Page:Lost with Lieutenant Pike (1919).djvu/289

 "home," lugging the meat of three deer, about nine o'clock at night.

Corporal Jerry greeted them, after the challenge of Freegift Stout, who was the guard in the bastion.

"We were beginnin' to be scared for you, sir," he said. "We didn't know but what the Injuns or the Spanish had taken you."

"All quiet here, corporal?"

"Yes, sir; all quiet."

"That's good. We'd have been back sooner, only we hunted farther than we intended, and had heavy loads to pack in. Now if the other men with the horses return in safety, we may all march on unmolested, through American territory."

But in the morning, while they were at breakfast, the musket of John Brown, on the hill, sounded—"Boom!" It was a signal: "Strangers in sight." Corporal Jerry dropped his knife and bolted into a bastion, to look. Everybody paused, to learn the news.

Back ran Corporal Jerry, to the lieutenant, who was standing at the entrance to his brush lean-to, buckling on his sword.

"Two men are crossin' the prairie for the fort, sir. Menaugh (Hugh was the sentinel pacing outside) is about to stop 'em."