It was now about four o'clock in the morning.The thunder and lightning had ceased, but the soft rain was still falling.The Indians had lighted fires some distance away.Several carried torches.Helped by these, and, used so long to the night, the combatants saw distinctly.The five lay behind a low embankment, and they paid their whole attention to the big house that sheltered Wyatt and his men.On the sides and behind they were protected by Heemskerk and others, who faced a coming swarm.
"Keep low, Paul," said Henry, restraining his eager comrade.
"Those fellows in the house can shoot, and we don't want to lose you.There, didn't I tell you!"A bullet fired from the window passed through the top of Paul's cap, but clipped only his hair.Before the flash from the window passed, Long Jim fired in return, and something fell back inside.
Bullets came from other windows.Shif'less Sol fired, and a Seneca fell forward banging half out of the window, his naked body a glistening brown in the firelight.But he hung only a few seconds.Then he fell to the ground and lay still.The five crouched low again, waiting a new opportunity.Behind them, and on either side, they heard the crash of the new battle and challenging cries.
Braxton Wyatt, Coleman, four more Tories, and six Indians were still alive in the strong log house.Two or three were wounded, but they scarcely noticed it in the passion of conflict.The house was a veritable fortress, and the renegade's hopes rose high as he heard the rifle fire from different parts of the town.
His own band had been annihilated by the riflemen, led by Henry Ware, but he had a sanguine hope now that his enemies had rushed into a trap.The Iroquois would turn back and destroy them.
Wyatt and his comrades presented a repellent sight as they crouched in the room and fired from the two little windows.His clothes and those of the white men had been torn by bushes and briars in their flight, and their faces had been raked, too, until they bled, but they had paid no attention to such wounds, and the blood was mingled with sweat and powder smoke.The Indians, naked to the waist, daubed with vermilion, and streaked, too, with blood, crouched upon the floor, with the muz'zles of their rifles at the windows, seeking something human to kill.
One and all, red and white, they were now raging savages, There was not one among them who did not have some foul murder of woman or child to his credit.
Wyatt himself was mad for revenge.Every evil passion in him was up and leaping.His eyes, more like those of a wild animal than a human being, blazed out of a face, a mottled red and black.By the side of him the dark Tory, Coleman, was driven by impulses fully as fierce.
"To think of it!" exclaimed Wyatt."He led us directly into a trap, that Ware! And here our band is destroyed! All the good men that we gathered together, except these few, are killed!""But we may pay them back," said Coleman."We were in their trap, but now they are in ours! Listen to that firing and the war whoop! There are enough Iroquois yet in the town to kill every one of those rebels!""I hope so! I believe so!" exclaimed Wyatt."Look out, Coleman!
Ah, he's pinked you! That's the one they call Shif'less Sol, and he's the best sharpshooter of them all except Ware!"Coleman had leaned forward a little in his anxiety to secure a good aim at something.He had disclosed only a little of his face, but in an instant a bullet had seared his forehead like the flaming stroke of a sword, passing on and burying itself in the wall.Fresh blood dripped down over his face.He tore a strip from the inside of his coat, bound it about his head, and went on with the defense.
A Mohawk, frightfully painted, fired from the other window.Like a flash came the return shot, and the Indian fell back in the room, stone dead, with a bullet through his bead.
"That was Ware himself," said Wyatt."I told you he was the best shot of them all.I give him that credit.But they're all good.
Look out! There goes another of our men! It was Ross who did that! I tell you, be careful! Be careful!"It was an Onondaga who fell this time, and he lay with his head on the window sill until another Indian pulled him inside.Aminute later a Tory, who peeped guardedly for a shot, received a bullet through his head, and sank down on the floor.A sort of terror spread among the others.What could they do in the face of such terrible sharpshooting? It was uncanny, almost superhuman, and they looked stupidly at one another.Smoke from their own firing had gathered in the room, and it formed a ghastly veil about their faces.They heard the crash of the rifles outside from every point, but no help came to them.
