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240 dragged a large part of the burning brush into the ditch.

All this while some of the regulars remained on guard, and occasionally a shot rang out, answered by another from a great distance.

They have surely withdrawn," said the young captain. "Benson, the trick worked after all."

"That's right, captain. But it won't work many hours, you can depend upon that."

"If it only makes them hold off until morning I shall be satisfied," concluded Captain Moore.

By the exertion of the soldiers the fire was kept from communicating with any of the buildings but the stable, and of this structure only a corner of the roof suffered. But the stockade was greatly damaged, and by the time the last spark was out it was seen that it had sustained three openings each eight to twelve feet long.

"We'll have to repair these," said Captain Moore; and, tired though the workers were, he made them haul fresh timbers from the woodpile and also tear up part of the barn floor, that the stockade might present a whole front to the enemy once more.

The fighting had greatly agitated the women in the fort, and nobody had slept for two nights. Yet even now, with the fire out and silence brooding everywhere, nobody thought of going to bed.