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In the last of the twilight, he spoke, finally

"There is not much time," he said softly "I asked you once before to pray for me I did not know then what I would have you pray for--for the preservation of my life, or erhi I can ask for Pray for ht die well Pray that I er for the first ti without"

It was soer had not heard thee Impossible to say how many there were; the sound seemed to come from everywhere He felt it in the marrow of his bones and the soles of his feet

The Mohawks returned When they came in, the priest stood up at once He undressed hier sat staring at the hide-covered doorway, praying--and listening He knehat a drum could do; had done it hi of a stretched hide, calling to the deep and hidden instincts of the listener Knoas happening, though, didn’t

He could not have said how long he sat there listening to the dru other sounds--voices, footsteps, the noises of a large asse not to listen for Alexandre’s voice

Suddenly the druain, no ether There were shouts, and then a sudden cacophany of yells Roger started up, and hobbled toward the door The guard was still there, though; he thrust his head through the flap and gestured er stopped, but couldn’t return to the fire He stood in the half-dark, sweat rolling down his ribs, listening to the sounds outside

It sounded like all the devils in hell had been let loose What in God’s naht, obviously But who, and why?

After the first salvo of shrieks, the vocal part of it had lessened, but there were still individual high-pitched yelps and ululations fro There were thuds, too; moans, and other noises indicative of violent cohouse; the wall shivered and a bark panel cracked down the uard wasn’t looking He dashed across to the panel and tore at it with his fingers No good; the wood fibers shredded away beneath his nails and wouldn’t give him purchase In desperation, he pressed his eye to the hole he hadoutside

Nowas visible He could see the longhouse opposite, a strip of churned earth between, and over everything, the flickering light of an enorht with black ones, peopling the air with fiery deures reeled past and out of sight, locked in violent eht, running toward the fire

Then he stiffened, pressing his face against the wood A the incomprehensible Mohawk yells, he could have sworn he had heard so in Gaelic

He had

"Caisteal Dhuni!" so screech Scots--white er s to batter his way through the panel by ain

"Caisteal Dhuni!" No, wait--God, it was another voice! And the first one, answering "Do mi! Do mi!" To me! To me! And then a fresh wave of Mohawk shrieks rose up and drowned the voices--wo now, their voices even louder than thehimself at the panel, shoulder first; it cracked and splintered further, but would not give way He tried again, and a third tihouse that could be used as a weapon, nothing In desperation he seized the lashings of one of the bed cubicles and tore at it with hands and teeth, ripping until he had loosened part of the fraain, until with a rending crack it ca a six-foot pole with a shattered, sharpened end He tucked the butt end under his ared the doorway, pointed end aimed like a spear at the hide flap

He shot out into dark and flaed his blood He saw a figure ahead of hied it The er couldn’t stop, couldn’t turn, but threw himself flat, and the club smashed down inches fro his pole wildly It crashed against the Indian’s head, and the er

Whisky The led out fro to his feet, pole still in his hand

A screa with all his strength as he pivoted on the ball of his foot The shock of ih his chest Theat the pole; it jerked and quivered, then renched froht himself, then whirled toward the fire It was an i in a wall of pure and ardent scarlet, vivid against the night Through the bobbing heads of the watchers, he saw the black figure in the heart of the flaesture of benediction, lashed to the pole fro fire with a burst of flaold, like Christ in a er’s head, and he dropped like a rock

He didn’t quite lose consciousness He couldn’t see or move, but he could still hear, di was still there, but fainter, alround noise, like the roar of the ocean

He felt hiot louder, itto throw hiht blazed behind his shut lids, but his stubborn body wouldn’t move

The roar diminished, but paradoxically he felt warround, half bounced, and rolled, ending up on his face, his arers