Page:Lost with Lieutenant Pike (1919).djvu/292

 Who comes there? Corp'ral of the guar-rd! Post Number One!"

Out dived Corporal Jerry, once more.

"To arms! Man the works, men!" the lieutenant rapped.

They grabbed guns and hustled for the platforms under the loopholes. There were more loopholes than men. Peeping through his, Stub might see out into the prairie before the stockade. From up the fork a large body of mounted soldiers had ridden into the edge of the clearing. John Brown, who had come in from his hill, and Hugh Menaugh were holding them back, Corporal Jerry was hastening to the scene.

The lieutenant also had seen.

"That is the company?" he demanded, of the two Frenchmen.

"Oui, Monsieur Lieutenant."

"Tell the commander with my compliments to leave his men in the woods where he now is, and I will meet him on the prairie before the fort."

"Oui, oui."

Out went the two Frenchmen.

"They look like a hundred," remarked Jake Carter. "We're only eight, and an officer an' a boy. But what's the difference?"

"Sure, in case of a dust, Meek and Terry an'