She understood the reasoning of June, and believed it highly probable that the blockhouse would be left unmo-lested until the return of her father, in order to entice him into an ambuscade, and she felt much less apprehension of immediate danger in consequence; but the future offered little ground of hope, and her thoughts had already begun to calculate the chances of her captivity.At such mo-ments, Arrowhead and his offensive admiration filled a prominent place in the background: for our heroine well knew that the Indians usually carried off to their villages, for the purposes of adoption, such captives as they did not slay; and that many instances had occurred in which in-dividuals of her sex had passed the remainder of their lives in the wigwams of their conquerors.Such thoughts as these invariably drove her to her knees and to her prayers.
While the light lasted the situation of our heroine was sufficiently alarming; but as the shades of evening grad-ually gathered over the island, it became fearfully appal-ling.By this time the savages had wrought themselves up to the point of fury, for they had possessed themselves of all the liquor of the English; and their outcries and gesticulations were those of men truly possessed by evil spirits.All the efforts of their French leader to restrain them were entirely fruitless, and he had wisely withdrawn to an adjacent island, where he had a sort of bivouac, that he might keep at a safe distance from friends so apt to run into excesses.Before quitting the spot, however, this officer, at great risk to his own life, had succeeded in ex-tinguishing the fire, and in securing the ordinary means to relight it.This precaution he took lest the Indians should burn the blockhouse, the preservation of which was necessary to the success of his future plans.He would gladly have removed all the arms also, but this he found impracticable, the warriors clinging to their knives and tomahawks with the tenacity of men who regarded a point of honor as long as a faculty was left; and to carry off the rifles, and leave behind him the very weapons that were generally used on such occasions, would have been an idle expedient.The extinguishing of the fire proved to be the most prudent measure; for no sooner was the officer's back turned than one of the warriors in fact proposed to fire the blockhouse.Arrowhead had also withdrawn from the group of drunkards as soon as he found that they were losing their senses, and had taken possession of a hut, where he had thrown himself on the straw, and sought the rest that two wakeful and watchful nights had rendered necessary.It followed that no one was left among the Indians to care for Mabel, if, indeed, any knew of her ex-istence at all; and the proposal of the drunkard was re-ceived with yells of delight by eight or ten more as much intoxicated and habitually as brutal as himself.
This was the fearful moment for Mabel.The Indians, in their present condition, were reckless of any rifles that the blockhouse might hold, though they did retain dim recollections of its containing living beings, an additional incentive to their enterprise; and they approached its base whooping and leaping like demons.As yet they were excited, not overcome by the liquor they had drunk.
The first attempt was made at the door, against which they ran in a body; but the solid structure, which was built entirely of logs, defied their efforts.The rush of a hundred men with the same object would have been use-less.This Mabel, however, did not know; and her heart seemed to leap into her mouth as she heard the heavy shock at each renewed effort.At length when, she found that the door resisted these assaults as if it were of stone, neither trembling nor yielding, and only betraying its not being a part of the wall by rattling a little on its heavy hinges, her courage revived, and she seized the first mo-ment of a cessation to look down through the loop, in order, if possible, to learn the extent of her danger.Asilence, for which it was not easy to account, stimulated her curiosity; for nothing is so alarming to those who are conscious of the presence of imminent danger, as to be unable to trace its approach.
Mabel found that two or three of the Iroquois had been raking the embers, where they had found a few small coals, and with these they were endeavoring to light a fire.The interest with which they labored, the hope of destroying, and the force of habit, enabled them to act intelligently and in unison, so long as their fell object was kept in view.A white man would have abandoned the attempt to light a fire in despair, with coals that came out of the ashes resembling sparks; but these children of the forest had many expedients that were unknown to civilization.
