From the dark wall of the trees came the
crackling fire of rifles. No one could be in doubt now.
"Out with the fires! Scatter them, trample them down!" exclaimed Henry.
He set the example, kicking the wood and embers in every direction. Adam
Colfax was not one to resent such a sudden assumption of authority, when
he saw that it meant the saving of human lives. He repeated the order and
joined in the work himself. Fortunately the fires had burned low and the
task was soon done, but not before two or three men had been hit by
bullets from the surrounding darkness.
"Lie down, everybody!" cried Henry, and the order was obeyed at once. Then
the strange night battle in the heart of the wilderness began. The
savages, after their first attack, ceased to shout, and the voyagers on
their own part made little noise. But they knew that the assailing force
was numerous. It rimmed them on all sides save that of the river, and the
little pink and red beads of fire seemed to flash from every bush. The men
on the boats swarmed to the shore, but Adam Colfax allowed only half of
them to come, the land force at the same time falling back on the river to
meet them. He had no mind to let his communications be cut.
As the white line fell back the red came on, and uttered again the
long-drawn, high-pitched war whoop, a cry of exultation.
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