The Cryptogram: A Story of Northwest Canada

  CHAPTER XXVIII.

  THE END OF HOPE.

  A body of Indians--nine or ten in number--were advancing at a runstraight for the house, and each painted savage carried wrapped in hisarms a mass of bedding from the abandoned sleeping quarters. I had nosooner caught a glimpse of the party and divined their alarming purpose,than a straggling volley was fired from the loopholes right and left ofme. Crack! crack, crack!

  Three Indians fell with their burdens, and one of them began to crawlaway, dragging a broken limb after him. A fourth took fright and dartedback, but the rest kept on. They were lost to view for an instant asthey gained the very wall of the house and stacked the bedding againstit. Then back they scurried to the shelter of the outbuildings, a singleone 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 thehouse! They will be coming back with timber next!"

  "God 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 countedon anything like this!"

  "I was afraid of it from the first," replied Captain Rudstone, "though Ihoped we should have time enough to dig the tunnel. Our only chance isto 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 getat the bedding; the fiends have put it too far off from the window."

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

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

  It had all been so sudden, so overwhelming, that I felt dazed as Ilooked from my loophole into the murky, snow-flecked night. Across thecrust, dotted with ghastly forms, the outbuildings loomed vaguely.Behind them hundreds of bloodthirsty redskins lay sheltered; but therewas scarcely a sound to be heard save the pitiful whining of the huskydogs who were shut up in the canoe house.

  "Fate is against us!" I reflected bitterly. "A few moments ago Ibelieved we could hold out for days--I was confident that we should allescape; and now this black cloud of despair, of death, has fallen uponus! Flora, my darling, I pray Heaven to spare you! God help us to beatthe savages off--to save the house!"

  Just then I detected a movement in the distance, and I knew too wellwhat it meant. My companions saw it also, and they broke out withwarning 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 hoarsely. "Fireat those nearest your own side. My God, look yonder--"

  His voice was drowned by one blood-curdling screech poured from ahundred throats. Through the driving snow a dusky mass rolled forward,and when it was halfway across the space we made out no less than ascore 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; weshall never drive them back!"

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

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

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

  We snatched spare guns from the men behind us, throwing down our emptyweapons, and a second straggling volley of lead and flame blazed fromthe loopholes. But the smoke partly spoiled our aim, and the intervalgave the redskins a terrible advantage. Half of them dashed on, underour very guns, and right up to the wall of the house, and the nextinstant we heard an ominous sound--the thump and clatter of the driedtimbers as they fell against the logs.

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

  Heaven help us indeed! That there was no hope save for the interventionof Providence, every man of us knew. Some cursed their hard fate, andsome shrieked threats and imprecations. Others seized the guns as fastas the relief men could load them, and fired at the now retreatingsavages, who went back with more caution than they came; for they firstcrept along the base of the wall to the left angle, and then darted overthe crust in zigzag fashion toward the outbuildings, where theircomrades 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 hadescaped to shelter, and they must have been few in number; for I couldcount eight bodies lying about in the falling snow, amid scatteredstrips of planking, and four wounded wretches were trying to crawl away.Their attempt had succeeded, but at a terrible cost of life. With agesture of despair. I turned round.

  "Have they all gone back?" I asked.

  "I think so," Menzies replied huskily. "They will rush us againdirectly, 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'svoice shouted with elation:

  "Bonne! bonne! another redskin! He ran out from beneath the window! Heis 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 willthat we perish!"

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

  The flames leaped higher, throwing ruddy reflections yards away. Theyroared and sang as they devoured the inflammable mattresses, stuffedwith straw, and laid hold of the dry timbers piled above. They spatshowers of sparks, turned the falling snowflakes to specks of crimson,and drove curls of thick yellow smoke into the room through the chinksof the now burning logs. The house was doomed, and we who were caughtthere in the meshes of death, fated to perish by agonizing torture,looked at one another with white faces and eyes dilated by horror, withlimbs that trembled and lips that could not speak. Outside, across theinclosure, the hordes of savages shrieked and yelled with thevoices of malicious demons. From the hall, from the rooms beyond it, therest of our little band came running in panic to learn the worst andshare our misery.

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

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

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

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

  With terrible rapidity the flames spread, roaring like a passage of awind storm through treet
ops. Out in the snow it was as light as day, andone could have counted the streaks of paint on the faces of the deadsavages by the awful red glare. The chinks between the logs wereflickering lines of fire, and the smoke puffed through so thickly as tomake us cough and choke, and fill our smarting eyes with water. The heatgrew intense, and drops of perspiration rolled down our cheeks.

  Crack! crack--crack--crack! The Indians suddenly began to fire at theloopholes, which were now distinctly outlined against the flame-litwall. By twos and threes the guns went off, blending with a din ofwhooping voices, and the bullets pattered like hail. Menzies spun aroundand clutched at his right arm, which was bleeding above the elbow.A ball whizzed by my ear and another struck Dr. Knapp just betweenthe eyes; he fell with a crash and lay quite still.

  It was clear that the savages had the range of the loopholes, and withone 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 sawMrs. Menzies and Flora coming hurriedly down the stairs.