here a lonely house, there a cluster of two or three; they at Jamestown and Henricus off guard, — the men in the fields or at the wharves, the women and the children busy within doors, all unwarned — O my God!”

Diccon strode over from the doorway to the fire. “We’d best be going, I reckon, sir,” he cried. “Or you wait until morning; then there’ll be two chances. Now that I’ve a knife, I’m thinking I can give account of one of them damned sentries, at least. Once clear of them” —

I shook my head, and the Indian too made a gesture of dissent. “You would only be the first to die.”

I leaned against the side of the hut, for my heart beat like a frightened woman’s. “Three days!”