nearly a minute she was still, while confusion and clamor, Indian yells, and musketry fire reigned round us. I could feel the agitated heaving of her bosom, the throbbing of her heart. Then she looked up at me bravely, with a sublime expression in her tear-dimmed eyes that brought to my mind the Christian martyrs of old.

"G.o.d is love and mercy, dearest Denzil," she said. "If it is His will that we die we must submit. We will find in heaven the happiness that is denied us on earth."

"It is a cruel, cruel fate!" I cried fiercely. "I would suffer ten deaths to save you--"

"It is better thus," she interrupted. "We shall not be separated!

Promise me, Denzil, that you will not let the Indians take me alive!"

I tried to speak, but a sob choked my utterance. I nodded a.s.sent, and just then my name was called from the other end of the hall. I kissed Flora and led her forward, putting her in the care of Mrs. Menzies. The men were standing about in groups, some talking, some nervously loading guns, and others staring vacantly at the floor.

"We are considering what we had better do," said Captain Rudstone, "and we want your opinion, Carew. If we stick to the house it means death for all of us by suffocation or by flames. If we sally out there is a possibility that one or more of us may break through and escape."

"No chance of that," Carteret answered bluntly. "The devils will be ready for us, and we shall be hemmed in and butchered to a man. I prefer to die fighting myself; but think of the women! Suffocation will be the easiest fate for them."

I made no reply, for I did not know what to say--what alternative to choose. It was a horrible prospect either way, and I contemplated it with rage and despair, with such a whirl in my brain that I thought I should go mad. The musketry fire was dwindling a little, but the whooping and yelling of the exultant savages suddenly rose to a higher pitch, making such a din that the voices of my companions were quite drowned.