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"Your ob't serv't, "ROWLEY, Major Co"

For one dreadful moment every drop of blood see into the sunshine, seeing nothing Then the pale face of Elsin Grey took shape before , and looking about me What in God's name was I to do? Go to her and leave these women and babies?--leave these dull-witted htened with terror at her danger, every heart-beat responded passionately to the appeal Yet how could I go, with these white-faced wohtened children gathering aroundtrustfully for ony of indecision I turned to the door and gazed down the road, an instant only, then leaped back and sla the bars

Destiny had decided; Fate had cut the knot!

"Every man to a loop!" I called out steadily "Wemple, take your sons to the east room; Klein, you and Farris and Klock take the west and south; Warren, look out for the west They may try to fire the wooden water-leader Mrs Farris, see that the tubs of water are ready; and you, Mrs Warren, take the women and children to the cellar and be ready to dip up buckets of water from the cistern"

Silence; a trample on the stairs as the men ran to their posts; not a cry, not a whi at full length beside the loop, cocked e into Klein's house too quickly for me to fire Presently the interior of the house reddened behind the s; a thin haze of s like a curtain above the roof Then, with a crackling roar that came plainly to my ears, the barn behind the house was buried in flae puff of bluish-white smoke

I heard Wemple's ancient firelock explode, followed by the crack of his sons' rifles, and I saw an Indian running across the pasture

Klein's house was now curtained with blackish sun to burn, the roof all tufted with clear little flaive out no smoke in the sunshine An Indian darted across the door-yard, and leaped into the road, but at the stunning report of Warren's rifle he stopped, dropping his gun, and slowly sank, face doard, in the dust